USAF Chief Defends F-22 Need, Capabilities
Feb 17, 2009
By Amy Butler
U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff, says more stealthy F-22s are needed – though less than the 381 required by the service in recent years - yet he has stopped short of identifying how many more.
“We looked at this in a dispassionate and analytical way” and produced a number that “I feel is credible,” Schwartz said during a Defense Writers’ Group breakfast this morning in Washington. The general said he would not release his new number until presenting it to Defense Secretary Robert Gates - but he noted he would not disagree with statements from Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told Congress 60 more F-22s were needed.
This would include orders of about 20 aircraft per year for three years. Lockheed Martin currently has orders for 183 of the twin-engine aircraft.
The top four-star USAF general further said it is a “sign of a healthy institution” when it is “willing to revisit its own beliefs.”
Gates has ordered a quick-turnaround review of major Pentagon programs ahead of submission of a fiscal 2010 budget. In this review, Gates has directed eight teams to look at the following areas: tactical aircraft, mobility, shipbuilding, network centric capabilities, rotary-wing systems, missile defense, irregular warfare and nuclear capabilities, according to an industry official. Gates is said to be placing an emphasis on technologies that can help with “irregular warfare,” or nontraditional warfighting capabilities, as the Pentagon expects continued battles against non-state actors and insurgent forces for many years.
Such a rebalancing of the military force could prompt senior leaders at the Pentagon to assume more risk in traditional warfighting areas, such as air-to-air combat or lead-in operations in the opening hours of a major theater war. Leaders are now looking at how much risk is appropriate for the capabilities offered by systems such as the F-22, Schwartz said. The general notes that any added systems the Air Force wants in the FY ‘10 budget will be paid for with suggested cuts by the service.
The new F-22 analysis presumes deliveries of operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will commence as planned in 2013 and 2014 without delay.
Schwartz defended the F-22’s mission capability (MC) rates. Pentagon acquisition chief John Young criticized the low MC rates last fall, noting that Raptors are ready for a mission around 62 percent of the time, if its low-observable requirements are met (DAILY, Nov. 20). Reliability goes up above 70 percent for missions with lower stealth demands.
Schwartz said the F-22’s performance is “respectable,” especially when compared with the first-generation stealthy F-117 and the B-2 bomber. “These are not numbers to be scoffed at,” he says.
Young also has criticized plans to spend another $8 billion on the F-22 to modify it from its air-to-air role to also take on ground targets. Schwartz noted that this block upgrade plan has been in the works for a long time.
Schwartz was cool on the notion of developing an export version of the F-22. Japan has expressed interest in buying the system, but the so-called Obey Amendment, named after the top House appropriator who drafted the language years ago, prohibits foreign Raptor sales.
Citing the cost associated with developing an export variant, Schwartz said, “I don’t see that in the cards now.”
Photo: USAF
