By Dave Ahearn
A new paper urges killing the Air Force F-22 Raptor supersonic-superstealth fighter aircraft program, the Air Force-Marine Corps V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, the Navy DDG 1000 destroyer, and also urges abandoning plans to increase Virginia-class submarine purchases from one to two per year.
Another recommendation is that missile defense programs be kept indefinitely in a research and development mode.
For the Army, the paper recommends replacing Humvees, but recommends slowing the largest Army procurement program, the Future Combat Systems.
Overall, the paper urges spending more on military personnel and less on hardware generally, saying that the shift is needed to meet threats of rogue states and terrorists, while downplaying any threats that near-peer competitor nations pose to the United States.
The report, entitled “Restoring American Military Power: Toward a New Progressive Defense Strategy for America,” is authored by Lawrence Korb, a fellow with the Center for American Progress, a progressive Washington think tank, and Max Bergmann.
The paper asserts that the Department of Defense (DoD) failed to adjust to new realities, such as the end of the Cold War and the rise of terrorism and rogue states, and the fact that U.S. forces are stretched thin.
Criticizing former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for canceling only two major procurement programs, the paper asserts that DoD needs to rebalance its procurement priorities and move away from platforms designed years ago.
As well, the paper urges creation of a unified procurement budget that would exceed the limits of the DoD, so that, for example, it would be easier to cancel a military acquisition program and use the money instead to buy more equipment for the Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
To be sure, the paper calls for continuing some Pentagon procurement programs, such as continued purchase of C-17 transport planes and procurement of the next-generation KC-X aerial refueling tanker aircraft.
The paper also calls for procurement of the next-generation aircraft carrier, CVN-78 (the USS Gerald Ford), and the Maritime Prepositioning Force, saying they can project force when nations deny the United States permission to use forward bases in their territories.
While the paper calls for continuing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), or Lightning II, program, it calls for canceling the F-22 Raptor that even the paper concedes is “an impressive aircraft.” The paper doesn’t detail what Lockheed Martin [LMT] would do with its fighter aircraft production facilities if the Raptor production were cut off at about 100 planes, until the JSF ramps up to full-rate production in the next decade.
The JSF, a program begun in late 2001, still is in development.
As for the V-22 Osprey, a hybrid half airplane, half helicopter that the paper acknowledges flies much farther and faster than a conventional helicopter, the paper faults it for lacking a large cargo capacity. The Osprey program should be canceled in favor of developing the CH-53X helo, the paper recommends, because the Osprey has been “beset by safety, technical, and cost problems,” the paper states.
“The Marines should strop production of the V-22 Osprey and should make the future CH-53X helicopter the centerpiece of their future force instead,” the paper asserts.
The paper can be read in its entirety at http://www.americanprogress.org on the Web.