We need more Raptors and we need 'em now

This from an AP story about the aging air force.

Current F-15s and F-16s are on average more than 20 years old and have reached a point where spending more money on extensive repairs is a poor investment, Selva said. Originally designed to last 4,000 flying hours, both have been extended beyond 8,000.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

I remember reading about the F-15 and F-16 when I was in GRADE SCHOOL, which for me was a century ago. The F-15 first flew in July of 1972!

Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force

The F-16, the F-15's running mate and our main mudmover (ground attack aircraft for those not aware of aviation slang) is nearly as old, first flying back in 1974. I wasn't even born yet and many who fly these airframes weren't even born yet when they first flew.

Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force

Now, both planes have been heavily upgraded over the years to account for advances in avonics (aviation electronics for those unaware of aviation jargon) and weaponry, but they're quite a bit long in the tooth. Production of the fighter version of the Eagles ended in the 1980's and while the Viper (pilot nickname for the F-16, better than its sucky given name of Fighting Falcon) is still in production, the Air Force hasn't bought any new ones in some time. Another thing that has really hurt the fleet is all the work they've logged. These fighters patrolled the skies, hit ground targets and dodged surface to air missiles and AAA (antiaircraft fire) over Kosovo, the former Yugoslavia (where several were shot down, most famously Scott O'Grady's bird), Iraq and other trouble spots and that was even before we got in a shooting war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And folks, war ain't easy on birds. These planes are designed to yank and bank at nine times the force of gravity, which I don't have to tell you is rough on even aircraft as well-built as these.

A lot of peaceniks would say, "So?" They'd tell you that buying replacements for these planes is a waste of money that could be better spent on schools or whatever pet project these do-gooder socialist numbskulls would rather use your money towards. There are those in the Bush administration that say that the replacement for the F-15, the F-22, is too expensive and not necessary in an Iraq-type counterinsurgency action. It hasn't even been used over there and they cost a lot of moolah per copy. $120 million or so, give or take for every one over the 180 already bought and paid for (about 100 of them are in service now).

I'd agree on that point. The F-22 is hideously expensive, but it is the ne plus ultra of modern fighter development. It is a revolutionary weapon system, not evolutionary.

It's not merely an improved Eagle. It's a quantum leap over the Eagle. Just ask one of our aggressor (pilots who fly as "adversaries" in mock dogfights using enemy tactics to test our regular pilots) guys about what it's like to go up against the Raptor when they're flying the F-15, previously the world's greatest fighter. And note this, these men are very well-trained and are some of the best pilots on the globe. They have thousands of hours in fighters and many are combat veterans. They flew against the Raptor in a Red Flag (big exercise in Nellis that is probably some of the most realistic aerial war games on the planet) and this is what happened:

I can't see the [expletive deleted] thing. It won't let me put a weapons system on it, even when I can see it visually through the canopy. [Flying against the F-22] annoys the hell out of me.

RAAF Squadron Leader Stephen Chappell, exchange F-15 pilot in the 65th Aggressor Squadron.

The key to the F-22 is this: it's a combination of a lot of things. It can supercruise, meaning that it can go supersonic without afterburners. In case you don't know this, all fighters are basically subsonic (slower than Mach 1) unless they use their afterburners, which suck up precious fuel like Britney does lines of cocaine, which is rather prodigious. This means the F-22 can decide to press an engagement (attack) or decline (retreat) at its leisure. In nautical terms, it means the F-22 has a perpetual weather gage. The F-22 is also more maneuverable than any other fighter. Don't think so? Check this out:


The F-22 is also as stealthy as the F-117, meaning the enemy can't detect it at all. The F-22 radar is the most advanced in the world and is undetectable by enemy radar warning receivers (airborne fuzz busters, basically, that let you know someone is painting you with their radar, always a prelude to an attack).

Also, the F-22's sensors are fused into one common display, freeing a pilot from having to check multiple displays for multiple sensors. And add to the mix an advanced datalink that allows a flight of Raptors to have a common picture of the aerial battlefield and select individual targets for destruction without conflicts (two Raptors lobbing missiles at the same target while allowing another to go unmolested).

So even if you get into to knife-fighting (visual range) with a Raptor, he's going to shoot your ass down because he can outmaneuver you all day long.

Now why do we need this plane? Here's one answer:

Here's one: the Chinese J-10, the most modern fighter the Chinese have. This aircraft is as good as our F-16's and maybe is even better. You liberals would say, well, they're just making it fair. Actually, there is no fairness in war and besides, since all of our armed forces are not aimed at a little island called Taiwan and are scattered throughout the globe, we will always be outnumbered. I don't have to tell you that will NOT be a fair fight, especially when your enemy wields a plane as good as yours and in superior numbers.

Here's video of the J-10:


Then there's this bird that the Chinese and Hugo Chavez's regime of socialist thugs fly, the Su-30:



Highly maneuverable, easily more so than anything we have save the Raptor and the upcoming F-35 Lightning. And Hugo, who hates America with a virulent passion, has these. Think I'm kidding? Check these out:
This is what Hugo thinks of you:

The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads.

And Hugo is big buddies with the mullahs in Iran. Big buddies.

Hugo with his buddy Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man who thinks we should wipe out the Jews.

This is more of what he thinks of us:

Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire. This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world.

Hugo Chavez

And yet the Air Force can only afford 181 Raptors, barely enough to cover all our areas of concern when you consider at least 30-40 will be under modification or repair, another 30 will be permanently based in CONUS (continental U.S.) for training, leaving about 100 or so to cover the world's trouble spots. This is not good, considering that the F-35 is several years from service and the F-15's are falling apart. The entire fleet of Eagles was grounded after one, with relatively few hours on it, disintegrated in mid-air a few months during an exercise. The pilot survived.

It's like to trying to drive a car for 20 years. My old car, a well-made Nissan Maxima, had 180,000 miles on it and still ran well. But it was struggling mightily. Things were breaking down on it from simple age nearly every month. Even the best made stuff (F-16s and F-15s) breaks down and we can ill afford to have our air defenses weakened at this time when the enemies of freedom are howling at the gates.

We have enjoyed air superiority over every winning battlefield and we can not allow that to fall by the wayside just because we'd rather have the government give us free health care and other benefits courtesy of income redistribution. If the Imperial Federal Government is going to rob me blind at the rate of 30 percent, I'd much rather it go to Raptor and Lightning purchases than Obamination's silly, bankrupting the the treasury health care boondoogle. It's kind of hard to enjoy free viagra when terrorists and scum like Chavez, the Iranian mad mullahs, the Chicom egg-sucking dogs and that snake-in-the-grass Putin own the skies.

For those still unconvinced, read this.