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To: hattend
The guy is right that an all stealth fighter fleet is not practical in the short term, i.e. the next decade. But in the long run (i.e. beyond 10 years), we don't have a choice. Just as prop fighters were outclassed by jets during the Korean War, non-stealth fighters will be massacred by near-stealth or stealth fighters fielded by our adversaries. We've been lucky in not having to fight a near-peer adversary in the last 70 years. We can't count on never having to do so. Note that in Vietnam alone, we lost over 900 fighter aircraft in combat against a major but non-peer adversary. We can't assume that all future non-peer adversaries will be as unmotivated and incompetent as the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Israelis are right - it's easy to look good when you're fighting Arabs and/or Muslims.
9 posted on 11/02/2012 10:07:47 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei
North Vietnam was hardly a non-peer environment. Instead of swarms of Migs, the North Viets most effective countermeasure was primarily the surface-to-air missile. We lost over 900 aircraft largely due to political considerations. ROE prevented us from intercepting the Russian freighters that delivered the SAMs.
12 posted on 11/03/2012 4:33:16 AM PDT by Jacquerie (Exterminate rats.)
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