The Bush administration’s fiscal year 2007 budget request, as expected, left the US Air Force’s prized new fighter programmes – the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) – intact, but that restraint packed a surprising cost.
One-quarter of the US Air Force’s existing fighter inventory will be phased out as the so-called fifth-generation fleet is ushered into service over the next two decades, the service has announced. A 25% reduction amounts to the elimination of roughly 800 current fighters. The air force is hoping the advanced capabilities of the F-22, F-35 and upgrades to a small core fleet of existing fighters will be enough to offset the loss in numbers.
The reductions appear to preserve current plans to buy 183 F-22s and 1,763 of the JSF programme’s F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant. Previously, top air force officials hinted the number of F-35As would be reduced, but the JSF Joint Programme Office says it has received no direction to adjust today’s programme of record.
To initiate the fighter phase-out plan, the air force has proposed as part of the FY2007 budget request to retire the 55-aircraft fleet of Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters. The air force also plans soon to retire a small number of the Fairchild O/A-10 Thunderbolt IIs that are excluded from a re-engining and re-winging upgrade programme.
Flight International
One-quarter of the US Air Force’s existing fighter inventory will be phased out as the so-called fifth-generation fleet is ushered into service over the next two decades, the service has announced. A 25% reduction amounts to the elimination of roughly 800 current fighters. The air force is hoping the advanced capabilities of the F-22, F-35 and upgrades to a small core fleet of existing fighters will be enough to offset the loss in numbers.
The reductions appear to preserve current plans to buy 183 F-22s and 1,763 of the JSF programme’s F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant. Previously, top air force officials hinted the number of F-35As would be reduced, but the JSF Joint Programme Office says it has received no direction to adjust today’s programme of record.
To initiate the fighter phase-out plan, the air force has proposed as part of the FY2007 budget request to retire the 55-aircraft fleet of Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters. The air force also plans soon to retire a small number of the Fairchild O/A-10 Thunderbolt IIs that are excluded from a re-engining and re-winging upgrade programme.
Flight International
