Pierre Sprey

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.

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.[5][6] Sprey continues to be critical of the F-15 fighter.[7][8][9]

Pierre Sprey left the Pentagon in 1971, continuing to consult on the F-16, A-10, armor and anti-tank weapons. 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.[4]

Pierre Sprey gained wide notability as a frequent critic of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II program. He argues, paralleling his earlier arguments against the F-15, that despite its high cost (likely over 200 million dollar per plane depending on the number purchased), the F-35 is less agile than the F-16. Compared to the F-16 or A-10 (in both of whose operational roles it is marketed to operate) the F-35 as 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".[10] The Russian state-controlled online magazine Sputnik News quoted Sprey as saying: “The F-35 is so bad it is absolutely hopeless when pitted against modern aircraft. In fact, it would be ripped to shreds even by the antiquated MiG-21…”[11]

He argues that in the close air support role, the F-35 is a poor A-10 replacement as it flies too fast for pilots to spot targets with their eyeball and lacks maneuverability at low speeds.[12] He says It lacks the necessary radios,[13] cannot survive small arms fire (or anti-aircraft guns) and has poor loiter time.[14] Sprey contends 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.[15]

Pierre Sprey gained wide public notability after having been interviewed on his views of the F-35 by the popular-audience press,[16][17] by Russian state-owned media such as Russia Today and Sputnik News,[11][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 has piloted both the F-35B STOVL variant and the F-22, on the website of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine.[21]

Advocates of the F-35 state that the plane's unit costs will range between 80 and 95 million dollars when larger numbers of aircraft are purchased.[22][23] Sprey 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).[24]

Sprey is sometimes credited in popular-audience media as being a "co-designer" of both the A-10 and F-16 aircraft. In other cases he is simply cited as helping to design these planes. 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" United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program) said Sprey "helped conceptualize the design of the F-16 and A-10 fighters."[21] Sprey took no part in the designing of these aircraft.[25]

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.[26][27] 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.[28][29]

On September 28, 2018, an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter crashed in South Carolina. The US, UK, and Israel each subsequently grounded their entire fleet of F-35s. On October 12, Pierre Sprey stated in an interview with Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear show that "the reason for both the high cost and low quality of the plane's parts is the way the procurement system operates. Built into this system are incentives for cost overruns and corruption by military brass who go on to lucrative defense contracts after they retire."[30]

Pierre Sprey now records music through his own label "Mapleshade" and sells 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."[2]

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.) to make mediocre artists sound good. He records with only two tracks as the multitracking approach compromises the reproduction of the live music experience.[31]

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Pierre Sprey, "Countering a Warsaw Pact Blitz", in Proceedings of the Seminar on Antitank Warfare, May 25–26, 1978 (discusses design considerations for future antitank aircraft)
• Pierre Sprey, Combat Effectiveness Considerations in Designing Close Support Aircraft(n.d., 1970s) (slide presentation)