Trillions for pork, but nothing for the Raptors?

Has the world really changed that much since 1990?

When the Air Force first announced its planned procurement of the F-22 Raptors, the intended acquisition was for 750. The Soviet Union was the enemy then, and soon thereafter the Soviet Union fell apart. In 1990, the Air Force adjusted its expected acquisition to a total of 648.

The world continued to become safer — at least in the eyes of President Clinton — and the 1994 projection dropped to 442 planes. Three years later, the total was cut to 339. By 2003, the number was 277.

Last week, with two active battlefields still requiring the complete air superiority Americans have come to assume as a condition of nature, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that production of the Raptor — generally recognized as the greatest fighter plane in history, with no equal on the planet — would conclude at 187.

Proponents of a robust margin of safety in the skies when it comes to military power did not react well. Joseph E. Sutter, chairman of the Board of the Air Force Association, asked in an op-ed whether the U.S. was “one day closer … to the day when the US loses air dominance, one of our asymmetric advantages in any conflict — irregular warfare or major conventional-strategic combat operations?”

“Every plan, every contingency, assumes we will control the skies,” Sutter wrote. “One of the first tasks of Operation Desert Storm was to wipe out Iraqi air defenses. Today, our unmanned air vehicles operate freely in Iraq and Afghanistan because we are unchallenged. Ending the production of the F-22 fighter at 187 places at risk our ability to meet known threats.”

Another article at the Air Force Association Web site, www.afa.org, quoted retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey as stating succinctly that the “F-22 is the most important acquisition program in the Department of Defense. We should buy 750 of them.”

The planes cost less than $150 million each to build. We can get 100 more F-22s for $15 billion. Given that our six-month deficit for the fiscal year under way is already scraping $1 trillion, what’s $15 billion for an extended run of unchallenged air superiority against existing and — crucially — unknown threats?

Did I mention that the F-22 is shovel ready? Remember all those jobs President Barak Obama wanted to “create or save”? Evidently there is a category of jobs he doesn’t count among those worthy of retention — those on the national security shift.

The second coming of the Carter administration is upon us, heralded by this almost wanton sluffing away of a weapon of unmatched capabilities and the simultaneous paring of missile defense appropriations.

Secretary Gates is providing a little cover for the Pentagon budget-cutters at OMB, whose priorities are with increased NEA spending and a new fleet of hybrid cars for the government, but not much. Whether or not his heart is in it won’t and shouldn’t still the sharp criticism headed this budget’s way.

Forfeiting a huge advantage in the skies on the assurance that we will never need such superiority should be met with reminders that no one saw 9/11 or the market collapse of 2008 coming.

Trillions for pork but not even millions for the greatest fighter plane in history? Congress needs to step in and step up production of the F-22 and of the components of missile defense.

Examiner columnist Hugh Hewitt is a law professor at Chapman University Law School and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host who blogs daily at HughHewitt.com.