Russ Feingold: “I am a fighter pilot. I love fighter aircraft. But even though my service--I am a Marine--doesn't have a dog in the…”

“I am a fighter pilot. I love fighter aircraft. But even though my service--I am a Marine--doesn't have a dog in the fight, it is difficult to watch the grotesquerie that is the procurement of the Navy's new strike-fighter, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. Billed as the Navy's strike-fighter of the future, the F/A- 18 E/F is instead an expensive failure--a travesty of subterfuge and poor leadership. Intended to overcome any potential adversaries during the next 20 years, the aircraft is instead outperformed by a number of already operational aircraft--including the fighter it is scheduled to replace, the original F/A-18 Hornet. The Super Hornet concept was spawned in 1992, in part, as a replacement for the 30 year-old A-6 Intruder medium bomber. Though it had provided yeoman service since the early 1960s, the A-6 was aging and on its way to retirement by the end of the Gulf War in 1991. The Navy earlier tried to develop a replacement during the 1980s--the A-12--but bungled the project so badly that the whole mess was scrapped in 1991. The A-12 fiasco cost the taxpayers $5 billion and cost the Navy what little reputation it had as a service that could wisely spend taxpayer dollars. Nevertheless, the requirement for an A-6 replacement remains.”