In a very disturbing trend, it is becoming apparent that the main fighter of the U.S. Air Force is losing its qualitative edge over the new fighter aircraft of other nations. The primary USAF fighter is the F-15 Eagle. It is a weapons platform whose basic design dates back to the Reagan years. Many upgrades have occurred to make it ever-more capable, but it is still an old design. Many airframes are getting old. A blog I posted some time ago showed a video of one F-15 coming apart in midair during a routine mission due to metal fatigue.
The American F-22 fighter is a new, stealthy and much more capable fighter aircraft and the USAF now has a number of F-22 squadrons in service. It is a state-of-the-art warplane, but the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress have inexplicably decided to cancel the F-22 program and have the USAF “make do” with older designs. This is increasingly looking like a very foolish decision, but what do you expect from a Chief Executive who came to office without any meaningful military skills or knowledge?
Previous blogs have documented the greatly-increased capability (and numbers) of new Chinese warplanes being built to eventually oppose the USA, NATO and its global allies. Now a report has surfaced that Russia is building a new air-superiority fighter which looks almost exactly like the American F-22! The first link below discusses the new Russian Sukhoi-50 which appears to be a copy of the F-22’s stealthy design. This would hardly be a surprise given the numerous reports of extensive spying in the USA by Russia and China. Russia very likely stole the design plans from U.S. manufacturers and copied the F-22 with Russian modifications. The link includes a slide show of the new Russian warplane.
For balance, one must point out that the new Russian fighter is in the prototype phase and will reportedly not be in mass production for a few years. However, nations routinely understate the capabilities of their new weapons systems and no one knows what Russia is building in its secret underground production facilities buried deep in the Ural Mountains (I did a blog on those secret Russian facilities a long time ago). However, Russia is now the world’s leader in oil production and stands to gain much revenue in future years due to oil and gas exports. You can be sure Russia will not stop production of its new Sukhoi-50 warplane when it makes 186 copies (which is the number the USA had authorized before Obama and the Democrat-led Congress cancelled the F-22). You can bet China will build thousands of its new warplanes.
There is more evidence that the F-15 has lost its edge in the world as an air superiority fighter. Several European nations have developed a new state-of-the-art “Eurofighter” called the Typhoon. In a head-to-head practice dogfight, two typhoons from the Spanish Air Force easily defeated eight F-15s from the U.S. Air Force (see second link). That is cause for major concern! If the warplanes of the Spanish Air Force can easily defeat a larger number of U.S. F-15’s in aerial combat trials, all the other European nations fielding the Typhoon can defeat American F-15s as well. The report also mentions the Saudi Air Force will soon have Typhoons so the Saudi Air Force will also have a qualitative edge on a U.S. F-15s (and possibly Israeli F-15s as well). Any nation which wants to shoot down most USAF warplanes can do so by simply buying the new Eurofighter Typhoon.
Leviticus 26:14-46 includes prophecies concerning what would happen to future generations of God’s “covenant” nations if they abandoned God’s ways and turned to sinful practices. One of the curses to be placed on such nations was that God would “break the pride of their power” (verse 19). As anyone can see who has read my homepage article, the USA in Bible Prophecy, the USA is a covenant nation bound by the fate of this ancient prophecy. The USA and its leaders are steadily turning to sin so the national punishments in this prophecy can be expected to come down on the USA. Believers can offer intercessory prayers that God would delay punishments to give nations time to repent, but the trends are obvious. The foolish decision to stop producing top-quality warplanes for the USAF is one sign that the USA is losing the “pride of its power.” Our nation’s leaders make decisions that make no sense. The logical decision would have been to shut down the older F-15 assembly line and to increase production at the newer F-22 assembly line. Obama and the Democrat Congress gave trillions of dollars to Wall Street’s reckless firms, but it couldn’t find even a few billion to build modern fighters for the United States of America to defend itself. I guess Obama and the Democrat Congress thought it was more important to fund excessive bonuses for the reckless staffers on Wall Street than to make modern warplanes that can defend our nation. Am I the only one who sees something very wrong in these priorities?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584241,00.html?test=latestnews
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2010/eu_military0066_01_28.asp
