Pierre Sprey

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Pierre Sprey
Born(1937-11-22)November 22, 1937
Nice, France
DiedAugust 4, 2021(2021-08-04) (aged 83)
NationalityFrench/American
Occupationdefense analyst, record producer

Pierre Michel Sprey (November 22, 1937 – August 4, 2021) was a defense analyst and record producer. As a defense analyst working together with John Boyd and Thomas P. Christie, he was a member of the self-dubbed 'Fighter Mafia', which advocated the use of energy–maneuverability theory in fighter design.

Sprey was born in Nice, France in 1937,[1][2] and raised in New York.[3] After studying at Cornell University he studied mathematical statistics and operations research. He subsequently worked at Grumman Aircraft as a consulting statistician[2] on space and commercial transportation projects. From 1966 to 1970 he was a special assistant at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.[4] After 1971, Sprey left the US Department of Defense, but continued working as a consultant on military issues until 1986, when he became a recording engineer and later founded the Mapleshade Records label.[5]

Defense analyst, criticism of the F-15[]

Main article: Fighter Mafia

During the 1960s, Pierre Sprey belonged to a group of defense analysts who called themselves the 'Fighter Mafia'. At the time he joined them, he had been a weapons system analyst working for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. The 'Fighter Mafia' group of defense analysts worked behind the scenes in the late 1960s to advocate a lightweight fighter as an alternative to the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.[6][citation needed]

The Fighter Mafia strongly believed that an ideal fighter should not include any of the sophisticated radar and missile systems or rudimentary ground-attack capability that found their way into the F-15. Their goal, based on energy–maneuverability theory, was a small, low-drag, low-weight, pure fighter with no bomb racks. The Fighter Mafia influenced the design requirements of the highly successful General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, although they were not happy with design changes made to the YF-16 as it became a costlier multi-role fighter rather than the lighter air-to-air specialist they originally envisioned.[7][8] Sprey continued to be critical of the F-15 fighter.[9][10][11]

Pierre Sprey left the Pentagon in 1971, continuing to consult on the F-16, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, armor and anti-tank weapons to the media. He also helped lead two consulting firms, one active in international defense planning and weapons analysis. At this time, Sprey continued to work in combat data-based cost effectiveness analysis of air and ground weapons. He and Colonel John Boyd worked with others in the Pentagon and Congress toward military reform, helping gain passage of military reform legislation in the early 1980s.[5]

Criticism of the F-35 and A-10 divestment[]

Sprey gained notability as a frequent critic of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II program. He argued, paralleling his earlier arguments against the F-15, that despite its high cost the F-35 is less agile than the F-16. Sprey argued that compared to the F-16 or A-10 (in both of whose operational roles it is marketed to operate) the F-35 was overweight and dangerous, stating “It’s as if Detroit suddenly put out a car with lighter fluid in the radiator and gasoline in the hydraulic brake lines: That’s how unsafe this plane is…" and "full of bugs".[12]

He argued that in the close air support (CAS) role, the F-35 is a poor replacement for the A-10 as it flies too fast for pilots to spot targets by eye and lacks maneuverability at low speeds.[13] He said It lacks the necessary radios,[14] cannot survive small arms fire (or anti-aircraft guns) and has poor loiter time.[15] Sprey contended that close air support should be the Air Force's most important mission and that the USAF has been trying to retire the A-10 for years simply because it does not want the CAS mission.[16]

Response to Sprey's criticism of the F-35[]

Sprey gained wide public notability after having been interviewed on his views of the F-35 by the popular press,[17][18] on the politics and policy news network C-SPAN,[19] at a meeting of the activist group "Stop the F-35",[20] and during a podcast of a debate between Sprey and a retired US Marine Corps combat pilot and instructor at the "TOPGUN" United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program who had piloted both the F-35B STOVL variant and the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, on the website of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine.[21]

Advocates of the F-35 state that the plane's unit costs is now 77.9 million for the Air Force F-35A and 94.4 to 101.3 million for the Naval F-35B and F-35C variants.[22] Sprey had said in an interview with the CBC's The Fifth Estate that the F-35 would likely cost over 200 million per plane (including development costs rather than excluding them).[23] However with 900 F-35s having been built,[24] the 71.9 billion R&D costs including block 4 upgrades result in a total unit cost of 158 million to 181 billion; once all US aircraft are built the average is estimated to fall to 131 million per jet not including foreign sale premiums that would further amortize R&D costs.[25]

Sprey is sometimes wrongly credited in mainstream media as being a "co-designer" of both the A-10 and F-16 aircraft. In fact, Sprey took no part in the designing of these aircraft.[26] An introduction to a podcast debate between Sprey and Lt. Col. David Berke (US Marine Corps (ret.), a former combat pilot and instructor at the "Topgun" said Sprey "helped conceptualize the design of the F-16 and A-10 fighters."[21]

2017 saw widespread questioning of Sprey's perspective on the F-35. In the Paris Air Show that year, an F-35A demonstrated a range of complex aerobatic maneuvers that led commentators in the aviation and popular press to question Sprey's allegations that the F-35 was incapable of flying at low level, at low speeds, or with the agility of the F-16.[27][28] In addition, defense-related blogs carried interviews with pilots who fly and train others to fly the F-35 who report that it has higher angle of attack and better close-in maneuverability than the F-16 during dogfighting.[29][30]

Record production[]

Pierre Sprey recorded music through his own label "Mapleshade" and sold high-end audiophile equipment. His recording with the Addicts Rehabilitation Center (ARC) Choir singing "Walk With Me" appears in Kanye West's 2004 hit "Jesus Walks." Sprey said he earned enough royalties from the West song "to support 30 of my money-losing jazz albums."[3]

Sprey's recording techniques are highly unconventional, aiming for accurate reproduction of live music rather than manipulating sounds (e.g. with equalizers, pitch correction, etc.).

Death[]

Sprey died on August 4, 2021 of an apparent heart attack.[31][2][32]

References[]

  1. ^ Analysis of the General Circular Search Problem. Cornell Univ. 1960.
  2. ^ a b c "What's Mapleshade?".[dead link]
  3. ^ a b Ricks, Thomas E (May 16, 2006), "Whatever happened to… Pierre Sprey?", The Washington Post (article).
  4. ^ Leahey, Michael J. (December 1989). "A History of Defense Reform Since 1970". Defense Technical Information Center.
  5. ^ a b "Pierre Sprey". Project On Government Oversight. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  6. ^ Ford, Daniel (April 2010). A Vision so Noble. Durham, New Hampshire: Warbird Books. pp. 14–15. ISBN 978-1451589818. So Pierre Sprey, one of the civilian members of the Fighter Mafia, was tasked with designing the USAF's first dedicated ground support aircraft⸻one that could "carry a large payload over a reasonable distance, loiter in the target area for a considerable time, operate under low ceilings in reduced visability [sic] ... support troops in contact," and kill enemy tanks. As part of his research, as Sprey told Grant Hammond, he brought German World War II veterans to "CIA safe houses on Maryland's eastern shore" to brief the design team on the air-ground techniques that were central to German battlefield successes in the early years of World War II.
  7. ^ Bjorkman, Eileen. "The Outrageous Adolescence of the F-16". Air space mag.
  8. ^ Coram, Robert (2002). Boyd: the fighter pilot who changed the art of war. New York: Little, Brown, & Co. ISBN 0-316-88146-5.
  9. ^ Rogoway, Tyler. "Pierre Sprey's Anti-F-35 Diatribe Is Half Brilliant And Half Bullshit". Foxtrot Alpha. Retrieved September 7, 2017. …to think that the F-15 is a loser even after four decades of incredible success, not to mention the fact that it has never been bested in air-to-air combat and retains a kill ration of 105.5 to 0. This denial of clear historical reality is a startling indication that Mr. Sprey may be living in the 1970s when it comes to air-combat doctrine, or maybe he simply does not want to admit that his stripped down, all super-maneuverable light-weight visual fighters or nothing initiative was not the right path for America's air combat forces after all.
  10. ^ Clark, Geoffrey (August 28, 2017). "F-35 Lightning II - Mystics & Statistics". Dupuy Institute. Retrieved September 7, 2017. ‘Surprise is the first because, in every air war since WWI, somewhere between 65% and 85% of all fighters shot down were unaware of their attacker.’ Sprey mentions that the F-16 is superior to the F-15 due to the smaller size, and that fact that it smokes much less, both aspects that are clearly Within-Visual Range (WVR) combat considerations. Further, his discussion of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) combat is dismissive.
  11. ^ Grier, Peter (August 2010). "USAF's Indispensable 'Failures'" (PDF). Air Force Magazine. Retrieved September 7, 2017. In 1981, Sprey wrote an airpower section in a book issued by the Heritage Foundation which questioned the F-15’s effectiveness. The F-15 was larger and more visible than its predecessor the F-4, wrote Sprey, making it vulnerable in daylight close-in dogfighting. He claimed the Eagle was too dependent on radar guided missiles, which ‘are not likely to be more effective than those used in Vietnam.’
  12. ^ Cockburn, Andrew (June 6, 2013), "Flight of the Discords: The military–industrial–congressional complex bullies the F-35 Lightning II into Burlington", Heart of empire, Harper's Magazine.
  13. ^ Grazier, Dan. "The U.S. Air Force Knows the A-10 Will Beat the F-35". War is Boring. Retrieved January 24, 2018. article originally appeared at the Project on Government Oversight.
  14. ^ Trevithick, Joseph (March 13, 2015). "Now the U.S. Air Force Wants You to Believe the A-10 Is Too Old to Fight". War is Boring – via Medium.com.
  15. ^ "Defence analyst Pierre Sprey on the F-35", The Fifth Estate, 4 min 7 s, December 27, 2016 [2012], retrieved January 24, 2018
  16. ^ Sprey, Pierre (December 2013). "What is close air support (CAS) and why is it airpower's most important mission?" (PDF). Pogo archives.
  17. ^ "Report: In test dogfight, F-35 gets waxed by F-16". Ars Technica. June 30, 2015. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  18. ^ "Extended Interview: Pierre Sprey". the fifth estate. CBC. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  19. ^ "Pierre Sprey". www.c-span.org. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  20. ^ "Pierre Sprey and USAF Col Rosanne Greco TV Interview at Center for Media and Democracy - Stop the F-35". Stop the F-35. June 1, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  21. ^ a b "Podcast: F-35 in the Crossfire, Part 1". aviationweek.com. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  22. ^ "F-35 lot 12-14 factsheet" (PDF). F35.com. October 29, 2019.
  23. ^ "Defence analyst Pierre Sprey on the F-35 (2012)". YouTube.[dead link]
  24. ^ "Northrop Grumman completes 900th F-35 fuselage". www.aerotime.aero. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  25. ^ "F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program" (PDF).
  26. ^ Michel III, Marshall L (December 15, 2006). "The Revolt of the Majors: How the Air Force Changed After Vietnam" (doctoral dissertation). Auburn University. Retrieved May 26, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  27. ^ "Watch the F-35 Fighter Jet Shut Down Haters With a Stomach-Exploding Demo Flight". Wired. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  28. ^ "F-35 Unleashed: Paris Flight Demo Displays Warfighting Potential". Aviation Week. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  29. ^ Clark, Colin (June 19, 2017). "Pilots Say F-35 Superior Within Visual Range: Dogfight Criticisms Laid To Rest". Breaking Defense. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  30. ^ "Norwegian Pilot: Yes, the F-35 Can Dogfight". War is boring. March 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2017. My experience so far is that the F-35 makes it easier for me to maintain the offensive role [compared to an F-16], and it provides me more opportunities to effectively employ weapons at my opponent.
  31. ^ Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (August 8, 2021). "Pierre Sprey was the 'Fighter Mafia' wingman". Responsible Statecraft. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
  32. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/pierre-sprey-dead/2021/08/20/fe995430-ff6e-11eb-ba7e-2cf966e88e93_story.html

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