F-22 production cuts threaten American Defense
Saturday, April 11, 2009
While president Obama was out of the country, a sinister and more dangerous plan than any posed in the past 3 administrations was brought to the forefront. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced drastic cuts in defense spending and plans to scrap of significantly reduce key defense systems used by the United States military to secure our country from attack. While many of the cuts have been called reckless, none has produces as much media attention as the idea of cutting back Americas premier air dominance fighter the F-22 Raptor.
With the fleet of existing F-15 showing signs of imminent obsolescence not only from a technological standpoint, but also from a purely structural standpoint, we cannot allow our position as the leader in air superiority to fade into the past. The proposes plan is to limit to total run of F-22 fighters to about 187, far short of the already reduced 250 or so the Air Force has said it needs to have adequate defense of America. In place of a fighter already in production and active service, Gates is proposing that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter orders be upped to 30 units as it goes through initial trials and testing. Lets be clear here, the Defense Secretary wants to shut down production of an aircraft that has already been proven works, in place of a plane that while has some promise, has no hopes of ever reaching the performance levels of the F-22, and may in fact never even reach production, leaving tens of thousands of skilled worker without jobs. Someday soon he may wake up and realize that America no longer has the skilled labor required to make the top fighter in the world, and you just can’t decide to start again, when all the people you need are gone.
It is unimaginable short sighted and dangerous, to allow America to fade into just another country with just another Air Force.
