Tema: Recortes USAF 4% menos de aviones

Quedará algún A-10C después de este recorte? Y también me sorprende la retirada del Global Hawk...


US Air Force details aircraft cuts - RP Defense

Feb 17, 2012 by Zach Rosenberg – Flight GlobalWashington DC - The US Air Force has detailed plans to retire 227 aircraft, or four per cent of its total fleet."Where possible, we attempted to retire all aircraft of a specific type, which allowed us to divest the training and logistics support for that aircraft. Where that was not possible, we looked to retire the oldest aircraft first," the service said on 13 February.Retirements include the Alenia North America-supplied C-27J tactical transport (below) and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30, both virtually new platforms. No decisions have been made as to the ultimate fate of the aircraft, nor their retirement schedule. The USAF also will retire 102 Fairchild-Republic A-10Cs, as outlined last month as part of planned cuts for fiscal year 2013.Purchases of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper unmanned air vehicles have been slashed from 48 to 24. USAF chief budget officer Gen Edward Bolton described the action as necessary not for cost reasons, but due to a lack of trained air crews. The air force maintains plans to operate 65 "orbits" of UAVs, requiring a minimum of two aircraft for each, but now expects to achieve that goal by 2016.The air force also announced a cut in the planned buy of Lockheed Martin F-35s to 19, from initial plans to procure 24 in FY2013. The move is yet another delay for the troubled programme, but the service's total planned buy remains at a projected 1,700."We have restructured the F-35 programme to allow for a more realistic ramp and to address concurrency issues," said the air force.The service also announced the cancellation of the Defense Weather Satellite System, a next-generation weather satellite.

Del globalhawk solo dan de baja los block 30, que era una variante del UAV a entrar en servicio con unos equipos especificos para substituir al U-2. Los block 10 y 20 seguirán en activo, así como el eterno U-2 que recibirá los equipos que iban a ir en ese block 30 del Global.

Y los A-10 pues van a ser subtituidos por JSF (F35A) a medio/largo plazo (2020) en menor número obviamente.

Pues lo del A-10 es serio, ya han cortado dos escuadrones de Spangdhalem... veremos a ver.

Pese a ser un avión interesante para CAS los conflictos actuales han demostrado que no hacen falta desde luego 352 A-10 (segun el World Airofrce Review de 2011 de flightglobal). La USAF se deshace de aquello que menos necesita.

A dia de hoy USAF

350 A-10
475 F-15C/D/E
1.050 F-16C/D
180 F-22

Una sombra de lo de hace 10-15 años por ejemplo.

Es evidente que actualmente no se necesitan tantos aviones como hace unos años. Dejando a parte el ahorro por la crisis, una razón fundamental es que la precisión de las bombas ( hoy practicamente sólo se emplean bombas guiadas) y misiles ha mejorado de tal forma que son necesarias muchas menos salidas y por tanto menos aviones que antes para batir los objetivos.