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Article : Gates versus l’USAF, – à fond

   vendredi 06 juin 2008

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Air Force, F22, JSF. Dansons la Carmagnole...

DedefGM

  06/06/2008

Un article de 4 mois, en complement:

“Fighter dispute hits stratosphere”  February 15, 2008  

In the 2009 budget, Gates agreed to keep the F-22 assembly line open – but just barely. He removed $400 million in funding that would have been used to start shutting down the line and instead is expected to request four additional fighters when he submits a war funding proposal to Congress this spring.

The decision will allow the next presidential administration to decide whether to keep the F-22 program at current levels or expand the program to the numbers the Air Force is seeking.

The Air Force has faced intense pressure from within Gates’ inner circle to shut down the line entirely. Gates has argued that the aircraft is only intended to fight “near peer” competitors, Pentagon code words for China and Russia, threats which Gates does not consider imminent.

Some Gates aides argued that the imminent production run of the Joint Strike Fighter – a smaller, newer and cheaper plane – made acquiring additional F-22s unnecessary and pushed for the line to be shut down completely in the 2009 budget.

“Looking at what I regard as the level of risk of conflict with one of those ‘near peers’ over the next four or five years, until the Joint Strike Fighter comes along, I think that something along the lines of 183 is a reasonable buy,” Gates said last week.

Air Force officials have argued that the single-engine Joint Strike Fighter is not as capable as the two-engine F-22, which is faster and would be used in the early stages of a war against an adversary with sophisticated air defenses.

But Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told a congressional hearing Wednesday that the performance of the two planes was “extraordinarily close” and that he had recommended ending the line completely. Officials familiar with England’s stance said he argued internally for the F-22 line to be shut down, only to be overruled by Gates.

“My strong feeling is that we have enough F-22s,” England testified. “We’re designed for a specific mission, we have enough [F-22s] to do that mission and we need to go on with the Joint Strike Fighter program.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/15/nation/na-airforce15