via Breaking Defense.
“We all want the same thing and we have to find ways to get there,” Welsh said near the end of the Air Force Association’s annual winter conference. But much of the public discussion about the Air Force, the A-10, and the CAS mission “is really kind of a little ridiculous,” he said, noting that the Air Force has flown more than 20,000 CAS sorties a year for ground troops.I want to stop right here and point something out.
He pointed to the F-35B as a key CAS platform. “That’s all the Marine Corps is buying it for,” he told us. “It will be a good CAS platform… It takes time to develop these things,” noting that the A-10 took years to become the excellent CAS weapon it is now.
I've never seen a brief on the F-35B that described how it would put steel on target better than the Harrier or the Super Hornet. Everything that's come down the pike has been how it will provide superior situational awareness for the ground force. But I digress...more from BD...
In the longer term, Welsh said the weapons used for close air support “need to change.” Among the possibilities — lasers and much smaller projectiles; perhaps even “splintering bullets.” The Air Force has “look at different ways of doing this.”And there you have it.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James chimed in, saying she hoped “this body of thought that comes from the summit would help us reengage with the Congress and find a different approach.”
The USAF is going to try and "reset" the debate on the F-35. That means they're losing and need to try to convince everyone that its really worth the grind.
The fact that they're talking about lasers or "splinter bullets" is just talk to calm the crowd.
They're losing the F-35 fight in the military and Congress. The Air Force Secretary's words are telling....
“this body of thought that comes from the summit would help us reengage with the Congress and find a different approach.”The F-35 message has been lost and my prediction is coming true. How do we know? The Secretary of the AF told us so.
