Senator Saxby Chambliss, F/A-18 “obsolete”

The budget wars are heating up when a senior senator starts attacking weapons programs important to other legislators in his own party. That’s what happened yesterday, when Senator Saxby Chambliss assailed Pentagon purchases of Boeing’s carrier-based F/A-18 Super Hornet, saying the plane is “obsolete” and “will be of limited to no value in any future threat scenario.” In a letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Chambliss argued that if the Pentagon failed to move out smartly on purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the U.S. Navy and other services, “we run the certain risk of ceding tactical air superiority in future conflicts.”

That’s pretty strong stuff. What Chambliss is in effect saying is that if the Navy doesn’t get F-35s, then there’s not much point to operating aircraft carriers because the principal tactical aircraft they currently host will not be able to assert U.S. control of the skies over future battle zones. His views on the matter are undoubtedly influenced by the fact that Georgia has a big stake in the success of F-35  parts of the plane are manufactured in Marietta but the senator is reflecting a view shared by a fair number of military experts. They contend that airframes lacking the integrated stealth and situational awareness of an F-35 don’t have much chance of surviving in the future, so even though the Super Hornet looks world-class today its days are numbered.

See the full article at Defence Professionals