Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Military Times

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 14:46:28 EDT

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — Defense Secretary Robert Gates officially has passed the decision over how many F-22 Raptors the Air Force needs to the next administration takes over.

“I made the decision that we would allocate enough money to keep the production line open so the next administration could decide on the balance between buying more F-22s and buying more Joint Strike Fighters,” Gates said. “I felt that was a significant procurement decision that ought not be made in the last six or seven months of the administration.”

President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal along with the war funding bill call include enough money to buy 187 Raptors through Gates’ recommendation, who bluntly stated in February that the F-22 has no role in the war on terror. Air Force Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne — both of whom were sacked June 5 but are still in office — have called for 381 F-22s to fill out 10 squadrons with 24 fifth generation fighters each, but Gates has consistently said it should stay at 187.

Gates comments came after a stop at Langley Air Force Base, Va., where he announced his intent to nominate Gen. Norton Schwartz, head of Transportation Command, to fill Moseley’s post, and Michael Donley, DoD director of administration and management, to become the next Air Force secretary.

Reporter blogs from the Gates trip
He told about 300 airmen at the Langley base theatre that the debates he had with Moseley and Wynne had nothing to do with his decision to ask for their resignations, and instead solely rested on their inability to halt the continual decline of nuclear standards in the Air Force.

When Gates said the military suffered from “next war-itis” last March, he said those comments were not directed specifically at the Air Force and its demand for more fifth generation fighters to compete with Russian and Chinese air forces. In fact, he told Langley airmen “we must modernize the Air Force in particular your aging fighter and tanker fleet” referring to the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley.

However, Gates said he would remain focused primarily on the wars America currently fights that don’t call for any F-22 sorties anytime soon and reversing a disturbing trend of loosening nuclear discipline.

“We are damn sure we are also going to spend and do everything necessary to win the wars we are in, to care properly for our wounded, and to restore excellence in our nuclear stewardship,” he said.

But, Gates said he sees the need for a fifth generation fighter, and said the debate over the numbers will include the Joint Strike Fighter, who his spokesman Geoff Morell reiterated that the defense secretary felt is more capable. Either way Gates expects the new Air Force leaders to support whatever number the next defense secretary decides upon

“There is a need for debate, but making decisions and moving on and start getting stuff built is what I think is really important,” he said