"All options are on the table" for U.S. Air Guard officials struggling to fill a gap in the number of fighters available for units in the near term to fly missions protecting the homeland, says Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard (ANG).

"I am basically platform agnostic," Wyatt says. "I don't care."

This could include stealth aircraft -- more F-22s or earlier fielding of F-35s -- or the purchase of older, fourth-generation aircraft such as F-16s or F-15s. Technologies needed for the mission include an active, electronically scanned array radar (which can be used to detect small and stealthy air threats including cruise missiles), infrared search and track systems and beyond-line-of-sight communications, Wyatt told reporters during a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington this morning.

Congress appears amenable to the president's request to close Lockheed Martin's F-22 production line in fiscal 2010, capping the buy at 187 of the twin-engine fighter. Most observers expect the testing and delivery schedule for the single-engine F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to experience slips, possibly widening the gap for receipt of the new aircraft. F-35s aren't due to the Guard until the middle of the next decade, he says.

Many of the 250 fighters being retired early in FY ‘10 are F-16s assigned to the Guard, and many of them are apportioned to the air sovereignty alert (ASA) mission. Some of those units will lack a flying mission until the F-35 is introduced into the fleet.

The U.S. Air Force has historically professed a preference to buy only fifth-generation fighters (F-22 or F-35), closing the door to additional procurements of the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Boeing F-15.

While Wyatt says he's open to all options, he says "If you can get stealth [in the F-22 or F-35] at the same price, why not?" The general is not in favor of buying a particular aircraft and dedicating it to the ASA mission; he says the Guard should operate the same platforms as active duty units in order to handle the same missions as their active duty counterparts. Still, however, he says the Air Force is not "there yet" in terms of considering a buy of fourth-generation fighters to fill the gap.

Wyatt says he was incorrectly characterized as an advocate of additional F-22s after sending a June 19 letter in response to an inquiry on the issue from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). F-22s are assembled in Marietta, Ga.

"While a variety of solutions abound, I believe the nature of the current and future asymmetric threat to our nation, particularly from seaborne cruise missiles, requires a fighter platform with the requisite speed and detection to address them," Wyatt wrote in his letter. "The F-22's unique capability in this arena enables it to handle a full spectrum of threats that the ANG's current legacy systems are not capable of addressing."

Recapitalization is a major issue for the Air Guard. About 80 percent of its F-16s are expected to reach the end of their service lives in the next eight years; the Guard manages 16 of 18 ASA sites in the United States.

A service-life extension program for 100-150 of the newest F-16s in the Guard is possible, and this option is made more attractive if combined with F-35 deliveries, Wyatt says. Air Force officials also are studying the option of a life-extension on some F-15s, he adds.

Wyatt argues that the Guard should receive its F-35s earlier than planned. And, he adds that his Guard units should receive both F-22s and F-35s proportionally to the active duty force. That would give the Guard 60-70 F-22s that it doesn't have. Now, Guard units share aircraft with some active duty squadrons. Only one squadron -- with the Hawaii Air National Guard -- will be equipped with 18 F-22s.

Meanwhile, Wyatt says roughly 30 percent of his forces are in the process of transitioning out of an old mission or into a new one. The Guard is operating eight of 35 USAF unmanned aircraft system combat air patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Credit: USAF