by DAVID AXE
The U.S. Air Force is in crisis. Rising costs have made it difficult for the air service to afford the new fighters, tankers and helicopters it wants. And some Air Force officers, along with their boosters in Congress, are fighting with the Pentagon over the service’s future direction. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants fewer aircraft optimized for “big” wars, and more tailored for heavy insurgencies, a.k.a. “hybrid wars.” Congress wants more F-22s.
Would we approach this problem differently, if we didn’t already have a large and deeply entrenched air force? Two countries that are building new air forces from scratch, with U.S. assistance, offer illuminating case studies. Both Iraq and Lebanon are equipping new air fleets to counter the heavy, hybrid insurgent threats that Gates believes will be more common in the future.
Iraq and Lebanon are both buying armed, long-loiter. surveillance aircraft, aiming to generating lethal, surveillance orbits — as opposed to generating short, fast fighter and bomber sorties, the traditional air-power construct. Notably, Gates has pushed hard for more surveillance orbits, in the form of Predator and Reaper drones, and MC-12W Liberty manned planes.
Iraq will be capable of supporting both armed and unarmed surveillance orbits. The unarmed orbits are composed of 10 unarmed King Air manned planes, fitted with the same sensors as a Predator drone, plus data-links. For armed orbits, Iraq is buying at least five Caravan planes, pictured, fitted with Hellfire missiles. Both aircraft types are sourced from the U.S., and the USAF provides training.
Lebanon has also bought at least one armed Caravan. For unarmed surveillance, Beirut has picked the small Raven drone. The Lebanese air force will get at least 12 Ravens. They will be capable of sharing data with the Caravans, according to Air Forces Monthly.
As fighters fade, armed surveillance orbits take their place. These orbits can be scaled, according to the threat. The U.S. orbits are bigger, more numerous, less manned and more heavily armed than Iraq’s and Lebanon’s, but the principle is the same. You want airborne sensors, capable of loitering for hours, and in many cases able to attack, on short notice.
Expect future orbits to get even heavier, at least in the U.S. The Navy’s X-47 drone prototype, and General Atomics’ Predator C, for the Air Force (eventually), both have nearly the same performance as a manned fighter, but will usually be employed in orbits.
(Photo: Ares blog)
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
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What you fail to mention is that countries both are investing in manned fighters as well–F-16s for Iraq, to the tune of ~36 aircraft as I recall, and something under a dozen Mig-29s for Lebanon, though these are being gifted by Russia.
[...] 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> [...]
Aerial warfare began in WWI when it dawned on those concerned that denying information gathering recon flights to the other side was a good idea.
The notion that increased use of aerial recon assets, whether manned or unmanned, has some relationship to lower levels of fighter jets whose role and mission is to destroy enemy aerial recon assets is not supported by history or any facts in evidence.
Comparing a very limited air force’s roles and missions to the US military’s air power requirements does not support the credibility of this website.
LB,
The evolution in air power is a strong indicator that the THREAT has changed, even if the principles underpinning aerial warfare have not. In other words, there is a growing consensus that the threat, to most nations, is not a conventional military that can be countered with conventional fighters. Rather, the threat is an insurgent one, against which surveillance is more useful than high-performance fighters.
Great article – thanks !!! Always a mind-stretching exercise to consider what different nations would do with clean slate opportunities.
[...] The three new IW planes Gates is funding include: * The Project Liberty MC-12W, a civilian King Air turboprop fitted with sophisticated sensors and data-links, meant for soaking up vast amounts of imagery and sharing it with other planes, drones and ground forces. The Air Force is buying at least 37, and potentially many more. The first examples are already in service. [...]
[...] Related: Surveillance Orbits for From-Scratch Air Forces Meet the “New” U.S. Air Force Air Force Copies Marines’ “Bolt-On” Gunship Plan 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 The Day U.S. Air Power Was Saved from Itself 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> [...]
[...] There are signs the reformers are winning. In just the last year, the Air Force — with Gates’ strong support, and despite some internal resistance — has launched three new programs, meant to deliver small numbers of cheap but effective aircraft, quickly. These new light fighters, small airlifters and off-the-shelf surveillance planes are “FISTy,” Ward said — and a harbinger of the Air Force Gates is fighting to create. [...]