F-22 Raptor Program Cut

On Tuesday the Senate passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that stripped $1.75 billion in funding for the F-22 Raptor program.  The military will end up with just 187 of these amazing fighters.  While opinions in the Pentagon seem to vary, in the past officials have estimated we need 250-380 to maintain air supremecy and preparedness into the forseeable future.  To borrow a phrase, I think the Senate has "acted stupidly" here.

First of all, the Raptor is awesome!  It is far and away the best fighter jet in the world.  That may not always be the case, but for the moment nothing can match it.  This is not really in dispute.  Having a full arsenal of these bad boys provides the U.S. a huge advantage over the rest of the world. 

Second, the critics of the F-22 point to the F-35 as a better alternative.  This is just ignorant.  The F-35 is slower and less agile.  It is not designed for the same purpose as the F-22, being more suited to Air-to-Ground assaults than Dogfights.  The F-35 is not ready for production and won't be for years - it's already behind schedule.  The trump card, however, is that the F-35 is a Joint Strike Fighter - part of a program in which we share in the development of the fighter jet with other countries.  The F-22 technology is all American; it is against the law to be sold abroad.  All things being equal, shouldn't we prefer to stock our military with weapons no one else can duplicate? 

Third, in a time when the administration is desperate to pump stimulus into the economy and "save jobs", the F-22 program is the very definition of effective stimulus.  The various stages of production for the F-22 employ 25,000 Americans.  The $1.75 billion is a mere .2% (that's two tenths of a percent) of the funding authorized in the Stimulus bill earlier this year - and a fraction of the funds set aside in that bill for ridiculous high speed rail lines from LA to Vegas. 

This is another example of Democrats just not looking closely enough.  And America suffers as a result.  Hopefully, we can find a way to resurrect the F-22 program yet.

Also, check out this nice piece on the memes employed in the debate over the F-22 (spoiler: they don't hold up to facts):

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post:338b1664-f6f7-4795-939b-16536947dafb