The F-22 Cancellation Aftermath: Secretary Gates into the Lion’s Den

In April of this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended several military budgetary cuts, including for the production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet to stop at 187 aircraft, which means that only four more F-22s will be produced.

It was a move that drew a firestorm of criticism from Congress, the military, the military aerospace industry and the military aerospace community.

The move, however, wasn’t unexpected.

Secretary Gates had already tipped his hand as, for years, he has been forcefully arguing against the F-22s as “Cold War relics.” In an article he wrote in the January/February 2009 issue of Foreign Affairs the handwriting was clearly on the wall.

In a post in February, I commented on Gates’ intentions towards “A Balanced Strategy [and]—Reprogramming the Pentagon for a New Age.”

On July 21, 2009, “in a dogfight almost to the end,” as the Washington Post reported it, Congress scrapped the F-22 program.

Well, the debate—the acrimony—hasn’t stopped.

In a post in August, I described some of the debate in the aftermath of the decision, including the views of one person who applauded Gates’ decision.

In “Meet the ‘New’ U.S. Air Force,” military correspondent David Axe gave us an early assessment on what the F-22 cancellation and other Gates’ military budget decisions meant to U.S. air power:

The “new” U.S. Air Force that Gates is creating will be the most capable the world has ever seen, because it will balance conventional fighter jets for state-on-state war, with lower-end capabilities optimized for battling insurgencies — plus a huge, diverse fleet of flexible aerial drones. These forces will blend into a seamless whole for defeating “hybrid” threats that combine high technology with insurgent tactics.

Axe concludes: “You’d have to be nuts, or in the pay of fighter manufacturers, to label this force a ‘crisis,’ as Grant does.”

Axe is referring to Rebecca Grant and her article, ”The Turning Point,” in the August issue of the on-line Air Force Magazine.

In her article, Grant claims that Gates’ decision to halt production of the F-22 and to cut the maximum production of the F-35 multirole fighter is resulting in the Air Force ”trying to figure out how to do what it has never done: Accept into its aircraft mix a large number of less capable legacy forces.”

Also, “Gates has used as his rationale the 2008 National Defense Strategy, shaped largely by himself and vigorously opposed by all the service Chiefs because of its acceptance of risk in the field of major conventional war.”

Grant, who starts her strong and lively critique of Gates’ decisions with a stinging ”A year ago, USAF had a fully funded modernization program. That program has unraveled,” concludes with an equally forceful “Now clear for all to see is the fundamental result of a decade of Pentagon decision-making: For the first time since the years before World War II, the Air Force has failed to re-equip itself.”

Rebecca Grant is a senior fellow of the Lexington Institute and president of IRIS Independent Research. She has written extensively on airpower and serves as director, Mitchell Institute, for the Air Force Association.

The Air Force Association (AFA) is a large and influential independent, nonprofit, civilian education organization promoting public understanding of aerospace power and the pivotal role it plays in the security of the nation. Its membership, open to all, includes many active duty and retired generals, and fighter pilots.

The reason I go into such detail about both Ms. Grant and the Air Force Association is that tomorrow, Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will go into the lion’s den—the Air Force Association–and address his harshest critics.

According to U.S. News & World Report:

[Gates’] decision to speak at the group’s annual conference came as a surprise to some in the community, who expected Gates to ignore the invitation and sent representatives instead. But a Pentagon official said that Gates wants to address his recent moves and also boast about the efforts of the Air Force in Afghanistan and Iraq. “It’s an opportunity for him to talk about all the Air Force has done, most of it unheralded,” says an associate. “He also wants to explain his decisions to those most impacted.”

The upcoming appearance follows a pattern by Gates of taking on his most hostile critics, something he also did this month when he spent 45 minutes being interviewed by al Jazeera.

I am quite sure that one of his harshest critics, Rebecca Grant, will be there.

It should be an interesting event. Stay tuned.