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Keeping the Air Force Ready with the F-15X Super Eagle

By Bryan Preston

At Pearl Harbor, Japanese attackers struck hard and fast to begin World War II. Their speed caught the Americans by surprise, and we lost many — far too many — men, ships and planes. Before we could win the war in the Pacific, we had to fight hard just to get back to where we had been before the attack.

But another tragedy came hours later, when another Japanese force targeted Clark Field in the Philippines. Despite the warning that the U.S. was under attack, planes were left in the open, ripe targets for attack. Again, they were destroyed on the ground without a fight.

The lessons: 1) Speed kills. 2) You must always be armed and ready to respond.

These lessons matter today, as our military finds itself at a crossroads once again and the pace of action can come at the speed of thought. The American military is trying to update its jet fleet by replacing several types of aircraft with a single design, the F-35. The goal is to have one jet that can be flown by the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines. That jet would be invisible to radar, able to land on a moving carrier, and take off from a standing start. A single airframe should reduce maintenance and streamline combined operations.

Nothing like it had ever been built before, so it’s no surprise that it took most of 20 years to get the jet into service. Along the way there were several redesigns and many delays, all of which added to the F-35’s eventual price tag. The planes are coming into service now, but they’re still too expensive to buy (about $100 million each) and to operate ($32,500 per hour in the air).

In war, there are no time-outs. We can’t ask our enemies to wait while we get the F-35 program up to speed. Luckily, we don’t have to. Even as that program moves forward, the military can also progress on a separate track, by also building the next generation F-15.

Full story at https://pjmedia.com/trending/keeping-the-air-force-ready-with-the-f-15x-super-eagle/

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