Warplanes: January 30, 2001

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trainer design used by several air forces.--Stephen V Cole

New Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has warned the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps that if the Joint Strike Fighter program is to move ahead, all must commit to the program immediately without waiting for Congress to increase the budget. What has the military terrified is the Bush campaign idea of "skipping a generation" of technology. That could mean canceling the JSF or the F-22 to move to another type of aircraft, or it could mean canceling planned upgrades to existing F-16s and F-15s in favor of plowing the money into more F-22s. Even critics of the F-22 Raptor only want it cut to 100 aircraft rather than canceled; the Air Force wants more of them than the 340 in the Clinton Administration plan.--Stephen V