Deadly convoy: Dozens of U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons demonstrate an 'Elephant Walk' as they taxi down a runway during an exercise at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, to practise for a wartime mission. This picture is among a gallery of images chosen to showcase a year in the life of the U.S. Air force in 2012
David Axe, Daily Beast: The U.S. Air Force Is Running Out of Fighter Jets
Congress is insisting that the U.S. military field more dogfighters than its Russian and Chinese rivals. All signs point to the Air Force missing that goal.
The U.S. Air Force is running out of fighter jets. And that’s its own damned fault. Even as its squadrons dwindle, the flying branch remains committed to exclusively buying overly-complex, enormously expensive F-35 stealth fighters that it simply cannot afford in the quantities it needs in order to maintain its numerical strength.
That’s because the Air Force wants all of its fighters to be radar-evading stealth fighters, regardless of the cost or impact of this goal on the service’s ability to do its job defending America’s interests in the sky.
The Air Force is, in that sense, a victim of its own technological ambition. And the self-inflicted warplane-shortage couldn’t come at a worse time. While the American air arm slowly withers away, the air forces of China and Russia only grow stronger.
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WNU Editor: A brutal analysis from David Axe.
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