However, just as our nation made a strategic error in permitting our ability to successfully prosecute counterinsurgency campaigns to wither and atrophy after the Vietnam War, we must not make a similar mistake and undermine two of the unique foundations of our nation’s military strength: hegemony of the air and our unprecedented airlift capability. As you correctly stated this January, “our military must be prepared for a ‘full spectrum’ of operations, including the type of combat we’re facing in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as large scale threats that we face from places like North Korea and Iran.” Therefore, we are concerned the termination of production of the F-22 does not appear to be supported by any analytical study commissioned by the Department of Defense or the Air Force. In addition, though the decision to end production of the C-17 at 205 aircraft was supported by the 2005 Mobility Capability Study, this Study was criticized by the Government Accountability Office for underestimating our nation’s future airlift requirements. We are also unaware of any risk assessment that has been performed based on the Combatant Commanders’ requirements as to the decision to cease procurement of the F-22 and C-17. Regarding the F-22, unclassified extracts of the Air Force’s Sustaining Air Dominance Study state “180 F-22s was not enough” and the Department of Defense’s TACAIR Optimization study concluded the procurement of additional Raptors “was the best option.” On April 16th, these conclusions were reinforced by the comments made by General Norton A. Schwartz after the F-22 procurement termination was announced. General Schwartz stated that “243 [Raptors] is the military requirement.” This appears to be in direct contradiction to your statements on April 6th and 7th that there is no military requirement for more than 187 F-22s.