Enraptured by the Raptor

By Ken Silverstein

To judge from the article “China builds a superpower fighter,” which appeared last month in the International Herald Tribune, China’s new J-10 jet fighter is the most impressive weapon since Clint Eastwood stole Firefox. In the article the Pentagon describes the J-10 as “similar in weight and performance to two advanced European fighters, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Dassault Rafale.” It also quotes Rick Fisher of the International Strategy and Assessment Center (ISAC) as saying that of all the fighters in service around the world today, “only the American F-22 Raptor . . . would clearly outmatch the J-10.”

This is surprising when you consider that the J-10—which, according to China, entered service last December—was in development for decades; and the plane is reported to have serious problems with its engine and other major systems; finally, the electronics systems on the J-10 are downright primitive compared to those of American warplanes. So what is the Pentagon really worried about? There are two major clues in the IHT article: the first is a mention of Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor. The second clue is the name Rick Fisher.

When they build the Museum of U.S. Military Boondoggles, an entire wing will be reserved for the F-22. The Raptor was conceived during the cold war as a deterrent to a Warsaw Pact attack on NATO, but after the extremely inconvenient collapse of the Soviet Union, Lockheed and the Air Force were forced to change altitude. The F-22, they subsequently insisted, was required to counter threats posed by "regional aggressors." So the project lumbered on, even though the Raptor now costs $150 million per jet—$90 million more per jet than the original projected cost. Factor in the R&D and other development costs amortized over the life of the project and the price tag per jet is over $300 million.

Now the story has been further refined. Earlier this year, one jaded Pentagon consultant tells me, military officials briefed defense correspondents on the latest reason that the U.S. just had to have the F-22: the allegedly fatal threat posed to America by China's J-10.

And that’s where the IHT and Rick Fisher come in. Fisher is the go-to guy for journalists looking for a good quote on China's military threat, which he portrays as coming by land, air, sea and space. Director of the IASC’s Project on Asian Security and Democracy, Fisher was previously at the Heritage Foundation and served as an adviser to former Congressman (and current SEC chairman) Chris Cox, who was one of Taiwan's chief allies when he was on the Hill. One of Fisher's colleagues is Arthur Waldron, who in the past has advocated for “regime change” in China. He wrote in a report last year:

China’s military and strategic purpose is not to join the world that has made her rich as it is today, but rather to remake that world. China’s goal would seem to be to make herself the greatest military power in Asia, able to intimidate or defeat any of her neighbors in actually conflict, and to deter the United States or anyone else from intervening.

The Pentagon consultant who told me about the briefings is by no means friendly towards China and believes that Beijing is emerging as a significant economic and military competitor to the United States. However, he said, the hype about the J-10 is completely over the top, and he emphasized that the F-22 is not needed to counter it.

That’s fortunate, because just days after the IHT ran its story on the desperate need for the F-22, a group of eight Raptors en route from Hawaii to an American Air Base on Okinawa turned back suddenly for what the Air Force said were “operational reasons.” Later, it emerged that the real problem was a software glitch that was triggered when the fighters crossed the international date line. The bug scrambled the Raptor’s navigation and communications systems and, in the words of CNN, left the craft “deaf, dumb and blind.” But it's unlikely that the glitch will stop the government from throwing ever more dollars down this Lockheed-shaped hole.

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