Raptorlicious

Tally Ho!

As previously recce'd, all the cool kids know Great Satan's global air dominance sweetly maintains the world Great Satan herself created

This is significant. 

Gulf War, Libya, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq all proved Air Power is simply the most best way to get the point across - indeed, even Great Satan's Combat Rock Stars developed fast track communications to precisely apply formidable air power to sensitive tender spots during Surge - and any COIN ops.

Great Satan's hyper puissance depends on it.  Lost among civie leaders, and maybe within bits of the Air Force herself, is the understandment of strategic airpower and her hot role playing in doing Great Satan's national - whoa - make that internat'l - security policies.

Since the world famous F22 Raptor program has been stalled, the number of combat aircraft able to sortee,  pre empt, prevent or respond to any diplopolititary diktats could shrink up faster than a viagra free swim meet.

"...The result will be a force of 186 Raptors (one having crashed late last year), though of this rump fleet, only 130 or so will be combat- capable. Readiness, maintenance and scheduling demands will reduce the operational force to merely 30 or so F-22s globally available to throw into a fight at any given moment.

Oh snap!

“It's a global revolution to modernize air defense systems. When taken in total, our potential adversaries can create a nearly impenetrable box that our legacy fighters cannot enter, thus denying us our air supremacy”

 Essentially Great Satan is losing her air dominance "...and is dangerously ill-prepared to stop the gap-closing efforts of China and Russia.

Such magically remanufactured 5th Generation combat jets competing - from surface-to-air defenses to air-to-air fighters - means Great Satan is forsaking an ancient daemoneoconical imperial designs that are now doctrine!

"These future threats are now current."

Whoa!

Tiny tiny numbers like this mean several operational scary scenarios may come to pass:

"...The emergence of foreign challengers. Russia and China are steadily developing heavy, twin- engine aircraft with stealth capabilities. Based on their size and potential capabilities, the smaller, single-engine F-35 probably will not have the speed or power to compete.

">>>The Chinese ostentatiously first test-flew their J-20 prototype last month during Mr. Gates's visit to Beijing. Western analysts are still debating the plane's capabilities. Some believe it will serve as a supersonic fighter-bomber, given its large size (more than 20% bigger than the F-22 itself). Whatever the ultimate capabilities of the J-20 or the Russian PAK-FA turn out to be, we can expect more surprises in their development. The U.S. government apparently did not know about two new Chinese nuclear submarine models until they were revealed on the Internet several years ago.

  "...Sophisticated air defenses are a growing threat to American fighters. Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, among others, are developing and fielding integrated air-defense systems, including interlinked radar sites and advanced surface-to-air missiles such as the S-400. The lower operational ceiling of the F-35 (around 40,000 feet) and its subsonic cruising speed means it will be at much higher risk in attempting to penetrate such heavily defended airspace.

"...The F-22 was designed precisely to fight and survive in such environments-as attested by its 60,000-foot operational ceiling and supercruise (cruising at plus-mach speeds without afterburners) ability.

  "...F-35 delays and cost overruns. The JSF program has run into numerous delays and cost increases, with the unit price of each plane nearing $100 million. In early January, Mr. Gates put the F-35B program on hold for two years, as its vertical take-off-and-landing capabilities ran into significant development problems.

"...Many industry observers question whether the F-35 will reach initial operating capability before the end of this decade. And given the rising costs of the plane, the likelihood of further procurement cuts is very real, putting the F-35 potentially on the same death-spiral as the F-22.

"...Any numbers are speculative, but cutting 400 F-35As from the Air Force's projected total of 1,700 would leave a fleet of at least 1,300-more than enough to deal with most likely threats. This would free funds to build at least 150 more F-22s, bringing their numbers close to what the Air Force has long argued is needed to ensure a viable Raptor force. 

 Sweet! 

"... It would also provide U.S. military leaders with the "high-low" mix of F-22s' air superiority and F-35s' ground-attack superiority that was envisioned in the 1990s. Lawmakers should then demand an independent, comprehensive study of how much it would cost to keep the plane in production, perhaps at the rate of 10 per year.


Pic - "Air dominance by collecting intelligence and using long-range bombing to control the enemy’s skies, and also provided full tactical support for ground troops engaged in combat."