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...Air Force...
Gates' first showdown looms with a $350 million--a--pop fighter jet. He has to decide by March 1 whether to add more F-22 Raptor fighters to the 183 purchased by the Bush Administration. For years, the Air Force has wanted to double the fleet, while Gates has made clear that he thinks 183 is sufficient. A month ago, some Air Force officials were saying privately that maybe 60 more F-22s would suffice. The Pentagon's acquisition boss, John Young, recently detailed why more F-22s might be a poor investment. The F-22s that exist are ready...
Gates has tangled with the Air Force before. Shortly after arriving at the Pentagon in late 2006, he pushed to boost production of unmanned aircraft for use in intelligence work, only to run into the Air Force's long-standing love of manned fighters. But Gates' hunch was vindicated in Afghanistan and Iraq, where cheaper, unmanned Predator and Reaper drones have been flying around the clock but expensive F-22s have yet to appear. Air Force Major General Charles Dunlap Jr. has written that drones are "game-changing" because of their unprecedented ability to loiter for hours, waiting...
...subs have further minimized the need for penetrating warplanes. Meanwhile, much of the Raptor's sky-high price--and that of accompanying jammer planes and rescue helicopters--is driven by the need to get the pilot into harm's way and then safely out. Even worse, while the Air Force wants more fighters from a bygone era, it has been underbuying the drones that will rule the skies in the future. Though the number of unmanned aircraft is soaring, it hasn't kept pace with the demand in Afghanistan and Iraq, where requirements for full-motion video are growing...
...Japan, too, numerous companies have publicly announced their intention to minimize layoffs, even as the economy's outlook gets uglier. Air-conditioner maker Daikin plans to reduce investment in new equipment and carmaker Mazda has implemented pay cuts to minimize layoffs. "We need to share the pain with all," Mazda CEO Takashi Yamanouchi recently told reporters...