Modern Conflict & the Future of Fighters

Several days ago I read a New York Times Op-Ed piece, Leading With Two Minds. In it, David Brooks described how the US Army, in five short years, had reshaped itself to fight insurgencies with something other than overwhelming force.

Thirty-five years ago I was on the USS Blue Ridge. It was steaming toward its San Diego homeport after serving as the command ship for the evacuation of Saigon, the true end of a decades-long conflict which proved that insurgency works.

Then I saw the Orlando Sentinel story about the cost overruns on the new F-35 strike fighter.  Given the changing face of international conflicts—insurgent forces don’t have air forces—and the 57 percent increase in the F-35’s cost, it seemed to me that it may well be America’s last dog fighter.

Even the Defense Department tacitly agrees that there is little need for a dogfighter. Like the F-18, the F-35 is a strike fighter. In other words, because it is unlikely to meet an airborne foe, other than a missile, air support of ground troops is its primary mission.

Curious, I searched for recent reports of jet-v-jet battles. Let’s see, there was the turkey shoot of the Iraqi air force during Gulf War I (1990-91). In 1986 F-14s fought over the Gulf of Sidra’s Line of Death, and in 1982 there were the Falklands matches between Harriers and Argentinean A-4s.

Those who cling to the past may say we need fighters to counter the sudden aggressiveness of a nation with the economic horsepower to field an air force. There aren’t many of those, and America does business with most of them, and armed conflict is unlikely because it is bad for business.

Looking at the trend of world conflicts over the past 35 years, they will continue to get smaller and more focused, and the weapons used to fight them must do the same, whether it is a squad of special operations warriors or a unmanned aerial system that’s on duty all day.

The US Navy has just ordered a version of the armed Predator C. Called the Sea Avenger, it “fulfills the Navy’s need for a carrier-based [UAS] system that offers long-endurance, proven  [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] and precision-strike capabilities.”

The future of flight, it seems, is becoming ever more clear. For at least the rest of my life, pilots will still occupy the airplanes they fly. But like those who drive today’s B-52s, those airplanes may be approaching twice the age of their pilots. — Scott Spangler