Future of USAF

alphaone

alphaone

Well-Known Member
So alot is happening to USAF these days and I am trying to get a picture about what it is going to look like in the future, mainly from the fighter side.

According to Wiki (yea I know) we have about 2,200 fighters now. USAF says we need 2,025 at a minimum but we will fall well below that number for a period of time before F-35 comes online. Additionally we are retiring 250 this year alone.

Can someone give me a synopsis about what the USAF fighter world will look like in the near future AND 10-15 years from now? I'm nervous.
 
I can say with reasonable certainty that as long as world events continue in the direction they have been, there will be considerably less than ~2000 fighters and far more UAV's. The DoD wants half of all combat vehicles to be unmanned around 2020, which obviously includes aircraft.

I'm joining in your nervousness, as I'm going into the AF SAR community, which the DoD acquisitions chief recently said is of no use. The new SAR helicopter has been cancelled indefinitely, and the government can't even agree on a new tanker. Bottom line, it doesn't look good for anyone in 10-15 years. Fighters, tankers, transports, and helos all have an uncertain future at this point. My best advice is to roll with the punches and hope for the best. The AF will do with you and your career as it pleases.
 
alphaone said:
Can someone give me a synopsis about what the USAF fighter world will look like in the near future AND 10-15 years from now? I'm nervous.
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Say hello to Reaper!


Reaper.jpg



Bomb-laden 'Reaper' drones bound for Iraq

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) — The airplane is the size of a jet fighter,

powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet.

It is outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and

a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The Reaper is loaded, but there is no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs

targets in Iraq , will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation

history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an

Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.



That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says

the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt.

Gen. Gary North said in an interview.



The Reaper's first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan , and senior

Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall

and next spring. They look forward to it.



"With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home," North said.



The Associated Press has learned that the Air Force is building a

400,000-square-foot expansion of the concrete ramp area now used for

Predator drones here at Balad, the biggest U.S. air base in Iraq , 50 miles

north of Baghdad . That new staging area could be turned over to Reapers.



It is another sign that the Air Force is planning for an extended stay in

Iraq , supporting Iraqi government forces in any continuing conflict, even

if U.S. ground troops are drawn down in the coming years.



The estimated two dozen or more unmanned MQ-1 Predators now doing

surveillance over Iraq, as the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron,

have become mainstays of the U.S. war effort, offering round-the-clock

airborne "eyes" watching over road convoys, tracking nighttime insurgent

movements via infrared sensors, and occasionally unleashing one of their two

Hellfire missiles on a target.



From about 36,000 flying hours in 2005, the Predators are expected to log

66,000 hours this year over Iraq and Afghanistan ..



The MQ-9 Reaper, when compared with the 1995-vintage Predator, represents a

major evolution of the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.



At five tons gross weight, the Reaper is four times heavier than the

Predator. Its size — 36 feet long, with a 66-foot wingspan — is comparable

to the profile of the Air Force's workhorse A-10 attack plane. It can fly

twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Most significantly, it

carries many more weapons.



UNDER THE RADAR: Air Force ramps up in Iraq

While the Predator is armed with two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry

14 of the air-to-ground weapons — or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.



"It's not a recon squadron," Col. Joe Guasella, operations chief for the

Central Command's air component, said of the Reapers. "It's an attack

squadron, with a lot more kinetic ability."



"Kinetic" — Pentagon argot for destructive power — is what the Air Force had

in mind when it christened its newest robot plane with a name associated

with death.



"The name Reaper captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system," Gen.

T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff, said in announcing the name

last September.



General Atomics of San Diego has built at least nine of the MQ-9s thus far,

at a cost of $69 million per set of four aircraft, with ground equipment.

The Air Force's 432nd Wing, a UAV unit formally established on May 1, is to

eventually fly 60 Reapers and 160 Predators. The numbers to be assigned to

Iraq and Afghanistan will be classified.

The Reaper is expected to be flown as the Predator is — by a two-member team

of pilot and sensor operator who work at computer control stations and video

screens that display what the UAV "sees." Teams at Balad, housed in a hangar

beside the runways, perform the takeoffs and landings, and similar teams at

Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, linked to the aircraft via satellite, take

over for the long hours of overflying the Iraqi landscape.

American ground troops, equipped with laptops that can download real-time

video from UAVs overhead, "want more and more of it," said Maj. Chris

Snodgrass, the Predator squadron commander here.

The Reaper's speed will help. "Our problem is speed," Snodgrass said of the

140-mph Predator. "If there are troops in contact, we may not get there fast

enough. The Reaper will be faster and fly farther."

The new robot plane is expected to be able to stay aloft for 14 hours fully

armed, watching an area and waiting for targets to emerge.

"It's going to bring us flexibility, range, speed and persistence," said

regional commander North, "such that I will be able to work lots of areas

for a long, long time."

The British also are impressed with the Reaper, and are buying three for

deployment in Afghanistan later this year. The Royal Air Force version will

stick to the "recon" mission, however — no weapons on board.
 
I am not trying to sound like a whiny little beatch but I cannot stop thinking about this. It is almost making me sick to my stomach.
 
MikeD said:
Sadly.....your post here is FAR more spot-on accurate than you may realize!
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Trust me brother, I wish I could post some smiley faces with it, but I fear the future of airline transport is only a few decades, if even, behind military aviation.
 
alphaone said:
I am not trying to sound like a whiny little beatch but I cannot stop thinking about this. It is almost making me sick to my stomach.
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You sound like a whiny little beatch.

:D:D


Have you even started UPT, or OTS yet for that matter? And you're worrying about this now? What I'm getting at is, worry about the near rocks first before worrying about the far rocks.....since concentrating on the far rocks ahead, you'll hit the near ones that you weren't looking for. Take things as they come, for now, and cross one hurdle at at time.

Remember: Worry is like a rocking chair.....it gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere.
 
MikeD said:
You sound like a whiny little beatch.

:D:D


Have you even started UPT, or OTS yet for that matter? And you're worrying about this now? What I'm getting at is, worry about the near rocks first before worrying about the far rocks.....since concentrating on the far rocks ahead, you'll hit the near ones that you weren't looking for. Take things as they come, for now, and cross one hurdle at at time.

Remember: Worry is like a rocking chair.....it gives you something to do, but gets you nowhere.
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Noted. Pity party is over.
 
I don't know about 10 years from now, but OTS freaking sucks. July 22 will be a great day (graduation). So will June 9 when Frogflyer shows up as my lower class.
 
Okay, here's a reality check -- nobody knows. You are wasting effort and emotion if you are even trying to predict what is going to happen.

The paradigms that were "true" when I joined the AF in the post-Desert Storm era aren't true anymore. Hell, the things that were "true" just 6-9 years ago aren't anymore.

Nobody could have predicted 9/11 and the rise of the UAV. That's certainly not even anything that was even on my radar when I went to UPT (which was not that long ago, kiddos). Yet, here it is today.

Bottom line: this is sort of like gnashing your teeth over who will win the Super Bowl in 2025. Not only do you not know who is going to be in the finals, but you don't even know what teams are going to be in the NFL then...or if there's even going to still BE an NFL then.

The best advice is to strap in and enjoy the adventure. It will probably end up being better than if you'd tried to plan it.
 
alphaone said:
I am not trying to sound like a whiny little beatch but I cannot stop thinking about this. It is almost making me sick to my stomach.
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It couldn't have been put better than in MikeD or Hacker's words. Don't worry brother, once you pin the butter bars and strap into your first T-6, the world will be right. If you end up in C-17's, so be it. You will be flying a military jet with a purpose, and you will be excited about it.....I promise you. If you get your #1 choice, that's even more awesome. Either way you win......don't waste your time worrying about stuff you have no control over. Worry about being a professional freaking aviator and beating flight school into submission :rawk:
 
///AMG said:
It couldn't have been put better than in MikeD or Hacker's words. Don't worry brother, once you pin the butter bars and strap into your first T-6, the world will be right. If you end up in C-17's, so be it. You will be flying a military jet with a purpose, and you will be excited about it.....I promise you. If you get your #1 choice, that's even more awesome. Either way you win......don't waste your time worrying about stuff you have no control over. Worry about being a professional freaking aviator and beating flight school into submission :rawk:
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Why does everyone always hate on the heavys? lol. C-17s are going to be my first choice and I am #2 in my class (granted T-6 performance has nothing to do with my actual assignment)
 
ian said:
Why does everyone always hate on the heavys? lol. C-17s are going to be my first choice and I am #2 in my class (granted T-6 performance has nothing to do with my actual assignment)
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I don't think he's hating on the heavies, but it's clear the OP is leaning towards or wanting fighters; so AMG was just pointing out that even if you don't get what your first choice may be, you're still going to be doing something exciting. Everything has it's own merits.
 
mhcasey said:
I don't know about 10 years from now, but OTS freaking sucks. July 22 will be a great day (graduation). So will June 9 when Frogflyer shows up as my lower class.
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You can hop on the internet and surf JC in AF OTS? Sah-weet! Sounds like club med to me! :D
 
ian said:
Why does everyone always hate on the heavys? lol. C-17s are going to be my first choice and I am #2 in my class (granted T-6 performance has nothing to do with my actual assignment)
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I don't think the AF has any platform that you could go wrong with. I would have strongly considered heavies had I been an AF guy, after maybe the Bone.
 
All depends what threats are going to pop up in the future and what congress will be willing to fund. Enemy electronic warfare capabilities may render UAV's useless or the air defense systems may become so effective flying into harms way will be suicidal, maybe even both. Or worst of all... World Peace.

Ian J said:
You can hop on the internet and surf JC in AF OTS? Sah-weet! Sounds like club med to me! :D
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You know got to prepare them to be real AF Officers.
 
Ian J said:
You can hop on the internet and surf JC in AF OTS? Sah-weet! Sounds like club med to me! :D
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I have a wireless plan through Verizon, and generally when we're in our rooms we don't get bothered. There's not much time for surfing, but there's no regulation against it either.
 
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