I just read that Obama signed a $680 Billion defense bill that cans the F-22 and other projects he considers “outdated” relics of the Cold War. Then, completely ignoring the fact that this bill doesn’t actually provide any money for anything (it just says how the money they haven’t got yet should be spent), Obama goes on to brag about expansion of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that will take place thanks to the scrapping of the F-22 and other projects.
The official White House line has been that the F-22 was ill suited to insurgent wars in desert environments, which I will admit is a legitimate argument. Members of the Pentagon have also said they believe the termination of the F-22 project was a good idea considering our current military situation.
But while the F-22 is not suited for what we’re doing now, I can’t help but wonder if it was suited to what we will face in the future. While we will be battling the radical wing of Islam for many more years to come, and Islam fights insurgent wars, there is a growing threat of real military power from the Chinese and the Russians. I’ve already mentioned on this site that the Russians are running subs off our Atlantic coast and long range bombers in South America. Thanks to security lapses in the 90’s Chinese engineers are turning out better and better military projects, even going so far as being able to track our subs underwater(thank Slick Willy for that).
Fighting a military style war against military opponents means you have to have things like fighter jets. And with the way technology’s growth is exploding all over the world, we’ll need advanced fighters with advanced avionics and systems just to be able to compete, much less WIN a war.
So, what did Obama’s bill signing do today for future Americans who (I believe) will most assuredly be faced with the threat of military style combat at some point in the next 10-15 years?
It weakened their chances. It weakened our country.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You make a good point.
ReplyDeleteHere is what I think. If you scrap the F-22 take part of that money and invest it in Research and Development (R&D) on an even more capable aircraft that could be put into production if required. That way while you eliminate a very capable A/C you also open the path to create a better one.
What you are seeing in the Defense Industry is not what it oeriginally was meant to be. The government by their selection of contractors to create products to USG standards are actually determining which cmpanies will survive. We need to go back to letting the best product and best price win, not the favorite company of the USG.