Emptywheel notes that one element of Shelby’s decision to put a blanket hold on all nominees was to defend the Airbus bid for the new USAF tanker aircraft. This represents part of the long competition between Boeing and Airbus for the tanker contract. Unfortunately, Emptywheel decides that it’s necessary to engage in xenophobia in order […]
Tag: air power
I think there’s a limit to the utility of this kind of argument, regarding a new laser-based air defense system: This all sort of leaves me wondering what problem this technology is a solution t
A few years ago, a student of mine worked out the implications of a large scale Chinese SRBM (short range ballistic missile) attack on Taiwan. He argued that the attack was, based on the historic resi
This is positively strange: Iraqi officials have discovered that they may have an air force, after all. The Defense Ministry revealed Sunday that it recently learned that Iraq owns 19 Russian-designed MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters, which are in storage in Serbia. The ministry said Iraqi officials are negotiating with the Serbs to restore the […]
Bernard Finel handles the latest attack-Iran nonsense capably, but I’d like to supplement three points: Fabius Maximus refers to General Wald’s post as part of a “years long project
John Boonstra, responding to Paul Johnson: What we don’t know is if a successful Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would discredit the regime to the point that it would be forced
The F-22 has a faint heartbeat in the House of Representatives, but appears to be slipping away: The committee voted July 22 to spend $369 million to buy another dozen F-22s, but Rep. David Obey, the committee chairman, said that has to change. In light of the Senate vote and a threat from the White […]
Senate rejects extra funding for the F-22!!!!
Spencer has been following the F-22 debate closer than I; it appears that Carl Levin lacks the votes to outright kill the F-22, and thus that the potential for a confrontation between Congress and the
With due respect, I don’t really get this: First, there’s the question of capacity. Once you phase out a military capacity, it becomes extremely difficult to restore it. That goes for manpower capacity (i.e., training), but also for industrial capacity. Clearly there will still be a need for, and training of, jet fighter pilots to […]
The F-22 was supposed to free us from the costs of maintaining on aging, expensive fleet of F-15s. Turns out that this may have been a touch optimistic, and that F-22 maintenance may be an economic st
Mike Mullen thinks so. Boeing and the Russians disagree. I guess I’m with Mullen; there are currently jobs that manned warplanes can do that drones can’t perform (human pilots are more vis