Lockheed Martin
Tyler Rogoway, Warzone/The Drive: Retired General Says F-22 Production Was Killed So That A New Bomber Could Live
Other revelations include the Next Generation Bomber was to be armed with air-to-air missiles and the B-21 is indeed one part of a family of systems.
By Tyler Rogoway
Retired Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz has stated in his new memoir that F-22 production was idiotically axed after building less than half the required number so that the flying force could get then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to approve building a new stealth bomber.
Air Force Magazine was first to report on the revelations from the General's new book “Journey: Memoirs of an Air Force Chief of Staff,” which also includes much more detail about how exactly the fight for the F-22 was lost, as well as how the battle to re-launch a Next Generation Bomber program was eventually won.
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WNU Editor: I agree with Tyler Rogoway's remarks that it was former Defense Secretary Bill Gates who is most responsible for cancelling the F-22 program. His commentary on other decisions made by the secretary are also spot on ....
.... All this is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it slams home my position that I have stated for years that Gates is largely to blame for the F-22 production debacle, along with a whole slew of near-sighted decisions and calls—in particular, poor handicapping of near-peer adversaries technological abilities and intent. Discounting the quick rise of China's stealth fighter programs is among the worst calls Gates made.
Other developments in North Korea and Russia were also poorly foreseen and/or outright brushed aside during his term. He was very focused on Iraq and Afghanistan, which is understandable, but in doing so he seemed to totally set aside America's greater defense needs in the process and seemed to believe that low-end adversaries would be the only threat to America for the decades to come. A highly controversial mindset at the time, and one which we are paying dearly for today.
Could not have said it any better.