{"id":17453,"date":"2019-03-29T17:01:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T17:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/29\/the-pentagons-cost-assessment-office-needs-to-reassess-its-f-15ex-findings\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:24:36","slug":"the-pentagons-cost-assessment-office-needs-to-reassess-its-f-15ex-findings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2019\/03\/29\/the-pentagons-cost-assessment-office-needs-to-reassess-its-f-15ex-findings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon\u2019s cost assessment office needs to reassess its F-15EX findings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For months, many in Washington have been scratching their heads over the Air Force\u2019s fiscal 2020 budget submission requesting fourth-generation F-15s<\/a> \u2014 a design first flown in 1972. Ever since F-117 stealth fighters amazed the world in Operation Desert Storm, the service committed to fifth-generation fighter modernization via the F-22 and F-35. Their stealth designs and information gathering capabilities reset the rules of the air superiority mission for friend and foe alike. The scale of the development was akin to the telephone\u2019s evolution from landlines to smart devices. Circumstances surrounding this decision became even more clouded when Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson explained: \u201cOur [FY20] budget proposal that we initially submitted did not include additional fourth-generation aircraft.\u201d To explain this decision \u2014 and perhaps to provide acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan with some top cover \u2014 officials at the Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, or CAPE, held a press briefing last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While their arguments were meant to bolster the case for buying 1960s-era designed F-15s, a deeper look reveals that the Air Force should ramp up F-35 procurement and aggressively press forward with the service\u2019s next-generation air dominance program. The stakes in this decision are significant, for air superiority is a keystone mission in the Department of Defense \u2014 no other form of power projection is viable without it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press accounts reveal that CAPE focused its case on four main points: boosting Air Force combat capacity in the near term; driving down aircraft sustainment cost; additional standoff capabilities; and ensuring diversity in the fighter-aircraft industrial base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are important issues, but buying new F-15s is not the smartest way of accomplishing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAPE is correct on the first issue \u2014 the Air Force is too small. However, in building tomorrow\u2019s Air Force, it is crucial to acquire the right balance of capabilities. The Air Force currently has 1,753 air superiority fighters, but just 186 F-22s and approximately 175 F-35s meet modern demands in an era of peer conflict. This is an 80-20 percentage split between fourth- and fifth-generation fighters \u2014 a troubling reality given that strategic imperatives, the threat environment and the National Defense Strategy demand cutting-edge, survivable capabilities. Concurrent global demand, force rotation factors and the sheer scale of regions like the Pacific mean that just a handful of F-22s and F-35s would be available at any time and place. Combat operations are not viable for the long haul if airmen cannot execute their missions successfully and get home safe. That is a recipe for disaster that could see ships at sea, soldiers on the ground, space and cyber facilities, regional bases, and support aircraft at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\t