The Pentagon erred in prematurely terminating the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter program—having miscalculated how quickly the Russians and Chinese would develop new aircraft. While the Raptor is not likely to brought back into production, the Air Force and Navy have started work on a next generation air superiority capability. During the 1990s and the early 2000s—with the Soviet threat evaporating—the Defense Department did not anticipate facing off against a near-peer threat in the foreseeable future. “The department and the Congress made a decision that we would not see a near-peer threat within a number of years, and that decision also proved to be—and that judgment—also proved to be optimistic,” Lt. Gen. James Holmes, Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 8. ...
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