Donley, Schwartz Say Resources Better Spent On JSF
It's been just over a week since US Defense Secretary Robert
gates
broke the news that F-22 Raptor production will end in
2011. Federal lawmakers have met with unions to
discuss strategy, defense contractors have had their communications
folks working late, and the letter-writing campaigns are up and
running.
In short, we're getting a public demonstration of quick
mobilization by the huge special interests President Obama says he
wants to take on.
In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, US Air Force Secretary
Michael Donley and Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz expand on
their premise that a move out of the cold war paradigm requires
reallocating the nation's limited defense resources to meet current
needs, including a shift to unmanned aerial systems. It reads, in
part --
"We are often asked: How many F-22s does the Air Force need? The
answer, of course, depends on what we are being asked to do. When
the program began, late in the Cold War, it was estimated that 740
would be needed. As requirements for fighter inventories have
declined and F-22 program costs have risen, the department imposed
a funding cap and in December 2004 approved a program of 183
aircraft.
"This decision has increasingly become a zero-sum game. Buying
more F-22s means doing less of something else. In addition to air
superiority, the Air Force provides...intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance, command and control, and related needs in the
space and cyber domains. We are also repairing years of
institutional neglect of our nuclear forces, rebuilding the
acquisition workforce, and taking steps to improve Air Force
capabilities for irregular warfare."
Donley and Schwartz go on to explain that the F-22 will work
together with the multi-role F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, still under
development, and that upgrades are planned to the F-22 over time.
They admit, "Much rides on the F-35's success, and it is critical
to keep the Joint Strike Fighter on schedule and on cost.
"Make no mistake: Air dominance remains an essential capability
for joint warfighting. The F-22 is a vital tool in the military's
arsenal and will remain in our inventory for decades to come. But
the time has come to move on."
While the Pentagon and the US Air Force appear in sync about the
need for a shift to fighting a new kind of war, the political
battle to make it happen will feature good, old-fashioned political
artillery. The fight has just begun.