A senior Air Force general has publicly disagreed with Bush administration comptrollers who want to shut down the F-22 Raptor production program to save money. About 110 of the air superiority jets have been produced, with a research and development cost of about $60 billion.
Gen. Bruce Carlson disagrees:
The general, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said the Air Force was "committed to funding 380" F-22s regardless of the Bush administration's budget policies. "We're building a program right now to do that. It's going to be incredibly difficult ... but we've done this before."The office of the Air Force quickly back-pedaled after Carlson's statements, but they have already raised controversy. Some supporters believe that the Air Force's plans should be looked at separately from the costs of the war in Iraq, while their critics lambaste the F-22s as an unnecessarily complex and expensive aircraft built for a war that will never occur.
Carlson's comments came as Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England was testifying before congressional committees. In an exchange during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, asked whether the Pentagon would buy F-22s to replace aging F-15s, some of which have been grounded because of structural defects.
"I do not believe the F-22 will be the replacement for the F-15," England said. "I would expect instead to try and accelerate the [F-35] joint strike fighter," which he called a capable and far less costly replacement.
In my opinion, it is important to see the issue in context. The Air Force has responsibilities that extend far beyond the Middle East. They can't keep on using old aircraft, and they can't fulfill those responsibilities with only 180 air superiority fighters (the number of aircraft that have been funded). F-15Cs are a 30-year old platform, while F-35 Lightning IIs are at best a distant second replacement for the role of F-22s, and are pretty expensive as well (~$75 million per, compared to ~$125 million per).
Once you factor in the extended lifetime of the aircraft (at least 40 years), the decreased maintenance and personnel costs and the added capability that this aircraft provides, this isn't that hard of a sell. Adding another 300 aircraft to the existing 112 (meeting the Air Force's goal of ~400, or a 1 to 1 replacement of the F-15C) would mean an additional $1 billion cost per year for the lifetime of the aircraft - equivalent to the B-2 Spirit Bomber program. This price would further decrease if future advances extended lifetime of the F-22. Funding the fighters is a smart decision, and one that needs to be made.
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