[Flightdeck]

"For that same money you could have 1,000 sub-orbital Burt Rutan-style fighters, a dozen B-2 stealth bombers, several F-117 stealth fighters, and still have enough money left over to purchase every Su-27 available on the market."

Since the B-2 cost $2.2 billion EACH, a dozen of them would already put you over budget. They wouldn't have cost that much if Lockheed had the contract, but that's another story. But as to your main point, the projected orders for the JSF are in the hundreds, and the FA/18 superhornets are gonna be around for a while. And militarily, a "Burt Rutan style fighter" is worthless. Why would we launch a teeny little thing up really high only for it to fall back down 15 minutes later only a hundred miles away?

[Southack]

"Why would we launch a teeny little thing up really high only for it to fall back down 15 minutes later only a hundred miles away?"

Why do we ever want our fighters to go faster and fly higher?

[Southack]

"But as to your main point, the projected orders for the JSF are in the hundreds"

Try not to spill your coffee if you hear that the JSF gets cancelled entirely in the next year.

[Oztrich Boy]

And militarily, a "Burt Rutan style fighter" is worthless. Why would we launch a teeny little thing up really high only for it to fall back down 15 minutes later only a hundred miles away?

But you have to admit the concept is mature technology (talk about planning for the last war - or five)