Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday called the F-22 “in effect, a niche, silver-bullet solution required for a limited number of scenarios.” Speaking to an audience at Air University on the grounds of Maxwell AFB, Ala., Gates acknowledged that “the F-22 has unique capabilities” to penetrate and defeat enemy air defenses and advanced fighters, but he still maintains that a fleet of 187 F-22s, when factored with plentiful F-35s and unmanned strike aircraft like the MQ-9 Reaper, are sufficient to meet projected threats and demonstrate “a serious commitment to maintaining US air supremacy.” Our question: Since when is a capability to provide air superiority—or wrestle it from an adversary in contested airspace—regarded as a niche capability? We consider air superiority the underpinning of successful US combat operations. Why would one risk forfeiting that asymmetric advantage to a potential adversary? (Full transcript of Gates’ comments)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
