"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 12:03:14 -0600, Scott Ferrin
wrote:


Much of the money is already spent and the F-22 is a fine slab of
Georgia
pork. If the USAF fighter mafia won't get the job done, then they
deserve
to be humiliated.

"Fighter Mafia" is generally associated with the group that promoted
the Light Weight Fighter back in the day. As far as the F-22 being
pork, it's only pork if it's the *politicians* fighting for the
program against the will of the services. Well I guess that could be
"pure pork" vs different degrees but so far I've not seen anywhere
where the USAF has said they DIDN'T want the F-22.

To put "Fighter Mafia" in context, it really relates to the cadre of
tactical types that collected in the Pentagon basement requirements
shop that recognized in the sixties that the future of the USAF would
be better served by a flexible tactical force than by the entrenched
leadership that had remained in control after WW II from the bomber
force--LeMay, Brown, et. al.

In essence the purpose of the USAF fighter mafia is to create more pilot
slots by having fighters do bomber's work. That is why we may get 160 F-22s
intead of 50 conventional B-2s.

These were guys like Moody Suter and Boyd who first articulated
concepts of tactical force employment. They evolved into the advocates
of a modern force that worked the compromises between high tech and
high airframe numbers. They developed the thinking for high/low mix
when faced with choices for MiG-17 style volume fighters (think F-5A)
and force-multiplier high cost/high tech systems like F-15.

A cheap readily manufacturable fighter is a must and then a high end air
dominator might be added to the mix. The problem right now is that there is
a war right now that could use the $30 billion for an air dominant F-22; as
opposed to the already air dominant F-15.

The true Fighter Mafia built the force that has prevailed globally
over the last 30 years and as a corollary supplanted the SAC generals
with guys like Jack Chain, Joe Ralston, Ron Fogleman, Mike Ryan, Chuck
Horner, etc.

Today, with the consolidation of operational types in Air Combat
Command, the concept of a "fighter mafia" is passe.

No, seats for pilots is not passe. Consider the number of astronauts
holding engineering slots at NASA pre-Columbia disaster. Robots are now the
space explorers of choice, thanks JPL.