Home » Air » Schwartz Cool on F-22 Export

Schwartz Cool on F-22 Export

By Colin Clark Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 4:20 pm
Posted in Air, International, Policy

Critical acquisition personnel could be better used on crucial programs such as the KC-X tanker and the long range bomber instead of developing an export version of the F-22, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters Tuesday.

“I personally don’t see it as the best use of our acquisition talent,” Schwartz said. The general made it clear he doesn’t think much of the idea of an export version, saying he thought it was more of an issue for the “commercial” world, as opposed to the military.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, in particular its chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye, wants the Pentagon to work on an export version of the F-22 so Japan and other countries could buy it. Existing law forbids the sale of F-22s to any foreign country.

Buzz readers will remember that Air Force Secretary Donley said Monday that he and Schwartz believed they made the right decision in stopping F-22 production at 187 planes. Given the enormous amount of political capital the Air Force leadership expended in taking that decision and sticking by it, it’s hard to fathom why they would support using Air Force personnel on a foreign version of the plane. Of course, if the Senate language becomes law, they may have no choice.

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	dow September 15th, 2009 at 7:26 pm Barry may not like China tires competing with his union thug buddies but he sure does not want American allies like Japan and Australia to compete militarily with his chicomm comrades.….
	Drake1 September 15th, 2009 at 10:03 pm Export F-22 is just a back door towards keeping the F-22 production line alive. If the line were alive and pumping, no one would care about Australia and Japan.
	ReconTeam September 15th, 2009 at 11:20 pm True Drake, and this wouldn’t be a problem if we had some common sense. The production line should stay up and running. We once built tens of thousands of fighters back in World War II. Even decades later we built over 5000 F-4 Phantom II fighters. Don’t tell me we can’t produce enough F-22s to meet USAF requirements. Hell, I think we should go further and built 850 or more of them! It is an amazing aircraft with unrivaled capability.
	TB September 15th, 2009 at 11:48 pm Not so fast Recon, according to the Air Force brass in the other blog, the F-22 and F-35 are in danger of being surpassed and we should spend hundreds of millions on another handful of planes. We built thousands of planes in the past because for one thing, they didn’t cost an arm and a leg per copy. If the F-22 had a price tag of say $50 million we’d have a thousand of them on order.
	pfcem September 16th, 2009 at 2:57 am TB, I think you ae reading it incorrectly. The US is in danger of being surpassed without the F-22 & F-35. No, even if the F-22 cost ‘only’ $50 million we would still have ended up with less than 500 of them. Cost is a red herring, the true reason for cutting the F-22 has NOTHING to do with how much it costs.
	Chris M September 16th, 2009 at 9:23 am The Truth of the Matter is, with a Democratic controlled Congress, and a democrat President, defense takes a back burner as it always has. We are giving money to social programs, banks, and car companies. We need A thousand and got two hundred, you can be assured the Russians and Chinese will build a thousand each of their next aircraft and we will be hopelessly trying to spread what we have left around the globe to counter that threat. Our F-15, F-16, and F-18 programs are seeing an extreme amount of use in what has been a 16 year air war in the middle east and now Afghanistan, those airframes are seeing alot of hours earlier than originally expected. Where do we go from here? The F-35 program has not produced thier five flying aircraft for this year, but the F-22 program is up and functional. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.
	SEOOO! September 16th, 2009 at 10:47 pm 187 F-22 aircraft from simple to Russia or China-type T-50 and SU 35
	Eagleeyes September 25th, 2009 at 12:26 pm The next Generation Fighter will be cheaper, no pilot, meaning no environmental and egress systems to buy and maintain. They will be RPV’s, just spares and ground crew support. Cheaper to build or put back into technology advancements. Will be able to out performed manned aircraft in dogfights, pull higher G’s, etc…