The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> GENERATION F-22 br> Re: Michael Fumento's "Raptor Attention" in Reader Mail's Talking Back : /p>

I recall back in the late 1960s Senator Goldwater remarking that the navy's new F-14 Tomcat fighter offered little in the way of improved capability over the then-supreme F-4 Phantom. As we have seen over the past decades, the Senator was very mistaken. The F-14 showed itself to be way ahead of the F-4 in electronics, avionics, fleet defense, weapons delivery and aerodynamic performance.

p>Today we have some observers making the same negative claims about the F-22. These objections too will prove to be nonsense. The F-22's advances over the F-15 and F-16, despite the many upgrades to the systems of these older airplanes over the years, are clearly generational in scope. But at a more fundamental level, it is simply essential that the United States maintain a technological edge over our competitors. History has demonstrated time and again that only through continually advancing our defense technologies will we minimize the cost of victory in future conflicts, regardless as to the forms they may take. br> -- Paul M. DeSisto , Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.) br> Cedar Grove, New Jersey /p> p> COACHING GENIUS

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John McCain, Bill Clinton, Economics, Islam, Constitution, Iraq, NATO