Palin Gets It Wrong On The F-22

Palin Criticized Obama For Eliminating The F-22

Sarah Palin:

Despite the Air Force saying it would increase future risk, the Obama Administration successfully sought to end F-22 production - at a time when both Russia and China are acquiring large numbers of next generation fighter aircraft. It strikes me as odd that Defense Secretary Gates is the only member of the Cabinet to be tasked with tightening his belt. [Palin Hong Kong Speech Excerpts via Palin Facebook Page, 9/23/09]

The F-22 Is Not Needed

The F-22 Was First Proposed In 1981 For Use In The Cold War, But Wasn't Available Until 2005. According to Newsweek, "To understand why, you need to go back to the beginning: 1981, the height of the Cold War, when the F-22 was born. Its mission was air-to-air combat-keeping control of the sky during a major war, so that bombers could reach their targets, and soldiers down below could fight without worrying about enemy aerial attacks. With its stealth technology (making it much less visible to radar) and high-tech electronics (making it more powerful at longer ranges), the plane was designed to shoot down the latest Soviet combat planes with greater ease than anything else in the sky. But the first operational F-22 didn't roll onto a runway until the end of 2005, after nearly a quarter century of delays, technical setbacks, and massive cost overruns. By that time, the Cold War was long over." [Newsweek, 9/19/09]

Instead Of Fighter Jets, The Air Force Is Deploying Advanced Unmanned Drones. As reported by Newsweek, "Gates's top priority was cleaning up the mess in Iraq, and UAVs seemed to be a potent tool. He ordered a crash program to build more of the planes, as well as the infrastructure to support them." The magazine added, "In 2007, the year before Schwartz became chief, UAVs were performing 21 combat air patrols at any one time, for a total of just over 100,000 hours. By 2011, they'll reach 54 patrols and almost 350,000 hours." [Newsweek, 9/19/09]

Contrary To Palin's Remarks, Sec. Gates Was Not Forced Into Cutting The F-22

Official Defense Department Studies Convinced Gates To Halt Construction Of The F-22. According to Newsweek, "Gates gets that. But the official Air Force studies that justify a fleet of 387 F-22s assume the United States fights two major wars simultaneously against foes that each possess an air force nearly equal to ours. Such a scenario is dubious and, in any case, very distant. It was, in fact, these studies that convinced Gates that he was right to halt the program at 187 planes. 'It's very difficult to come up with two very sophisticated threats that might materialize at the same time,' says a senior officer who has supervised analytical studies about weapons needs. Even if the nearly impossible came true-if the U.S. did fight two wars at once against major powers-at least one Pentagon analysis concludes that F-35s could handle the second threat nearly as well as F-22s, according to a senior officer who participated in the study. The F-35-a smaller, cheaper plane, which Gates wants to buy in large quantity-is not quite as good as the F-22 in shooting down planes but much better at destroying surface-to-air missile batteries." [Newsweek, 9/19/09]

Defense Secretary Gates Favored Reforming Defense Acquisitions To Suit Modern Threats.  Speaking to the Economic Club of Chicago, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said:

In sum, the security challenges we now face, and will in the future, have changed, and our thinking must likewise change. The old paradigm of looking at potential conflict as either regular or irregular war, conventional or unconventional, high end or low - is no longer relevant. And as a result, the Defense Department needs to think about and prepare for war in a profoundly different way than what we have been accustomed to throughout the better part of the last century.

What is needed is a portfolio of military capabilities with maximum versatility across the widest possible spectrum of conflict. As a result, we must change the way we think and the way we plan - and fundamentally reform - the way the Pentagon does business and buys weapons. It simply will not do to base our strategy solely on continuing to design and buy - as we have for the last 60 years - only the most technologically advanced versions of weapons to keep up with or stay ahead of another superpower adversary - especially one that imploded nearly a generation ago.

To get there we must break the old habit of adding layer upon layer of cost, complexity, and delay to systems that are so expensive and so elaborate that only a small number can be built, and that are then usable only in a narrow range of low-probability scenarios.  [Sec. Gates Remarks, 7/16/09; emphasis added]

Even Sen. McCain Disagrees With Palin's Novice View

Sen. McCain Said Ending The F-22 Was "Vital." While speaking on the floor of the Senate, Sen. John McCain said, "I am persuaded, as I hope you are, that the on the issue of whether or not the F-22 program should continue, the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of the Air Force are all correct:  ending the F-22 program now is vital to enabling the Department to bridge its current fighter capability to a more capable fifth-generation fighter force that is best equipped to both meet the needs of our deployed forces today and the emerging threats of tomorrow." [McCain Floor Statement, 7/14/09]

Sen. McCain Acknowledges There Is A Consensus View That The F-22 Is Not Needed.  While speaking on the floor of the Senate, Sen. John McCain said, "The President, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force, have stated that 187 F-22s are sufficient to meet operational requirements, particularly when combined with other U.S. military assets (including cyber-warfare, strike fighter aircraft, long-range stand-off precision weapons) to counter enemy aircraft and surface-to-air missile systems in the future from potential adversaries." [McCain Floor Statement, 7/14/09]

Sen. McCain: "Secretary Gates Has Indicated Numerous Times That His Decision To End The Program Is Not Resource Driven." While speaking on the floor of the Senate, Sen. John McCain said, "Secretary Gates has indicated numerous times that his decision to end the program is not resource driven.  He announced that decision on April 6, weeks before his plan was even submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for vetting.  On April 30, Secretary Gates plainly stated, 'if my top-line were $50 billion higher, I would make the same decision [regarding the F-22 program].'  That having been said, given the current fiscal crisis, buying more F-22s would likely reduce funding for other more critically needed aircraft, such as the F-35, F/A-18E/F, and EA-18G, which unlike the F-22 are equipped with electronic warfare capability-the combatant commanders' number one priority.  In that sense, continuing to purchase of F-22s could create operational risks for the United States military in the near term." [McCain Floor Statement, 7/14/09]