<i>...of Industry and Military are easily trashed.</i>
<b>Air Force Settles On 183 Raptors, Plans New Bomber By 2018:</b> The Air Force has accepted a smaller F-22 Raptor fighter fleet, would like to field a new long-range strike platform around 2018 and expects to commence the competition for a new tanker platform before the end of this year, the service's two senior most officials said yesterday. After maintaining for years that it needed 381 Lockheed Martin built multirole Raptors to meet its future air superiority requirements and replace legacy F-15s and F-117s, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley now maintain that 183 of them will suffice, when coupled with a new, yet-to-be defined bomber aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and additional global strike assets. "The program of record is, in fact, 183," said Wynne. The smaller total reflects the decisions that are emerging out of the Department of Defense-wide Quadrennial Defense Review that are due for public release today. One of the reasons why the service leaders said they believe that a smaller Raptor fleet is acceptable is because of the new emphasis, supported by the QDR, to field a new long-range strike platform, which Moseley dubbed a "new bomber," by 2018. (Defense Daily)
<i>Well, as I said, I think we can design a dandy purpose built tanker. I welcome a freewheeling competition for the job, as long as the fix isn't in for a warmed over aluminum tube airliner. New bomber projects seem to take forever to define, and then are political nightmares. It could end up being an aluminum tube too. Oh well, work is work.</i>
Ninety percent of the game is half mental.
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