Decision By Administration to Cut Defense Programs

[dnalexander]

And being technically correct is the highest level of correctness .

David

[Varmit]

well, technically, the F22 IS the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world.  Why wouldn't we want more???

[dnalexander]

well, technically, the F22 IS the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world.  Why wouldn't we want more???

Varmit I agree we need some Raptors in our arsenal. The reasons we may not want more at this time are:

Overall cost is very big.

It is an air to air combat fighter and definitely among the most advanced technologically speaking, but none of our most current threats have an air to air capability. Our major threats are more "old school" capabilities. Iraq and Afghanistan and other backwater nations. There are better platforms for those our most current battles. I would rather see money put into drones, ground troops, special op's  strike forces... to deal with Afghanistan. China and Russia will always be a threat and that is who the Raptor is designed to defend against. Still the Raptor is a very necessary part of our defense. Personally I still like A-10's and Special Forces for our current big threats.

David

[Varmit]

No doubt the warthog is a bad mammerjammer, seen it in action, glad it is on our side, same for Special Forces, but I would rather have the f22's and not need'em, than need'em and not have'em.  I think it was General Nathan Bedford Forrest who said that in order to win a war "you gid thar firstest with tha mostest".

[Teresa]

I know nothing about planes.. so I can't add my 2 cents in ..

[Wilma]

Well, darn, Teresa, I was counting on you to interpret all this talk for me.

[W. Gray]

There are jet fighter concepts numbered F23 through F34 but for any number of reasons the concept for that particular fighter never made it off the drawing board.

Several years ago and for whatever reason, the government decided to revert to numbering fighters and bombers starting all over again with number 1.

Under that backtrack, we have a B-2 bomber that is more advanced than the B-52 and an F-22 fighter that is more advanced than, say, the F104.

I have heard that the AF has retired the F-117 stealth fighter.

[W. Gray]

There was once a bevy of B-68 bombers deployed near Elk County.

One of those was at Rock, Kansas, which is about fifteen miles north of Winfield in Cowley County.

In 1978 there was a refueling accident there that killed one or two AF men and caused the town to be evacuated. Some AF men were medically retired as a result of that accident.

The husband of one of the employees in our finance office was one of those doing the refueling and his lungs were badly damaged. It turned out his protective suit had a hole in it. Something happened that caused a fueling coupler to become dislodged spewing the fuel throughout the silo.

The B-68 was the Atlas II ICBM. All ICBMs received Bomber number designations. The Minuteman was in the B-80 series.

The entire missile crew fled the scene to get away from the escaping toxic fuel vapors.

For about one hour until the AF Security Police arrived, the United States had an atomic bomb that was unguarded.

[Varmit]

AND???

[W. Gray]

After the the toxic fuel had evaporated, our finance office and legal office set up a claims office in the post office to make  payment to any Rock citizen who said they suffered injury from the accident.

There was very little, if any, money paid out. There was a lot of informal discussion that the people in Rock were very patriotic and would not submit a false claim even though they probably could have taken advantage of the situation. The Air Force was not asking many questions in that respect.

At the same time, the warhead and the missile were taken from the silo and an investigation began.

At first, at least verbally, there was much criticism of the able bodied AF men for leaving the site and an unguarded warhead. I don't believe anyone was punished but I could be wrong. I left shortly thereafter for Lowry AFB.

The silo wiring and electronics were literally destroyed by the toxic fuel. Plans were made to rebuild the silo but the US soon decided to retire the Atlas compounds and it never was never fully rebuilt.

A description of the accident is at

http://www.techbastard.com/missile/titan2/accident_533-7_1978.php

And, there was a somewhat similar accident at Little Rock, Arkansas, that same year.