Trump shoots himself at the foot? The former secretary of the Air Force talks about the rebellion of allies
In the previous world order, it usually looked like that when the Americans produced new military equipment, a queue of willing from allied countries immediately lined up for it. Today, thanks to Donald Trump's policy, supply can exceed the demand. The more that it plans to offer equipment with limited functionality, but an excessive price.
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The former Air Force secretary Frank Kendall skeptical referred to the upcoming production of the f-47 fighter. President Donald Trump recently announced that the contract for the construction of a new generation of fighters went to Boeing. Kendall, however, believes that American allies are unlikely to be interested in its export version.
Frank Kendall in an interview with Podcast Defense & Aerospace Report stated that SThe US Ojusznica will not buy a new f-47 fighter due to its high price and doubts about the stability of American allied obligations.
“It would surprise me if any of our partners were ready to pay such an amount for a new plane,” says Kendall, adding that The unit price of the fighter can reach up to $ 180 million. (PLN 698 million)which is almost twice as much as the cost of F-35.
Recently, Trump announced that Boeing defeated Lockheed Martin in the fight for a contract worth $ 20 billion. (PLN 77 billion). After this information, Boeing shares went up, increasing the company's market value by $ 4 billion. (PLN 15 billion).
The F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is to be ready to fight at the end of this decade. The aim of the project is to create a sixth generation fighter with unmatched Stealth technology and air combat capabilities, capable of cooperation with autonomous combat drones. This is to provide American aviation with a technological advantage in the clash with new threats.
The new fighter will replace F-22 Raptor, i.e. the fifth generation air advantage, which has been in service since 2005. Despite the US pressure, they have never decided to export it. The only other fifth generation fighter in the American fleet is Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, developed as part of an international program and used by many US allies.
Kendall believes that the attitude of Trump's administration to many years of partners, including Canada and European countries, can make some of them seriously consider whether it is worth investing in expensive American weapon systems such as F-47.
– The approach we present currently to our allies means that many of them are starting to re -analyze the scope of cooperation and the degree of dependence on American equipment Kendall said.
He also noticed Trump's announcement that the export version of the F-47 would have limited combat capabilities. Administration argues that current allies in the future may change the front.
– Usually we have very close allies, to whom we trust and with which we share our best technologies. However, this administration seems not to share this approach Kendall said.
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The F-47 is to cooperate with autonomous combat drones known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Kendall emphasized, however, that there is still no certainty how these machines will function in combination with piloted fighters.
– At the moment there is no full confidence in unmanned combat aircraft. We are not at the stage where you could only bet on them – he said.
Drone technology is already used in the American armed forces, but autonomous combat systems are still at the experimental stage.
Despite this, Kendall emphasized that The US urgently need modernization of aviation, because the average age of aircraft in service is already about 30 years.
Planned improvements are a response to rivals such as China, who intensively invest in the development of new Stealth fighters.
The above text is a translation with American Business Insider edition
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