F-35 Lightning II
Back in November 2008, just after the election that brought Barack Obama to the White House, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made what was arguably the worst decision of his long career, pulling his backing from the Air Force’s top-line fighter procurement, the F-22 Raptor. That summer, he had fired both the Air Force’s civilian secretary and its chief of staff, a move in which disagreement about the F-22 played a large role. At the peak of involvement in Iraq, Gates — reflecting the consensus of conventional wisdom at the time — believed a large fleet of air superiority fighters was no longer “relevant” to US strategy. He stayed on through much of Obama’s first term, helping to further define down defense requirements and see the F-22 to its grave. It’s Time To Learn To Love America’s F-35 Stealth Fighter
Credit to : US Military Defense
