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Larger F-22 Raptor force is right idea, but hard to sell

The Air Force’s top officer is serious about a new fighter.

“I’ve said all along that we need 381 F-22 Raptors,” said Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley in a Feb. 1 interview at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

“I consider that number a minimum. I want enough F-22s to equip a 24-plane squadron for each of our 10 air and space expeditionary forces, plus robust training and weapons development squadrons.”

Some of the Air Force’s F-15 Eagles had just returned to flight after a grounding caused by structural issues. Three hours after our interview, Lt. Col. Christopher Faurot, call sign “Frenchy,” was dangling from a parachute near Hawaii. Local press reports said Faurot’s F-15D, with the 199th Fighter Squadron of the Hawaii Air National Guard, lost power. The pilot was the sole occupant of the two-seater. He ejected.

“That’s real for me and helps me focus on what’s really important every day,” Moseley said in a follow-up message.

Over the years, I’ve criticized the F-22, mostly because of its price. The F-22 program still has glitches — we’re too slow introducing surveillance capability to the Raptor, for example — but I long ago came to agree with Moseley that we need 381 Raptors, not the 183 dictated by administration policy.

The Hawaii F-15 mishap apparently wasn’t caused by a structural failure. Still, losing this Eagle reminds us of the urgent need for a recapitalized fighter force. Moseley and other Air Force leaders have convinced some skeptics, including me, that they need a robust F-22 force.

But they haven’t completed the sale.

Writing on his blog, Flight International’s U.S. editor Graham Warwick accuses the Air Force of “exploiting the Eagle’s issues to reinforce its case for more Raptors.” Today’s problems are the Air Force’s fault, Warwick writes, because the service wouldn’t settle for a less capable, less costly fighter, as the Navy did with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

In the April issue of Flight Journal, aviation writer Barrett Tillman writes that the U.S. doesn’t need fighters at all. Since the end of their combat role in Vietnam in January 1973, U.S. fighters have shot down “only 44 potentially serious opponents.” “Beyond the battlefield, we’re using up our airlifters, tankers, and surveillance aircraft,” Tillman writes. “Enormously expensive fighters suck up funds to maintain and acquire the unglamorous types that fly every hour of every day.”

But China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and increasingly bellicose Russia all have modern fighters in their aerial fleets.

America’s fighter pilots can’t settle for second best. That’s why I believe we should acquire more Raptors, faster than previously planned.

The writer, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of books on military topics, including “Air Combat,” a history of fighter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.