F-15 Grounding Strains U.S. Air Defenses

[lovuian]

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/G/GROUNDED_F_15S?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-12-26-13-41-24

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- The grounding of hundreds of F-15s because of dangerous structural defects is straining the nation's air defense network, forcing some states to rely on their neighbors' fighter jets for protection, and Alaska to depend on the Canadian military.

The F-15 is the sole fighter at many of the 16 or so "alert" sites around the country, where planes and pilots stand ready to take off at a moment's notice to intercept hijacked airliners, Cessnas that wander into protected airspace, and other threats.

The Air Force grounded about 450 F-15s after one of the fighters began to break apart in the air and crashed Nov. 2 in Missouri. An Air Force investigation found "possible fleet-wide airworthiness problems" because of defects in the metal rails that hold the fuselage together. It is not clear when the F-15s will be allowed to fly again.

Compounding the problem created by the grounding, another fighter jet used for homeland defense, the F-16, is in high demand for Iraq operations. And the next-generation fighter, the F-22 Raptor, is only slowly replacing the aging F-15.
more...
In other words in a real Emergency we would be screwed

[Double T]

1. Blowing hundreds of billions on defense and THEY can't even get this right.

Complete incompetence rules.

[Ikonoklast]

3. F-15 is being phased out

The basic design of the airframe is close to forty years old. The earliest iterations have already been retired.

We got our monies' worth from that. Nothing lasts forever, and high-performance aircraft life-spans used to be measured in years, not decades.

[Squatch]

4. Ahem...B-52? C-130?

Nothing lasts forever...

"...the final prototype, YB-52, which first flew on 15 April 1952."

"...The first flight of the YC-130 prototype was made on August 23, 1954"

[Ikonoklast]

7. 'High performance'

Fighters have a very short life span.

Bombers and heavy airlift are not subject to airframe stress and metal fatigue cycles like fighter craft. And their avionics is far easier to re-engineer and update.

But you knew that.

[Squatch]

8. An airplane that can fly 4500 miles at 560 kts while carrying 60,000 lbs of bombs

is NOT high performance? :eyes:

"Bombers and heavy airlift are not subject to airframe stress and metal fatigue cycles like fighter craft. And their avionics is far easier to re-engineer and update."

I estimate that 79% of the above two statements came directly from your fourth point of contact. :)

[Ikonoklast]

10. No. Guy that fixed their design flaws for a living.

Some jerk that worked for some silly company called McDonnell-Douglas. I believe he actually was partly responsible for the re-design of the landing gear of the F-15, which was having a higher than predicted failure rate.

We had this very same conversation years ago.

[Squatch]

12. Aha...so your expertise on this matter comes from having a conversation

years ago with some "guy" who worked on landing gear. :eyes:

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I still want to know...

protection from WHAT?

[seemslikeadream]

5. Did Addington order this?

For years, Addington has carried a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his pocket; taped onto the back are photocopies of extra statutes that detail the legal procedures for Presidential succession in times of national emergency.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact1

[Downtown Hound]

6. "The F-15 is the sole fighter at many of the 16 or so "alert" sites around

the country, where planes and pilots stand ready to take off at a moments notice to intercept hijacked airliners, Cessnas that wander into protected airspace, and other threats."

Interesting. Where were they on 9-11?

[lonestarnot]

13. scrambled w/o targets

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Oh, God!! Quick demand more money for "defense"!! Fidel is readyiing the invasion fleet!!

You can almost hear the engines revving of the '52 Pontiacs and salsa music from the radios.

[EFerrari]

11. What air defenses?

We don't have air defenses, we have contracts with suppliers.

[lovuian]

14. Well I don't want to bring up 911 but doesn't this incompetency

make the US vulnerable to attack especially when Russia is acting kinda weird and cold warish

[pinniped]

15. A bazillion Zeppelins are on their way to the US mainland and there are....

no means to repel them.

Someone better get them F-4 Phantoms dusted off at the aircraft graveyard in Arizona or we're so fucked.