The Navy's F/A-XX Stealth Fighter Problem
The U.S. Navy is pushing ahead with its F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program, despite financial struggles and the Air Force putting its own Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter on hold.
The Problem: The U.S. Navy is pushing ahead with its F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program, despite financial struggles and the Air Force putting its own Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter on hold. The Navy plans for the F/A-XX to replace its aging F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler fleets.
-Critics argue that the Navy hasn't even fully received its F-35C fleet yet, making the need for a new aircraft questionable.
-With the national debt soaring, developing these expensive new platforms could put America's security at risk. The focus should be on improving current systems rather than investing in speculative, costly upgrades.
The Navy Wants to Blow Through Our Money with the F/A-XX Program
Apparently, there’s some kind of race occurring to get the first sixth-generation warplane. No, I’m not referring to the race between rival nations, such as the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Instead, I’m referring to a race between the United States Air Force and the United States Navy.
Sadly, it’s a race to the bottom, seeing as there is not enough tax dollars in the world to fund the creation of these two complex, expensive systems that, like so many other advanced weapons platforms in the modern age, will likely underperforming (and will consume far too many resources).
Indeed, the Navy has now surpassed the Air Force in this reputed race. This is an interesting turn of events, considering that the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter platform was farther ahead than the Navy’s proposed F/A-XX sixth-generation warplane.
But recent developments within the Air Force’s NGAD program forced the Air Force to pause its acquisition of this overhyped warbird.
A Most Wasteful Project
And once the USAF announced its intention to cool off about the NGAD program, suddenly, the Navy burst onto the scene to announce that, despite earlier reports, they were now pressing ahead at full speed with procuring the F/A-XX plane. It’s a stunning move because the Navy is in even worse condition budgetarily than is the Air Force.
In fact, the reason there was movement toward canceling the F/A-XX program was because the Navy is seriously struggling to meet its obligations, partly because of the financial burden of trying to maintain a globe-spanning, advanced fleet that is constantly deployed, and in which there is an ongoing personnel crisis.
The F/A-XX is meant to replace the Navy’s ubiquitous F/A-18 Super Hornet multi-role fighters as well as its sister plane, the E/A-18 Growler electronic warfare attack aircraft. Yet, the Navy has yet to fully take possession of its planned—highly expensive—F-35C fifth-generation warplanes. Proponents (big spenders, all of them, it would seem) argue that the proposed F/A-XX warbird has “greater range and possess more sensing and electronic warfare capabilities than the service’s F-35C” fleet has.
Well, color this taxpayer surprised. I was told that the F-35 Lightning II was the greatest warplane ever conceived to date. It was so great, in fact, that former President Barack Obama was convinced by his secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, to nix the F-22A Raptor production line prematurely in 2010 in favor of the F-35. And the Navy was encouraged to purchase tranches of the F-35 variant for carrier flight operations, the bird was so unbeatable.
Do you mean to tell me that the expensive, highly capable, is already basically in need of replacement beforethe Navy even takes possession of its full fleet of F-35s?
Something smells here.
What, was the Navy waiting for the Air Force to abandon its sixth-generation bird before pushing ahead with plans for its own sixth-generation warplane that even many Navy insiders knew was little more than a pipedream?
The Debt is the Threat, Forget F/A-XX Fighters
The Air Force, meanwhile, has indicated that it wants a cheaper version of the original NGAD manned sixth-generation warplane. Defenders of the ridiculously costly NGAD system argue that the Air Force would sacrifice “range and payload, which could mean opting for a single engine rather than two.
Shorter range is also only possible if the Air Force also fields a stealthy Next-Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS), the Air Force’s hoped-for future tanker concept.”
Unfortunately, the Pentagon has yet to get the memo that America’s elephantine, increasing debt is the single-greatest national security threat the country faces. Adding onto it with needlessly complex, marginally better, massively expensive platforms is the equivalent of letting the enemies of America guard the nation’s most sensitive assets.
The Navy, like the Air Force, should abandon their sixth-generation warplane delusions and focus on making the systems they already have work better.
Author Experience and Expertise: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is due October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
All images are Creative Commons or Shutterstock.
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