There has been much ink spilled lately over the fight between the Obama administration and the House and Senate over the fate of the F-22 Raptor. The administration was seeking to limit the number of planes to the 187 that had already been ordered, arguing that the advanced fighter, which has never seen combat, was a Cold War relic, and not suited for the counter-insurgency wars of the future.
On Tuesday, the president got his wish. The Senate voted 58-40 to strip out an extra $1.75 billion in funding for an additional 7 planes.
While on its surface the fight between Congress and the administration was over funding for a defense contract that directly accounts for 25,000 jobs in 44 different states, the struggle for the F-22’s survival is a struggle to define the role the U.S. military will play in the 21st century.
The prevailing wisdom has been that the wars of the future will not be “traditional” wars, but more in the form of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, making advanced warplanes such as the F-22 obsolete. The Air Force has even sketched out a scenario where the entire fleet of warplanes would be replaced by UAVs by mid-century.
The counter-argument goes that with China and Russia continuing to develop their own advanced fighter planes, the United States will continue to require a top-flight (no pun intended) conventional military to check these rising powers, making programs such as the F-22 a necessity for the future.
No matter which view you subscribe to, it is clear that the nature of war, and the role of military force has changed drastically. The threat of a conventional war escalating to a full nuclear conflict, has made the type of wars fought in the first half of the 20th century a thing of the past. Retired British General Rupert Smith, in his book “The Utility of Force” argues that in the future, wars will be fought “amongst the people,” and with force only serving as a means to establishing conditions under which a political solution could be reached.
Assuming General Smith is correct (and I believe that he is), then President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will be hailed as visionaries , for transitioning the U.S. armed forces into the future. Though we might want to hang on to some of those F-22s. Just in case.
