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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > July > 24 > Entry
Editorial: Voinovich, Brown right on F-22
The U.S. Senate has voted 58-40 to stop building F-22 Raptors, the jet fighters that have never been used in Iraq or Afghanistan.
This is the view of Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He argues that the Air Force and other services don’t always need the most advanced, most-expensive equipment, given the specific kinds of wars the country fights.
President Barack Obama has embraced the position. Sen. John McCain agrees. Both Ohio senators, Republican George Voinovich and Democrat Sherrod Brown, voted with the majority.
The opposition to the Obama-Gates (or Obama-McCain) line was concentrated in states with big defense contractors. Although most Democrats went with the president, those from California, Washington and Connecticut, where contractors have worked on the F-22, abandoned him.
Surely 187 F-22s — the number currently ordered — are enough, and surely the money can be better spent on more useful, lower-flying planes.
The House has voted to build more F-22s. So this fight isn’t over.
But it’s good to see the views of the Pentagon prevail over parochial interests.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Short editorial
Comments
By r
July 24, 2009 10:44 PM | Link to this
you clowns don’t have a clue. once you stop the production line no foreign military sales. what about the people you just put out of work…and don’t get me started on the tanker issueBy TRS
July 25, 2009 12:14 PM | Link to this
I tend to agree DDN did little research on this. Defense analysts saw 187 as the bare minimum necessary. You always have to consider a number down for maintenance, overhaul, etc which was estimated at around 100. The F14, F15 and F16s are aging rapidly with some falling out of the skies. There are no operational squadrons of F35s at present. The JSF will be a great airplane, but a greater cushion of F22’s would have been preferable. We’ve had air superiority for decades - I hope we’re not getting to comfortable and China or Russia sneaks up on us.By Ggg
July 25, 2009 5:21 PM | Link to this
Stimulus was for creating jobs, now is not the time to pull the plug on any jobs. Are we voting against existing jobs to pay for ones not on the stimulus bill? Sounds like a way of saying we are creating jobs, who cares if you lose yours.By Ggg
July 25, 2009 5:22 PM | Link to this
Stimulus was for creating jobs, now is not the time to pull the plug on any jobs. Are we voting against existing jobs to pay for ones not on the stimulus bill? Sounds like a way of saying we are creating jobs, who cares if you lose yours.By Pat
July 27, 2009 10:55 AM | Link to this
I agree with the Senators and DDN on this one. The F-22 is the most advanced fighter jet ever made. The airforce and navy are leaning more toward drone planes which do not require them to be manned. That is the future of military aviation. I doubt you will see the chinese and russians overtake our air superiority. They don’t even have an operational aircraft carrier.By Pat
July 27, 2009 10:56 AM | Link to this
I agree with the Senators and DDN on this one. The F-22 is the most advanced fighter jet ever made. The airforce and navy are leaning more toward drone planes which do not require them to be manned. That is the future of military aviation. I doubt you will see the chinese and russians overtake our air superiority. They don’t even have an operational aircraft carrier.By RAW
July 30, 2009 1:15 PM | Link to this
The Senate got this one wrong. This is a typical liberal party line, cut defense; increase social programs. Over the last fifty years, our military has maintained dominance in every sector because the Soviet Union had an advanced military pushing us to do so. For the last 8 years, we have been fighting wars against guerilla fighters and terrorists which require less sophistication in weaponry and more in tactics and surveillance. That being said, there are still threats in the world that posess advanced military hardware that we need to maintain and develop coutermeasures against. The Raptor was the countermeasure to any aircraft flying to date. Its targeting system can allow pilots to track and destroy multiple targets from BVR. This system keeps the pilot out of harm’s way. Full autonomous vehicles are still years down the road for combat viability. Believe me, they are being developed, but we still need to mainitain and strengthen our current technology prior to the implementation of the new systems. That includes ensuring that we have enough Raptors to replace an aging Air Force. Most seem to forget that our operational fighters and bombers are 25 to 35-year-old airframes. We made the mistake during the 20’s and 30’s of not modernizing our military and consequently seriously lagged behind German and Japanese military technology costing us vital months and thousands of lives when we finally entered WWII. Oddly enough, because it is unusual for a democrat, military modernization was part of FDR’s overall strategy to reverse the effect of the depression. FDR saw the coming conflict and knew it would eventually involve the US and there is no better economic stimulus than a war. Unfortunately, given current economic strife worldwide and growing tensions among countries in the middle and far east, another world war is likely imminent in our lifetime. The President and members of Congress have seriously misjudged the intentions and beliefs of these global dictators and fallen into the appeasement trap which nearly cost Europe and England all that they had were it not for the Japanese attacking the US in WWII. Those in power are repeating mistakes made 80 years ago and, we will pay the price for those mistakes.