DoDBuzz: Insurgents Offer Tough Air Critique

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Insurgents Offer Tough Air Critique
By Commentary Monday, March 2nd, 2009 2:25 pm
Posted in Air

Tough love remains one of those concepts our society embraces mostly in the negative. It’s just, well, too tough. The following commentary certainly constitutes a fine example of tough love, coming from two of the country’s more distinguished military and airpower analysts. Essentially, Robert Dilger and Pierre Sprey argue that the country should scrap plans for the F-35 and F-22 and build what they call “austerely-designed and affordable aircraft tailored to missions that actually win wars…” The fleet would include: a new close air support plane to replace the A-10; a “forward controller spotter plane;” a “small, affordable dirt-strip airlifter;” and a “super-maneuverable new air-to-air dogfighter with all–passive electronics.”

Dilger and Sprey argue that their approach would give the country 10,000 highly adaptable planes wiithin current budgetary constraints, compared to what they say is the unsupportable approach of fielding a fleet of roughly 2,000 very expensive planes. Can you hear the Air Force groaning? The full piece follows:

Their title: “Reversing the Decay of American Air Power”

Today the U.S. Air Force is spending about $10 billion above its Cold War average. Curiously, this amount buys us an Air Force smaller, more antiquated, and more combat-irrelevant than at any time since the 1930s.

Thirteen of our fifteen major aircraft types began development 30 to 60 years ago. Even our newest type, the F-22, entered design 25 years ago– and is too expensive to risk in our current wars. The few aging fighters the USAF has committed to these wars have helped enemy recruiting more than they have eased our troops’ burdens.


Rest of article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/03/02/insurgents-offer-tough-air-critique/?wh=wh