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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- United States must modernize its fighter
jets to maintain air supremacy, a top Air Force general said
Wednesday citing the success of advanced Russian-made jets against
American planes in a recent exercise as signaling an erosion of its
overwhelming advantage.
Gen. Hal Hornburg, head of U.S. Air Combat Command, said a U.S.
air-to-air exercise with the Indian Air Force in February, in which
India used Russian jets to defeat aging American F-15Cs, revealed
"that we may not be as far ahead of the rest of the world as we
once thought we were."
Defense experts in both the United States and Europe, however, have
said it is unlikely that America -- with vast spending power and a
major industrial base -- would lose its dominance in military
technology.
U.S. defense officials have said Indian SU-30, Mig-27 and older
MiG-21 jets, some armed with Russian-made AA-10 air-to-air
missiles, got the best of F-15s based in Alaska in exercise "Cope
India" high over northern India.
Hornburg said in an interview with military writers the air
maneuvers emphasized his service's push for expensive, stealthy new
F/A-22 "Raptors" being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and F-35
Joint Strike Fighters being designed by Lockheed with input from
allies.
He declined to discuss classified results of the exercise but said,
"Something like Cope India, when we find that some of our
advantages aren't as great as we thought they might be, leads me to
remind people that we need to modernize our air-to-air
capability."
Hornburg added, "We have been saying for a long time that we need
newer fighters to do more things," and that the Indian exercise
could be a "wake-up call" for Washington.
Russia's Sukhoi aviation works and the Moscow Air Production
Organization company have been designing and building increasingly
advanced fighters such as the MiG-29 in recent years. India, China
and other countries are buying the warplanes -- some with contracts
for co-production.
France and Sweden also build advanced combat planes and a
consortium of four European countries, including Britain, are
producing the Eurofighter "Typhoon" jet.
"I see air forces across the spectrum and across the world becoming
better and better as each year passes. That just means that we have
to do the same thing," said Hornburg.
"With air superiority, everything is possible. Without it, hardly
anything's possible" he added. "People jump to the conclusion that
it is ours just because we go. And that's blatantly false."
Source: CNN.com
