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Gates Nugget on Foreign Fifth-Gen

Posted by Amy Butler at 4/7/2009 7:00 AM CDT

You have got to love an intel guy running the DOD. In explaining his proposal to halt F-22 production at 187 aircraft, Gates couldn't help but veer into the G2 side of the house. We at Av Week love that.

He said that his intel points to the earliest possible fifth-generation "type" fighter fielded by the Russians is 2016. And, the Chinese are expected to come in far later in 2020.

This points to an overmatch on the part of the U.S. Air Force, which had requested as many as 381 F-22s in recent history, he said.

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Tags: ar99, Gates, fifth-gen

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FRED wrote:

Oh so thats ok then. No need to worry till 2016/2020.
Being a Brit and apolitical concerning US politics I would have thought Colin Powell would have been an ideal chioce for SecDef, after all he's worked both sides of the fence and would probobly have a better understanding of the DOD v Congress relationship.

4/7/2009 8:12 PM CDT

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Bill Sweetman wrote:

The underlying assumption here is that any "5th gen" beats any "4th gen". The USAF and RAF, however, planned on F-22 and Typhoon/Meteor forces to maintain air superiority against an adversary with the Gen4+ Super Flanker (which has materialized as the Su-35). Both carry 6+ AAMs in normal configuration, are designed for acceleration, speed and altitude to maximize missile range and Pk-at-range, and have the supersonic agility to evade a missile in BVR.

4/8/2009 8:15 AM CDT

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ghemago wrote:

Well... considering 5+ years for development and at least 2 years for selection... is Mr.Gates planning a 6th gen fighter tender this year?
Or will he build up the F-22 numbers in 2016?
Get relaxed, he's not planning to be challanged...

4/8/2009 12:03 PM CDT

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snake and nape wrote:

with all due respect, I also think the underlying assumption here is that approx 200 F-22's is enough 5th generation platforms to handle china or iran in terms of air superiority. Sometimes when people argue about the F-22 it's as if theres only one or two of them to go around.

4/10/2009 9:26 AM CDT

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