U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced some of the details of his 2010 budget “scrub” Monday, promising to “re-balance this department’s programs in order to institutionalize and enhance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead.”
The new budget included cuts and additions, but unevenly across the services. The Air Force took the biggest hits, and received the fewest additions. Gates proposed to end C-17 production at the current 205, wrap up the F-22 fighter (pictured) with the 187 already paid for, and cancel altogether the Air Force’s plans for a new search-and-rescue helicopter. In exchange, the air service will get more cash for F-35 fighter test-vehicles, extra Special Operations aircraft and funds to sustain no fewer than 50 round-the-clock Predator and Reaper drone orbits. (Fifty orbits equates to at least 200 deployed robots plus a couple hundred more in the training base, roughly double the force we have today.)
The Air Force will also lose 250 older fighters a few years early, and the Pentagon will wait until after 2010 to decide whether to build a new strategic bomber.
Congress will surely resist both the C-17 and F-22 terminations. But if the cuts stick, then we’re looking at a strategic airlift fleet that will decline from today’s requirement of 300 to around 250, once old C-5As retire in a few years. KC-X tankers, with some cargo capability, will help alleviate that shortfall in five years or so, provided there are no hiccups in the Pentagon’s third attempt to buy new tankers. That effort will commence this summer.
As for fighters, the Air Force will have only seven under-strength F-22 squadrons to form the backbone of the air-superiority fleet, while 1,700 F-35s fill out the ground-attack squadrons. In a decade’s time, the F-22s will be complemented by around 175 rebuilt F-15Cs. In curtailing the F-22, Gates is betting that most of the world’s air forces will continue to shrink, and that no hostile country will manage to build true stealth fighters to rival the F-22. It’s a fairly safe bet, but there is some risk.
(Photo: Air Force)
Related:
F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force
Analysts: Buy Fighters, or Die
Boeing Unveils New “Stealthy” F-15
Getting the Most from Your New F-22
F-22s to Darfur? Not so Fast …
Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority
More fighter-jet hyperventilating
Growler Chomps on Raptor
A U.S. Navy F-22? Don’t Hold Your Breath
Nearly 100,000 Jobs Depend on the F-22? Not Really
Only 60 More Raptors? Everybody Panic!
Russian Super-Fighter Not So Scary
In 2014, the F-35 Might Cost More than the F-22
600 F-22s? Hilarious
F-35 jumps the shark
Raptors in Japan
New Russian fighter to challenge F-35
The amazing shrinking air force
Related posts:
Surely even though the jsf is in principle a bomb truck with asraam,amraam, amazing avionics/radar and stealth it will still be way ahead of the opposition for years to come ?
1,700 F-35s for the USAF….. never happen….
I still would rather see about 400 F-22 and no F-35, with restarted production/rebuilt/upgraded F-15C, F-15E, F-16 series aircraft, with a purpose-built replacement/upgrade for the A-10.
The F-35, in trying to be all things to all people, will end up being not enough of anything to anyone if history is any guide.
400 F-22 gives enough stealth aircraft to sweep the skies of any enemy fighter opposition, which allows for the bomb trucks to do their things a couple of days later.
But that’s just my opinion. As a grunt, I have a vested interest in the Air Force being setup for close air support.
Gates might be right to punt on new manned fighters anyway. Advances in missile technology and UCAVs are tilting the cost/benefit analysis away from manned fighters. The pilot has a hard time reacting fast enough in an information-saturated environment, and his presence becomes a liability in terms of vehicle weight & endurance. There’s a lot of value in a pilot’s ability to make judgement calls in CAS missions, but that should really be a much different plane than F-22 or F-35.
I agree with ELP, who are they fooling with this 1763 F-35 number? Even with the F-22 cut I think maybe 1300 tops. The procurement is stretched out long enough to give a couple of different administrations the opportunity to cut it.
“…amazing avionics/radar and stealth it will still be way ahead of the opposition for years to come ? ”
What “amazing stealth”? It’s got radar-evading stealth head-on, but it’s pretty un-stealthy otherwise. And this fantastic radar suite is vaporware, so far. And the Pentagon wants to buy hundreds of these planes before testing is even complete. That’s a recipe for disaster.
[...] Related: Murtha’s Air Force: More F-22s and Tankers, Delayed F-35 What’s Wrong with the F-22? Raptor Gets Congressional Reprieve Offiziere.ch: the Emerging U.S. Counter-Insurgency Air Force Congressional Budget Office’s Plans to Save the Air Force Air Force Turns a Corner Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force Analysts: Buy Fighters, or Die No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Related: Surveillance Orbits for From-Scratch Air Forces Murtha’s Air Force: More F-22s and Tankers, Delayed F-35 What’s Wrong with the F-22? Raptor Gets Congressional Reprieve Offiziere.ch: the Emerging U.S. Counter-Insurgency Air Force Congressional Budget Office’s Plans to Save the Air Force Air Force Turns a Corner Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Related: The Amazing, Post-F-35, Photoshopped, Manned Fighters How to Turn a Drone into a Dogfighter Surveillance Orbits for From-Scratch Air Forces Murtha’s Air Force: More F-22s and Tankers, Delayed F-35 What’s Wrong with the F-22? Raptor Gets Congressional Reprieve Offiziere.ch: the Emerging U.S. Counter-Insurgency Air Force Congressional Budget Office’s Plans to Save the Air Force Air Force Turns a Corner Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> [...]
[...] Surely there are many, perhaps much wiser, alternatives to the models I propose. But one thing is clear: today’s air power is unsustainable. The U.S. Air Force must evolve, or go extinct. [...]
[...] “Black Monday.” [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]
[...] Failure of Imagination Advocating a Systemic View of Air Superiority What’s Wrong with the F-22? Gates Budgetpalooza: Air Force Loses Altitude The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself F-22s versus Russia’s Rusting, Ramshackle Air Force [...]