The United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps maintain an inventory of approximately 3,500 fixed-wing fighter and attack aircraft that provide unsur-passed air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities. Most of those aircraft were purchased at high annual rates during the 1980s, however, and are expected to reach the end of their service life at similarly high rates over the next decade. To counteract those impending retirements and simultaneously modernize their fleets, the service branches have outlined acquisition plans for equipping their force structures with new aircraft over the next 25 years. Specifically, the Air Force plans to replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the F-15 Eagle with two types of aircraft: the F-22 Raptor and the F-35A Lightning II, the land-based version of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The Navy and Marine Corps plan to replace the AV-8B Harrier and F/A-18A/B/C/D Hornet with three types of aircraft: the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet; the F-35B, the short takeoff vertical landing ver-sion of the JSF; and the F-35C, the carrier-based version of the JSF.The F-22 and F/A-18E/F are in active service today, but production of those aircraft is slated to end in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Development of the F-35 began in the 1990s, and initial production began in 2007. The services schedules call for the first squadrons of F-35s to be operational in the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy by 2012, 2013, and 2015, respectively. Procurement is expected to continue through 2025 for the F-35B/C and through 2034 for the F-35A.Those procurement plans notwithstanding, the Air Force and Navy have projected that, as laid out in fiscal year 2009 plans developed by the previous Administration, the rate of fighter production over the next 25 years would be insufficient to keep pace with the rate at which aircraft in current inventories would wear out and need to be replaced. As a result, the services are warning of an approaching fighter gap after 2015, when inventories of fighter aircraft are expected to drop below the levels needed to equip their planned force structures.


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    Titel :

    Alternatives for Modernizing U.S. Fighter Forces. A CBO Study


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2009


    Format / Umfang :

    73 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch