US Air Force future plans.

[willedoo]

Just finished reading the news bot link about US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announcing future Air Force directions & planning.

 

It all makes good sense, more spending on reconnaissance UAV's etc. He supports the production halt in the F22 & the more I read about the issue over time, the more one would have to agree. It was dropped for a number of operational reasons as well as financial. One problem was outdated electronics (compared to the F35 & possibly the T50) & it looks like they have decided to borrow the radar & other electronics from the F35 to prolong it's viability. Further into the future, I would guess the F22 will have a National Guard, civil air defense & reserve role for some time yet. If they lifted the export ban it would be a good air superiority & border patrol fighter for nations with close neighbors, like some of the Asian countries, where limited range & role capability wouldn't be such an issue.

 

The other interesting part of the announcement was the funding to research a long range, nuclear capable strategic bomber. This comes at the same time Russia has announced similar plans. Conventional wisdom since the end of the cold war has been that this type of system is no longer required, but that all seems to be changing. Possibly they will have some future use as conventional bombers to justify the huge expense in development.

 

Everything seems to be pointing in the right direction, not too sure about the bombers though, they're only as good as their ability to be defended & avoid interception. With the current carrier & submarine capability, I wonder if there's a role for them in the future.