Christian D. Orr

In 1949 the Navy laid the keel of USS United States, a 65,000-ton supercarrier. Five days later Defense Secretary Louis Johnson canceled it in favor of the Air Force's 10-engine B-36, the Navy Secretary resigned, and the admirals took the fight to Congress in the Revolt of the Admirals. Truman relieved the CNO on Navy Day. The B-36 never dropped a bomb in anger and was retired after 10 years.

Christian D. Orr revisits why the F-22 Raptor line, closed by Bob Gates in 2009 at 187 of 381 planned jets, will not restart: RAND priced 75 more at $20 billion in 2010, and a 2016 Air Force study released under FOIA in 2019 put 194 more at $9.869 billion in start-up costs, $206 million to $216 million per jet, and over $50.3 billion total, partly because the APG-77 and F119 are out of production.

The F-35 Will Soon Have the AIM-260 Missile: For all of the impressive capabilities of the Lockheed Martin “ Skunk Works ” F-35 Lightning II 5th Generation stealth fighter jet, one of its significant shortcomings—literally and figuratively—is its comparative lack of ability to “ Reach Out and Touch Someone ,” i.e., to strike targets at long distance.

The F-105 Thunderchief flew more than 20,000 sorties over Vietnam and 75 percent of the bombing sorties against the North, carrying up to 14,000 pounds, more than a B-17. It hit Mach 2.1.

The Ruger GP100 arrived in 1985 as the Security-Six's successor, built by investment casting with a triple-locking cylinder, and reloading manuals print loads marked “For Ruger Guns Only.” A former federal agent first fired one in 1990, bought a stainless 6-inch model in 2003, has put about 25,000 rounds through it, and won gold and silver medals with it bone-stock.

The A-12 Avenger II, the “Flying Dorito,” was a McDonnell Douglas-General Dynamics flying wing meant to replace the A-6 Intruder from carrier decks with stealth beyond the F-117's. The Navy planned 620, the Marines 238, and the Air Force reportedly weighed 400 more. Overweight, over budget, and late, it was canceled on January 7, 1991, in the largest program termination in Defense Department history, 10 days before Desert Storm. The only one built was a mockup.

France Libre, formerly PANG, is the 78,000-ton, 1,020-foot nuclear carrier meant to replace Charles de Gaulle, with EMALS catapults and 30 Rafale F5s.

The Improved Kilo-II, Russia's Project 636.3, displaces 3,950 tons submerged, makes 20 knots, stays out 45 days with a crew of 60, and carries 18 torpedoes or four Kalibr cruise missiles behind anechoic tiles that make it one of the quietest diesel boats anywhere.

The SR-71 Blackbird is still the fastest air-breathing aircraft, Mach 3.32 officially and 3.56 unofficially, 62 years after its first flight. The Air Force began retiring it in 1989 anyway: the fleet cost $200 million to $300 million a year, enough to run two fighter wings, its JP-7 fuel ran $18,000 an hour, and satellites and drones could do much of the job without risking a pilot.

Northrop's YF-23 Black Widow II lost the Advanced Tactical Fighter contest to the YF-22, and three decades later experts still say it was the better airplane: superior supersonic cruise, superior stealth, and more raw performance from GE's variable-cycle YF120 engine, giving up only a little low-speed maneuverability. Lockheed sold its jet's agility and thrust vectoring harder, and won what became the F-22 Raptor. Two prototypes flew; both survive, Gray Ghost at the Air Force museum in Dayton and Spider at the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance. Chuck Yeager's TV endorsement did not save it.