The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is a fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It is primarily an air superiority fighter, but has multiple capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles. The United States Air Force considers the F-22 a critical component of the U.S. strike force, and states that the F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft. Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chief of the Australian Defence Force, said in 2004 that the "F-22 will be the most outstanding fighter plane ever built." Faced with a protracted and costly development period, the aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 during the three years before formally entering US Air Force service in December 2005, as the F-22A. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and is responsible for the majority of the airframe, weapon systems and final assembly of the F-22. Program partner Boeing Integrated Defense Systems provides the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and all of the pilot and maintenance training systems.
The “Times” reported different views of supporters and opponents of the F-22, but framed the dispute as one of “creating jobs vs. cutting waste.” And therein lies the false choice.
If the Pentagon now believes its mission is economic growth more than national defense, then the American people are only going to get more waste and less defense.
In the case of the F-22, Air Force acquisition officials and defense contractors have shifted the rationale for why we need such an expensive Cold War plane to fight the war on terror. Now that the country stands in the shadow of a deep recession, the F-22’s justification has again morphed into a bread and butter issue.
Meanwhile, the cost for the F-22 has soared to $350 million per unit, while contractors have failed to deliver on their promises and the number of planes we get for our money has plummeted.
Lorelei Kelly, director of the Real Security Initiative at the White House Project, picked up on the trap that special interests are setting for the new administration and described it on The Huffington Post:
Now that it [the Pentagon] has completely abandoned any desire to be strategically relevant, some parts of the defense industry are pitching themselves just as jobs providers. What we actually might need is beside the point.
In other words, don’t be fooled. Whatever the popular justification of the day, the prime measure for success in the Pentagon is how much money you get from Congress.
The F-22 is hardly a lone example of gross mismanagement at the Pentagon. A General Accounting Office report released last spring showed that 95 major weapons systems have run over cost to the tune of $295 billion. Bloated weapons systems are a trademark of every service branch, from the Marines’ V-22 Osprey to the Navy’s DDG-1000 Destroyer.
The Pentagon has failed to complete an audit of its finances since the early 1990s and estimates that one will not be successfully conducted until 2016. In that time, the annual defense budget has climbed to its highest levels since World War II.
As Winslow Wheeler notes in a report entitled “America’s Defense Meltdown,” published by the Center for Defense Information:
…liberals, moderates and conservatives in the Pentagon, Congress, think tanks and the White House over time constructed an edifice that makes our forces smaller, older and less ready to fight, all at a dramatically increasing cost. And, we have done so with a system that, quite literally, does not know—or apparently care—what it is doing.
After the American people just watched Congress appropriate $700 billion in Wall Street bailouts that vanished on the balance sheets of big banks without halting the recession, for a dysfunctional Pentagon to pretend it can save the economy is a scandal.
Justifying more overblown weapons budgets in the name of job creation amounts to little more than a bailout for the Pentagon, which has a record of negligence to rival or even surpass Wall Street and the auto industry.
But at least General Motors can tell you how much it costs to build a car.
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan (ret.) is the former commander of the U.S. Second Fleet and a member of the board of Senior Military Advisors of the Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities is working to increase funding for needed domestic programs by cutting wasteful spending at the Pentagon.
Highlight on Fifth Generation Jet Fighters
*Fifth Generation Jet Fighters - In service
United States - Lockheed Martin / Boeing F-22 Raptor
*Fifth Generation Jet Fighters - In development
India - Medium Combat Aircraft (maiden flight expected in 2012)
People's Republic of China - Shenyang J-XX (J-13 and J-14 expected in service in 2012)
South Korea - KFX (maiden flight expected in 2014)
Russia / India - Sukhoi PAK FA and Sukhoi/HAL FGFA (maiden flight expected in 2009)
United States / United Kingdom / Italy / Netherlands / Canada / Turkey / Australia / Norway / Denmark - Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II (maiden flight achieved in 2006)
Highlight on Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor
Currently the cutting edge of fighter design, fifth-generation fighters are characterized by being designed from the start to operate in a network-centric combat environment, and to feature extremely low, all-aspect, multi-spectral signatures employing advanced materials and shaping techniques. They have multifunction AESA radars with high-bandwidth, low-probability of intercept (LPI) data transmission capabilities. IRST sensors are incorporated for air-to-air combat as well as for air-to-ground weapons delivery.
These sensors, along with advanced avionics, glass cockpits, helmet-mounted sights, and improved secure, jamming-resistant LPI datalinks are highly integrated to provide multi-platform, multi-sensor data fusion for vastly improved situational awareness while easing the pilot's workload. Avionics suites rely on extensive use of very high-speed integrated circuit (VHSIC) technology, common modules, and high-speed data buses.
Overall, the integration of all these elements is claimed to provide fifth-generation fighters with a "first-look, first-shot, first-kill capability".
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