And that’s problematic if you’re thinking about establishing a no-fly zone or attempting to protect the civilian population under the poorly thought out R2P doctrine (R2P – Right To Protect). And make no mistake about it – that’s precisely what they’re considering. Gen. Dempsey made it clear the other day, that going into Syria wouldn’t be a Libyan walk in the park. Loren Thompson talks about the consequences of slowing down F-35 production with places like Syria and Iran growing hotter and hotter. Here he alludes to the argument being made that more testing is necessary for the F-35 before a higher production rate can be authorized. As Thompson points out, there’s more to it than testing. And that brings him to the problem of Syria: That argument is a little misleading, because the reduced production rate persists after testing is scheduled to conclude, suggesting part of the motivation for delays is just to save money. But that's not the big problem with waiting to get F-35 into the force. The main problem was on display this week in congressional hearings, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey warned lawmakers about how capable Syrian air defense are. According to Dempsey, Syria's surface-to-air missiles and surveillance radars are denser and more advanced than those that Libya possessed, meaning any campaign to bomb the brutal dictatorship of President Assad would be a tougher operation than efforts launched last year in support of Libyan rebels. Saving money is important, granted. But so is saving the lives of our pilots. Don’t we owe them the best equipment available if we’re thinking about committing them into a high intensity air defense environment? Don’t we owe them the most survivable aircraft possible? Syria is just one of many prickly nations out there who have the capability to give our 4th generation fleet of aircraft some rough going. So, why not send in the F-22s? They’re a 5th generation stealth aircraft. Well, one, because we only have 187 of them. And, second, that’s not what they’re designed to do. They are air superiority fighters. The Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) is a “strike fighter” job. And while I have no doubt that our capable strike fighter pilots in our aging fleet of 4th generation fighters would give an excellent accounting of themselves, it would be expensive in terms of blood and treasure should we commit them to take on the air defenses of Syria. The Syrian air defenses, provided by Russia, are designed specifically to defeat our 4th gen aircraft. The F-35 is designed to have a much higher survival possibility in that sort of a environment than our 4th generation fighters. In reality the F-22 and F-35 are designed to complement each other: It also is better configured for the kind of ground attacks that proponents of bombing Syria favor than the F-22, which was conceived mainly to assure dominance of hostile air space. That's why F-35 is called a "strike" fighter -- because it was designed to perform both air dominance and surface attack missions. But it can't do those things if it isn't fielded, and right now the Pentagon is exhibiting no sense of urgency about getting the plane into the force. Slowing the production and development of the F-35 (not to mention the awful decision to terminate production of the F-22) puts us at a disadvantage as advanced air defense systems, such as those found in Syria and Iran, continue to evolve. Love it or hate it, the F-35 is our next generation strike fighter. That ship has sailed. And while it is true it has had its problems, there is no plan B. Its time to quit messing around and slowing down and producing them at a rate that will require two decades in order to fully field the fighter. It is time to commit and give our pilots the best equipment available to face the threats our national command authority seems inclined to consider having them face. Time to pull the chocks out from under the production wheels and fire up the afterburner. Otherwise, our young strike fighter pilots, already flying planes designed before they were born, are going to be the one’s to suffer. ~McQ Twitter: @McQandO
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/WGbem-DsT38/syria-unlike-libya-has-some-pretty-tough-air-defenses.html
Posted
Mar 09 2012, 04:56 AM
by
BLACKFIVE