JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM optimized for air-to-air dominance, providing the cover for
the F-35’s multirole air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
Both aircraft designs incorporated stealth technology and
advanced fth-generation sensors, computing power, and
secure communications tools to collaborate across areas
of operation.
e end of the Cold War decreased the planned buy of
F-22s to just 381, well short of the needed replacements for
the F-15. e F-22 program was then prematurely canceled
in 2009 at just 186 Raptors—less than half the Air Force’s last
stated F-22 requirement—in order to free up funds for the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time, the expectation
was that the Air Force would have hundreds more F-35s by
now. Instead, the Air Force has had to extend the life of its
F-15 eet well beyond planned service.
Delayed F-35 production has also meant extending
fourth-generation F-16s and A-10 airframes. e average age
of the Air Force’s fourth-generation jets now exceeds 25 years.
While they remain yable (albeit with signi cant structural
limitations), they are not survivable in an advanced threat
scenario such as a great power competition.
What was once “tomorrow’s threat” is now today’s reality.
With only 186 F-22s and about 200 F-35s to complement
its aging fourth-generation ghters, the Air Force has too
few ghters to defend the United States in a modern security
environment including a potential North Korean con ict
occurring simultaneously with a requirement to check Rus-
sian revanchist actions in Europe, or Chinese aggression in
East Asia.
Yet instead of increasing the buy rate for more low-observ-
able F-35s to support the goals of the new defense strategy,
the Department of Defense (DOD) scal 2020 budget request
seeks to purchase eight F-15EX ghters—aircraft based on a
design that dates back to the late 1960s. Even as new-build
with upgraded capabilities, these fourth-generation F-15EXs
will lack key attributes necessary to survive and operate in
the priority advanced threat environments identi ed in the
National Defense Strategy. Low observability, commonly
known as stealth, and sensor fusion are not bolt-on capa-
bilities and cannot be retro tted or modi ed: ey must be
designed into an aircraft from Day 1.
Air superiority is a prerequisite to joint operations. Without
Air Force contributions, other military services’ capabilities
cannot be realized. Ships, ground forces, space and cyber
facilities, logistics nodes, and support aircraft are all exceed-
ingly vulnerable to attack from modern weapons. Failure to
modernize our air forces with relevant, capable, and surviv-
able aircraft will result in crippling losses in a con ict with
a rival such as China or Russia. Recapitalizing the Air Force
ghter force with fth-generation aircraft is fundamental to
elding viable US military power around the globe.
Given those stakes, it is crucial to prioritize the production
of fth-generation ghter aircraft. e US should increase
F-35 procurement rates and accelerate investment in the
Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program to make
up for its undersized F-22 eet. Today’s ghter force con-
sists of 82 percent fourth-generation and only 18 percent
fth-generation aircraft. Reversing that balance is the only
way to ensure America’s sons and daughters strap into air-
craft that can successfully execute their missions against the
world’s most challenging threats—and return home safely.THE THREAT ENVIRONMENT
e National Defense Strategy Commission’s recent assess-
ment of the 2018 National Defense Strategy concluded that
America’s hard military power has eroded “to a dangerous
degree.” America’s ability to defend its allies, partners, and its
own vital interests is increasingly in doubt, the commission
stated, and if the US does not act promptly, the consequences
will be “grave and lasting.”
America’s military dominance is waning at the worst time.
e reemergence of great power competition means that
America faces its greatest strategic challenge since the end
of the Cold War, and the rest of the globe is as complex and
unstable as it ever has been. China and Russia are asserting
their power around the world and modernizing their mili-
taries, regional crises simmer and are in the Middle East,
the Korean Peninsula remains unpredictable, and violent
extremists demand US attention.
In the three decades since the fall of the Soviet Union,
low-intensity con icts and counterinsurgency operations
created a strategic amnesia regarding what it takes to pre-F-22 Demonstration Team
Raptors over Northern California,
en route to Travis AFB, Calif. The
F-22 was optimized for air-to-
air dominance and designed to
complement the F-35.
Photo: 2nd Lt. Samuel Eckholm