Watchdog Says USAF Is Wasting F-22s On Patrols And Deployments, Should Consolidate Force (depressing to read)

In article , Stormin' Norman says...

On 20 Jul 2018 20:05:17 -0700, Miloch
wrote:

more at
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...solidate-force

The U.S. Air Force is reassessing the distribution and structure of its F-22
Raptor units, as well as their assigned missions and deployment schedules,
following a highly critical review of how it is utilizing the aircraft from a
top Congressional watchdog. At present, the stealth fighters suffer from low
availability rates and their crews have limited time to train for their primary
air superiority mission, especially due to having to fly alert missions in
defense of the United States, which could lead to a shortage in capability from
the already small fleet during any potential high-end conflict.
snipped for brevity

The F-22 is a magnificent aircraft when it is actually capable of
flying. Unfortunately it seems that most of our 5th gen aircraft were
engineered like Ferraris and require massive number of maintenance
man-hours per flight hour. The largest ratio I have see is the B-2 at
124 - 1 and the lowest for active duty aircraft is the F-18E/F at
between 6/15 - 1 (obviously not 5th gen).

We night have thoroughbred combat aircraft, but they are only worth
the spare parts if they can't fly.

As for the F-22, the majority of the missions I have seen it used for
has been to intercept 1950's vintage Tu-95's off the West Coast, an
aircraft we could shoot down with an F-4 Phantom, if we still had any
flying other than as target drones (do we still have any in the wild
weasel role?).

I can see where unmanned combat drones will soon replace these out of
control 5th gen aircraft.


I remember reading...decades ago!...that the way the AF fighters/bombers costs
were increasing..."...that if the trend continues, the Air Force will only be
able to afford one bomber and one fighter".

You always have to remind yourself that it's not just the services...it's the
members of Congress who want Defense Dept dollars spent in their
states/districts...even if the weapon system is proved to be unreliable.

....still don't think the corruption is as bad as Northern weapons contractors
during the Civil War...there was a segment on PBS "The Civil War" titled The Age
of Shoddy that outlined the problem well.




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