Much more than just a fighter, “they are flying sensor-shooters,” said David Deptula, the dean of the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Power Studies. “We will value them much more for their ability to penetrate and operate in contested airspace, collect information and then rapidly move that information back to the decision makers than perhaps their ability to shoot missiles or drop bombs,” the retired Air Force lieutenant general told Air Force Times.
And Deptula has been outspoken about this before.
“This has been manifest by the F-22 and its use [over] Syria today,” Deptula said, alluding to its work against the Islamic State group, which
Pentagon leaders consistently tout in the theater as using high-tech sensors.
“It’s been valued in Syria, not because it has shot down any enemy airplane, but because it is acting as an information vacuum cleaner and then taking that information and passing it to the rest of the force dramatically increasing its situational awareness,” he continued. “They’re acting as quarterbacks because of their information collection.”
