Fighting Indian Fighter Aces…
By Matt writes, in respone to David Axe’s suggestion that F-22s ought to be unleashed against Indian or British aggressor squadrons:
Uh huh. But think about that. Why would the US Air Force be fighting Indian aces in Su-30s? And that’s to say nothing of the Royal Air Force. I don’t want to say it’s inconceivable that the United States would find itself engaged in a struggle for air superiority with a near peer-competitor but it’s way, way, way, down on the list of contingencies that any reasonable person would be hedging against. Alien robots seems like an only slightly less plausible adversary.
Well, I think that Axe is just suggesting that we include F-22s in the Cope India exercises, which seems like a good idea to me. Why fly F-15s when we can fly F-22s (given that we’ve already bought the damn things), especially when the Indians can beat our F-15s? Makes them better, makes us better. I would also dissent a bit from Matt’s argument that we don’t need to think so much about air superiority; I’d say that a conflict with China over Taiwan is plausible, and that if it happens, the Chinese will contest the skies for at least a while. And the Chinese fly Su-30s…
Whether we need the Air Force or the F-22 are separate questions; now that Matt is taunting me, maybe I’ll need to write that article.