Is The Cancellation Of America's F-22 Program The Biggest Mistake That The U.S. Air Force Has Done In The Past Decade?

F-22 Raptors (top) alongside F-35A Lightning IIs (bottom) [Image Source: U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo]

Foxtrot Alpha: Everyone Who Wanted More F-22s Is Being Proven Right

As if they suddenly came to an epiphany, the United States Air Force brass is now admitting what many of us have been screaming about for so long: We didn’t build nearly enough F-22s, and the F-35 cannot simply pick up the slack. So why aren’t those who pushed so hard to cancel the F-22 program being held accountable?

By the mid 2000s, the F-22 was finally entering the fray as the world’s first true stealth fighter, offering a quantum leap in capability and performance when compared with anything else on the battlefield. It was a thoroughbred weapon system meant to shape the battlefield by vanquishing anything in the skies and neutering enemy air defenses, so that less capable combat aircraft could survive over the battle space. It was a high-end door kicker, the ultimate “anti-access” fighter.

WNU Editor:I have always felt that the cancellation of the F-22 program was a mistake .... and Foxtrot Alpha does an excellent job in summarizing why this was a mistake. I also concur that the person who should be blamed most for this is former US Defense Gates ... it was he who pushed and cancelled the F-22 program in favour of the F-35.