I am not arguing that we wait to develop a new aircraft until that unnamed development happens. I don’t believe this is something that should dictate the development of aircraft; I was just saying it is something to think about.

The reason I don’t support a large F-22 fleet is not because I think it will be proven obsolete. I actually think it will do an amazing job. The main reason why I am not in support of it is because I think it is a bit overkill for the majority of the missions. It is designed to excel in an extreme battlefield. It is unlikely that we will go to all out war with China or Russia so I don’t like the idea of having an entire fleet designed for that mission. I believe in the end the F-22 and the F-35 will be doing missions that cheaper aircraft could do.

You have a valid point that we have to be prepared for anything and if we do go to war with China or Russia we will be at a disadvantage with the few F-22s we have. I just feel that we have never been prepared for every type of war and we can’t afford to. The Air Force has made due with a small amount of high tech aircraft before and I think we can do it again. It will not be ideal, but we will have to work with what we have. I believe we have put too much reliance on the F-22 and F-35 and now that we won’t have as many as we wanted, we have a gap. If instead of developing only 5th generation aircraft, we could have had a more balanced fleet if the Air Force asked for a cheap 4th generation aircraft that we could use to supplement the few 5th generation fleet.

I didn’t intend to say that my knowledge is equivalent to anybody. I wanted to show that I come from an environment that discusses military history and development all the time and that I wasn’t getting all my opinions from Wikipedia. I wanted to indicate that I was somewhere between a fighter pilot and someone who saw a 10 minute segment on the F-15 on the History Channel.