Pierre Sprey
| Pierre Sprey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Pierre Sprey 1937 (age 77–78)[1] Nice, France[1] |
| Nationality | French/American |
| Occupation | defense analyst, record producer |
Pierre Sprey, born in 1937,[1] is a defense analyst and record producer. Together with John Boyd and Thomas P. Christie, he was a member of the self-dubbed 'Fighter Mafia', advocating the use of energy–maneuverability theory in fighter design.
Sprey was born in Nice, France, and raised in New York.[2] He was educated at Yale, where he studied aeronautical engineering and French literature, and also at Cornell, where he studied mathematical statistics and operations research. He subsequently worked at Grumman Aircraft as a consulting statistician.[1] From 1966 to 1970 he was a special assistant at the Office of the Secretary of Defense.[3]
The 'Fighter Mafia' worked behind the scenes in the late 1960s to pursue a lightweight fighter as an alternative to the F-15. The group 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. This led to the highly successful F-16. He also wrote the initial requirements for the A-X program that became the A-10 and optimized its safety features. The "Warthog" appears ungainly, but is "enormously difficult to shoot down", and "devastating against tanks and other armored vehicles."[2]
He is a critic of the F-35. He asserts that despite its 200 million dollar price tag per plane, it is less agile than the F-16, and flies at altitudes and speeds too high and fast to replace the A-10. Compared to the F-16 or A-10 (in both of whose operational roles it operates) he characterized 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".[4]
He now records music on his own label "Mapleshade" and sells high-end stereo equipment. His recording with the ARC Choir singing "Walk With Me" appears in Kanye West's hit "Jesus Walks." Sprey said he earned enough royalties from the West song "to support 30 of my money-losing jazz albums." [2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "What's Mapleshade?".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ricks, Thomas E (May 16, 2006), "Whatever happened to… Pierre Sprey?", The Washington Post (article).
- ↑ Michael J. Leahey (December 1989). "A History of Defense Reform Since 1970". Defense Technical Information Center.
- ↑ 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 (World Wide Web log) (Harper’s).