3 ms·

I assume gates et al weren't foreseeing the rapid rise of china then. That plus the seemingly rapid advance of drones must make it difficult to plan the last fe

• wolverine876 4y ago
  Even if they did foresee it, buying expensive F-22's in the 2000s seems a mistake. The US would have had 20 year old planes (though still technologically advanced), designed for the wrong fight. It's such an issue that the Air Force is now working to retire their F-22's. For example, a war with China, if it happened, would be most expected around Taiwan; how would F-22's reach the fight? There are no airbases nearby, except on Taiwan which would be innundated with missile attacks. The F-22 doesn't fly from aircraft carriers (which are imperiled by China's missiles regardless). The US needs a longer-range fighter in the Pacific, to cover the vast territory without bases. Also, the F-22 afaik doesn't integrate with the new network-oriented joint force, where every asset is a sensor and node on the network, all sharing and a view of the battlefield. It doesn't integrate with 'wingman' drones, now the concept for at least part of the Air Force, where human-piloted planes control several drones. Instead, the US spent that money elsewhere at the time, getting a better return on investment, remains in the lead now (with F-35's), is building a bomber for the China contest (B-21's), and designing a new fighter.