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Updated: Sun Aug 29 16:43:38 UTC 2010
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APA NOTAMS ISSN 1836-7135
F-22 and the Survival of American
Air Power
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Air Power
Australia - Australia's Independent Defence Think Tank
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Air Power Australia NOTAM
6th July, 2009
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| Contacts: |
Peter
Goon
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Carlo
Kopp |
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Mob:
0419-806-476 |
Mob:
0437-478-224 |
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America’s global primacy in the air power
is currently teetering on a knife-edge. Soon, the US Senate will vote
on whether to continue funding future production of the F-22A Raptor.
If the Senate endorses the continuation of F-22 production, as sought
by the full House of Representatives, the House Armed Services
Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate
Appropriations Committee, the United States Air Force has some prospect
of maintaining its strategic position in the longer term. If the Senate
votes against the F-22, the United States Air Force will enter a
terminal death spiral from which it has few prospects of recovery.
Air Power Australia has been studying the problems the US Air Force
faces very carefully, as these problems are mostly common to all
Western air forces, differences being primarily in matters of scale.
Recently, Dr Carlo Kopp and Peter Goon produced a series of detailed
briefings, which encapsulate the core issues and the genuine problems
the Americans must confront.
The first challenge the Americans must overcome is the rapid evolution
of Russian and Chinese Surface to Air Missile and radar technology,
which has made such weapons far more lethal than the weapons of the
Cold War era. Widely exported, these digital systems are extremely
difficult to jam, very difficult to kill due to high mobility and
defensive aids, and more than often actively defended by guns and short
range missiles designed to kill US smart munitions in flight. The
notion of the US carving corridors through hostile SAM belts is now a
historical idea, as future combat aircraft will have to penetrate such
defences and survive. Only the F-22 is built to do this, and 187 F-22s
is simply not enough to do the job. This is discussed in detail in “High Technology Air Defence Weapons vs
Planned US Force Structure”.
This problem is compounded the complete dependency of all US air, land
and sea capabilities upon the possession of air superiority. Since the
1940s the US has been able to dominate air space above US forces in
combat and their basing, as a result of which “If the US cannot win and
maintain air superiority, its whole military machine collapses like a
house of cards”. Despite this deep dependency and strategic
vulnerability, air superiority is not considered important in most
current US strategic thinking, as it is more than often simply assumed
to be the state of the world. This is discussed in detail in “Why 187 F-22s are Not Sufficient”.
The 1990s plan to recapitalise the US fighter fleet has failed. Rapidly
evolving fighter technology and surface based air defences have
rendered existing legacy fighter designs ineffective, and the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter was simply not defined to fight and survive in
this kind of threat environment. Even were the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter capable of surviving in combat, its program schedule is so far
behind target and its unit costs so high that it is no longer a viable
proposition. The only option left to the US is to build many more F-22s
and do so as soon as possible. This is discussed in detail in “The Failed Fighter Recapitalisation Plan”.
The global situation will not improve any time soon, as advancing
Counter-Stealth technologies erode the US technological advantage.
Russian and Chinese radar, passive sensor and sensor fusion technology
has advanced enormously over the last decade, especially due to the
infusion of Western digital processing technologies. Aircraft with top
end stealth capabilities like the F-22 and B-2 can continue to operate
in this environment, but second tier low performance stealth designs
like the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter cannot. The only techno-strategic choice the US
has to deal with proliferating Counter-Stealth technologies is to build
more F-22s. This is discussed in detail in “The Proliferation of Counter Stealth
Systems”.
People often think of advanced weapons as being used mostly by the
nations that build them, but this is no longer true, if it ever was.
The reality of today and the future is that nations with money to spend
and an agenda can purchase any high technology weapon they desire and
can afford
from Russian manufacturers, and more recently, Chinese manufacturers.
Anti-access weapons built to deny US forces from operating in a theatre
are proliferating globally, and problem states are the biggest buyers.
Good examples are Iran and Venezuela, energy rich and buying very
lethal anti-access weapons. The problems of a globalised anti-access
weapon market are discussed in “The
Global Impact of Anti-Access Weapons”.
The five APA briefings provide a critical and incisive look into these
challenges and underscore the precarious situation the United States,
and its many dependent allies, face over the coming two decades.
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Date
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Format
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Briefing
Title
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May
2009
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PPS
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PDF
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High
Technology Air Defense Weapons vs Planned US Force Structure
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| May
2009 |
PPS |
PDF |
Why
187 F-22s Are Not Sufficient
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| May
2009 |
PPS |
PDF |
The
Failed Fighter Recapitalisation Plan
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| May
2009 |
PPS |
PDF |
The
Proliferation of Counter-Stealth Systems
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June
2009
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PPS
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PDF
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The Global Impact of Anti-Access Weapons
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Air
Power Australia Website - http://www.ausairpower.net/
Air Power Australia Research and
Analysis - http://www.ausairpower.net/research.html
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![Australia's First Online Journal Covering Air Power Issues [ISSN 1832-2433]](apa-analyses.png "Australia's First Online Journal Covering Air Power Issues [ISSN 1832-2433]")
