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To: Terabitten
The F-4 was developed for the Navy. Being the first Navy jet ever to out perform its ground based peers, it was quickly jumped on by the USAF, despited the fact that it was much heavier than it needed to be for their purposes, and therefore less effective than a purpose built aircraft would have been.

The JSF is designed to be the one size fits all aircraft, and it might well be, but there is a much longer list of failures in this category.

Are you serious about rotating pilots? If so, then why stop there? We can get rid of separate training for helicopters, fighters, patrol, bombers, etc. After all a B-52 and a Harrier are both airplanes, and pilots fly airplanes.

And ground forces! Yes!!! Nail on the head!!!! If we could just get the Marines and the Army to use the same weapons, ammunition, helmets, etc. we wouldn't have those pesky supply chain problems where the Marine M-16s won't chamber the Army's M-16 ammo. Wait, something is amiss?
23 posted on 04/28/2005 4:31:15 PM PDT by SampleMan
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To: SampleMan

I can think of a couple of other early jets before the F-4 that found use in both Navy and Air Force colors. The Douglas A3D/B-66 came about because of the Navy's desire for a nuclear strike jet aircraft. They put on a little show of force during the 1956 Oklahoma City airshow when a couple of them launched from somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, I think, and did a sweep over Will Rogers airport. The AF used the B-66 mostly in recon mode, I believe.

The FJ spinoff of the North American F-86 was one of the first really good Navy jet fighters and served both Navy and Marine wings.

Then there was the F-111 which MacNamara tried to force down the Navy's throat. I have heard that if it was parked on the flight deck in the standard tail-outboard position, it was likely to fall off into the water. But they served the AF for years in various tactical roles.

Vought's F8U was certainly one of the best air superiority fighters of its day on land or sea, but the great F8U-3 follow-on lost out to the F-4 when the Navy opted for two engines/two seats. Then it gave birth to the A-7 ground support fighter for the AF (short little ugly feller).


41 posted on 04/28/2005 4:52:41 PM PDT by 19th LA Inf
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To: SampleMan
Are you serious about rotating pilots?

Once the USAF pilots learn to fly off of aircraft carriers, then they will be true aviators.

52 posted on 04/28/2005 5:30:58 PM PDT by reg45
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To: SampleMan
The F-4 was developed for the Navy.

The Phantom II was developed for the Navy and the Marine Corps.

78 posted on 04/28/2005 7:26:25 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: SampleMan
And ground forces! Yes!!! Nail on the head!!!! If we could just get the Marines and the Army to use the same weapons, ammunition, helmets, etc. we wouldn't have those pesky supply chain problems where the Marine M-16s won't chamber the Army's M-16 ammo. Wait, something is amiss?

If you recall, the Rangers in Grenada (or was it Panama? I don't recall aright) had to use their telephone credit cards to call back through Ft. Bragg to get Navy gunfire support, because their radios didn't talk to each other. The USMC was using PRC-77s *long* after the Army got SINCGARS, and the two won't talk to each other if the SINCGARS is transmitting in the red.

85 posted on 04/28/2005 7:58:29 PM PDT by Terabitten (I have a duty as an AMERICAN, not a Republican. We can never put Party above Nation.)
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