Pierre Sprey

Defense analyst, Criticism of the F-15

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 to make the larger, high-tech multi-role F-16 fighter currently in service. Sprey continues to be severely critical of the F-15 fighter despite the F-15's record of over 105 kills and no combat losses.

Sprey also helped write the initial design requirements for the A-X program that led to the contract for the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II and optimized its safety features. An article in the Washington Post quotes Sprey as saying the "Warthog" appears ungainly, but is "enormously difficult to shoot down", and is "devastating against tanks and other armored vehicles."

Sprey is often credited in popular-audience media as being a "co-designer" of both the A-10 and F-16 aircraft. In 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, Lara Seligman, the Pentagon editor of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine said Sprey "helped conceptualize the design of the F-16 and A-10 fighters."

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.

Criticism of the F-35

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 200 million dollar price tag per plane (more recent estimates of the per-plane cost of the F-35 range between 80 and 90 million dollars when larger numbers of aircraft are purchased ), the F-35 is less agile than the F-16, and flies at altitudes and speeds too high and fast to replace the A-10.

Sprey has stated that, 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". 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... ”

Response to Sprey's Criticism of the F-35

Pierre Sprey gained wide public notability after having been interviewed on his views of the F-35 by the popular-audience press, by Russian state-owned media such as Russia Today and Sputnik News, on the politics and policy news network C-SPAN, at a meeting of the activist group "Stop the F-35", 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 STVOL variant and the F-22, on the website of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine.

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. 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 - contradicting another notable claim of Sprey's.

Record production

Pierre Sprey now records music on his own label "Mapleshade" and sells high-end stereo 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."