The Air Force wants an attack plane to lighten the load on high-tech jets
by Jamie McIntyre
| May 26, 2018 12:00 AM
In November, U.S. commanders in Afghanistan had a low-tech problem: They wanted to drop a very small bomb on a Taliban drug lab.
And they had only a high-tech, and therefore very expensive, solution: Dispatch a stealthy F-22 Raptor from more than 1,000 miles away.
“We looked to match the best aircraft with the most precise weapon against the target that was required, and in this case, that was the F-22 with the small-diameter bomb,†explained Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch at a Pentagon briefing the next month. “It has to do with where we have the weapons and munitions in the theater, what assets have them available, and what we can call on in the time frame that we need it.â€
The U.S., it turned out, had no better option than to use a $140 million aircraft, its most advanced stealthy fighter, operating at an estimated cost of $70,000 per hour, to drop a single 250-pound bomb on a stationary target, where there was no threat from air defenses.
The video shown at a Pentagon briefing the next day showed the tactic was effective, just not cost-effective.
“We should not be using an F-22 to destroy a narcotics factory in Afghanistan,†Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson admitted at an conference in February.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/air-force-wants-an-attack-plane-to-lighten-the-load-on-high-tech-jets
