It will be interesting to see how long this back and forth on the F-22 goes on. Outside of well established F-22 proponents, support seems a bit lukewarm. The F-22 side is going to need a better more compelling angle especially considering the popularity of Gates and the Administration. In otherwords they need to out politic the politicians so that refusal to purchase more and keep the line open has political consequences.

-DA 

And by "lockheed workers" I should say workers at Lockheed as well as the numerous companies which directly and indirectly support F-22 production.  Ending a program like this has huge ripple effects, and considering the F-35 program is years away from starting real production and picking up the industry slack, it's just a stupid time to do this.

I agree it has huge ripple effects. Anytime you have a major production line shut down this happens. By itself this is a weak argument because the Anti-More-F-22 side could simply respond with how those workers and 3rd party integrators are now available for 21st century needs like UAVs, NGB, DEW, Cyberwarefare and of course the F-35 program.  Mentioning health care and the stimulus is a losing debate point because A WHOLE LOT of people care about those issues and actually voted for people just to get programs like this through. Stimulus is another thing to avoid. As much as conservatives don't like it, Bush did it too the economy is more on peoples minds than Fulcrums and Flankers. Military issues people think about are N Korean missiles and Somali Pirates.  Something CNN worthy about the F-22 has to be presented. To survive, the F-22 needs an "Evil Empire" in the eye of the public. By that I mean rational public who don't think that the PRC citizens are ravenous bandits out to end America and Persians are all like the Iranian Presidential Rhetoric.  This has to get down to the level of soccer mom to have a chance. Almost like what Top Gun and Iron Eagle did for the F-Teens. I still remember the effect those portrayals had on people.

-DA 

 

Health care is a wildly overrated issue.  Most people do not care -- the ratings for the Obama aftershchool special the other night were a complete bust -- and they only see the trillions of dollars price tag.  The stimulus is not really a good issue for Obama right now either since despite all of the promotion they did for it, it has completely failed to live up to its promises.  In the face of that, a compelling argument can be made that continuing F-22 production is something we can do right now for a fraction of the cost of the above measures that is guaranteed to keep people employed -- and likewise cutting it is guaranteed to negatively impact the economy.

 

Of course the real case for the F-22 is IMO the military one, but that is not something you can explain in a few sound bites to the avereage voter.  You're exactly right that a Top Gun type media splash would be great for that, but that isn't going to happen so if a political argument is needed (and it is) then it has to be an economic one.

 

What new UAV programs? 

Herald