Originally posted by Hoarach
The 117 is utterly a POS. Its not able to carry out ordance that the f22 will be able to and it has no gun for defense.
Now the b52, how can they get rid of that thing. There wont be a plane like it to replace the amount of ordance it can unleash it an area. Only thing they possibly can be thinking of is saving gas.
Read the article they are not getting rid of the 52. In fact the 52 is going through its MID-LIFE upgrade. As in, it will be around for another 50 years or so. They are cutting the fleet in half. The article says the USAF wants to get rid of some "tired iron" wich it is, Old, and warn out.
When an aircraft reaches a point were they are spending X amount of mait. hours per flying hours for the air frame type it becomes ineffecient to fly and the money can be spent better elsewhere.
The 117 is dated and perhaps surpassed greatly by the FA-22. This also makes sense as they are not getting rid of the 117 fleet merly cutting it down. This also helps the remaining fleet by adding numerous spare parts to the supply system.
There's only so much money to go around and congress sets our manning levels. The USAF HAS to cut people due to overmanning. It's a must and a fact of life. This helps solve that problem a little.