RAPTOR READY FOR WAR — MAYBE

The con­tro­ver­sial F/​A-​​22 “Raptor” stealth fighter “is months away from being declared war-​​ready, but the Pentagon is still try­ing to decide where it fits in its vision of future war­fare,” observes the Washington Post. (In a related video, a Raptor squadron com­man­der says his group will be ready to fight in December of ’05.)

The Bush admin­is­tra­tion has pro­posed cut­ting $10 bil­lion from the pro­gram over the next five years, leav­ing enough to buy fewer than half the 381 planes the Air Force says it needs. And the plane will have to com­pete, in an age of bud­get deficits, with plans to refur­bish the Army and fund an even more expen­sive fighter pro­gram, the Joint Strike Fighter, which is still years from deliv­ery.
How many Raptors the Pentagon buys — no one expects the pro­gram to be killed — is part of a debate over what kind of wars the nation’s lead­ers should fear most: a large-​​scale bat­tle with another indus­trial power, where the Raptor could dom­i­nate, or skir­mishes in rogue states such as Iran or Syria, where ground forces would lead. (via Sploid)

April 19th, 2005 | Raptor Watch | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.