Israel and the U.S. fly planes that both grandfathers and grandsons have flown over the decades.
One of my favorite places in the world is Lake Havasu, Arizona. We spent a couple of days there and enjoyed ourselves immensely. On our way back up to Vegas, we stopped at Kingman. Kingman is on the iconic Route 66 and is a great place to see America. I was unaware that there was a plane boneyard just outside of town. I would have loved to have gone up and down the rows of old planes that gave thousands of hours of service each and now enjoy their retirement in the blazing Arizona desert.
Israeli planes do not do early retirement. I knew that something was weird when I saw pictures of F-15s preparing to bomb Tehran. They had round Syrian flags on the nose for each plane downed—in the 1980s. There is no way to sugarcoat this: Israel has some really old fighter planes. Sure, they have a gaggle of F-35s as well as newer F-16I and F-15I models. Still, there are planes in the Israeli inventory that the US Air Force would consider museum pieces. It was reported that old F-16s were modified so as not to require any refueling during the 3,000 km roundtrip attacks on Iran. Sure, they held a lower bomb load but their independence freed up Israel’s limited tanker fleet to deal with other planes. Only a few years ago, Israel retired the F-16s that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. They were meant for Iran but after the Islamic revolution were shipped instead to Israel. Those planes are now in a museum.
The U.S. also has old planes. Those monstrous B-52s thundering over friendly and enemy skies were built in the 1960s. They are scheduled to remain in service until 2040. F-22s and B-2s are children of the 1980s and still have years of expected service in them. It is an incredible testimony to the designers, manufacturers and handlers of these planes that they can keep them in the air and relevant for the 21st century aerial battlefield. There was some consternation when Israel destroyed the last F-14s in service, as they were blown up on the tarmac this summer in Iran. Good thing that Top Gun: Maverick already came out.
All of the planes mentioned above and others like the irreplaceable A-10 and C-130 undergo constant maintenance and upgrades. There is no way one can compare a modern B-52H which is about to get all new engines (B-52J) with the original version that included a rear-facing M61 Vulcan cannon. Everything has been improved and modernized. The new engines are the same size as the old but far more efficient and maintenance-friendly. The Air Force cannot add bigger engines without reengineering the wing so as to prevent the engines from hitting the ground. The A-10’s (last plane produced in 1984) Gatling gun fires so hard that it pushes the plane backwards. No fixed-wing aircraft is as devastating to enemy troops or vehicles. Israel added larger external fuel tanks to its fleet so as to add distance to potential missions. The massive amount of flying against Hamas, the Houthis and Iran has put enormous wear on the planes, many already in their golden years. Drones are playing a greater role in warfighting but manned aircraft are still critical.
There is a story of a very young Israeli F-15 pilot who had a crash with an A-4 Skyhawk and lost the plane’s right wing. He was ordered to bail out but stayed with the plane and landed. He was arrested upon landing for ignoring a direct order. Boeing came out to see how he could fly and land the plane with only one wing. The powerful engines and large body of the plane are credited with keeping the plane level. That bird is also in full service and made its way to Iran and back.
When the USS Truman was on patrol off of Yemen, it lost two F-18 jets that fell overboard due to accidents. The planes run about $70 million apiece. There was no intention to lose the planes, but the U.S. is so wealthy that it can make up for the losses pretty quickly. When we were in the Thunderbirds hangar at Nellis AFB, the chief mechanic told us that the Air Force uses the newest block of F-16s for the acrobatic team. On the other hand, he claimed that the Navy’s Blue Angels use F-18s that are one step from the boneyard. I could not corroborate his words, but it did sound like some good, healthy interservice rivalry.
When we were in the hangar, one F-16 was off-limits as they were in the process of replacing the explosive bolts used on the ejection seat. One of the major steps to make air travel safer and increase the lifespan of airframes has been the way parts are replaced. In the past, a part was swapped out when it had worn out or showed signs of fatigue. Today, most critical parts are inspected and/or replaced on a time-based system. After 200 hours, part X is replaced. It can look as good as new, but it will be removed and replaced. Air travel is extremely safe, and one reason is the constant maintenance and preventative work that switches parts out before they can wear out, break, or cause other problems. Old explosive bolts have rusted and gone off on their own. The replacement on the F-16 was standard maintenance. Modern jet engines send reams of data back to their manufacturer and the airline in real time, so that if any work is needed, the ground crew knows what to prepare prior to the plane’s arrival.
While American B-52 pilots at times say that their own grandfathers flew the same plane in their day, there is little left from those original planes. Through modernization, upkeep, and additions, the planes today look quite different than they did when they were first produced by Boeing. The very first plane had the pilots sitting one in front of the other, like in a fighter. General Curtis LeMay told Boeing to put the pilot and co-pilot next to each other, a huge advantage during the long missions often flown by U.S. bomber crews. Two copies of the new B-21 Raider are going through their paces at Edwards AFB. They will replace the B-2, whose performance over Iran will be the stuff of legends for generations to come. That the Raider looks substantively like the B-2 suggests that Rockwell has found a winning shape for stealth bombers. The last B-2 was produced 25 years ago, and the entire fleet is to be replaced with B-21s, which will join the B-52s and B-1Bs as the backbone of America’s bomber force.
While new C-130Js are being produced by Lockheed Martin, their massive C-5 last rolled off an assembly line in 1989. A combination of very successful plane designs, excellent engines, and outstanding maintenance and improvements is keeping the best of America’s planes up in the air. The last B-29, the model that dropped the two atomic bombs, was retired in 1960, a mere 15 years after the end of the war. If the B-52 had suffered a similar fate, it would have ended its role before 1980.
Israel and the U.S. benefit from robust planes that are continually modernized. It is the pilots who make the planes successful, but the planes give their pilots the performance and capabilities to do a wide range of jobs in all kinds of challenging threat environments. So, keep flying F-15s, F-16s, and the other venerable planes of the best air forces in the world. They are a very hard act to follow.