Dateline: Grand Hyatt Washington DC, 19 April 2005

Another Post story of note:

Military Jet Faces A Fight to Fit In
Changing Defense Needs Likely to Limit F/A-22 Raptor Production

By Renae Merle

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page E01

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. -- Thirty minutes after punching through the clouds over the Chesapeake Bay, Lt. Col. James Hecker reared up the nose of his F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet, like a snake preparing to strike, and skidded across the sky. The novel move gives the Raptor an advantage in the close-in dogfights the Air Force wants to avoid.

"We prefer shooting and killing them before they know we're there, but that [maneuver] works too," said Hecker, also known as "Scorch," the commander of Langley's 27th Fighter Squadron, after the recent training flight.

The Raptor is a fighter pilot's dream. It is nearly impossible to detect by radar and its cruising speed is more than 1,000 miles an hour, twice that of most potential rivals. Most fighters have sensors to spot the planes in front of them. The cockpit of the Raptor is reminiscent of a video game, taking a 360-degree picture and splashing it on an eight-inch screen while an onboard computer helps the pilot decide what to strike first.

"It's like having a God's-eye view of what's out there," Hecker said. "There is not a pilot who has flown the Raptor that isn't in love."

The question facing the Pentagon and Congress is whether the Raptor's superior abilities, and the affection of pilots and Air Force leaders, is enough to justify a more than $70 billion investment at the same time the military is stretched thin by ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Critics contend that the Air Force, long dominated by fighter pilots, is exaggerating the threat it faces from enemy fighters at a time when warfare has changed and low-tech weapons such as shoulder-fired missiles are a greater threat. The service, they say, should be deploying more unmanned aircraft and replacing an aging bomber fleet.

There is no question it's a great jet, and that we need some to maintain the Leviathan, but we'll never buy the numbers the Air Force wants, and we'll not buy those numbers in order to grow the SysAdmin force.

You will read a lot of these articles in coming months and years.

Full article found here