This Issue Brief examines the Department of Defense's (DoD) four largest tactical aircraft modernization programs. The background section provides a brief description of each program, and a discussion of how tactical aircraft fit into military air operations (i.e., the missions they typically perform, and how they contrast to long-range combat aircraft). The Analysis section examines a number of policy issues, including affordability, capability required, force structure, service roles and missions, industrial base, and transformation. The paper concludes with a synopsis of recent congressional action on these programs. The Defense Department plans to buy the F/A-22 fighter for the Air Force, the F/A-18E/F fighter/attack plane for the Navy, and the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft for the Marines, as well as pursue a joint service program to develop a multi-role Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft in three variants, some of which might be operational around 2010. Decisions in Congress and DoD regarding these aircraft programs may have important long-term implications. The F/A-18E/F is entering production. The V-22 and the F/A-22 are now in transition from research and development to procurement and could remain in production for decades. The next-generation combat aircraft that are expected to result from joint service efforts now getting underway through the JSF program might be in production through the 2020s. Decisions about the funding of these programs will influence which U.S. aircraft manufacturers survive in the aviation industry, and may well affect the division of combat roles and missions among the services in the next century. Because of the lack of consensus about future threats and defense requirements, there has been increasing skepticism about the need for some of these aircraft programs on the grounds of cost and affordability, military requirements and force levels, and effects on the defense industrial base.


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