How would you like to be a young USAF LT. assigned that aircraft?
Hopefully, we deploy a squadron to the med...for operational use against Iran.
> This vital mission ...
Umm, why do we want to waste a low-observable in a region
where that is irrelevant?
Or is this just sea trials?
Real nice plane and it should be.. they have been working on this for decades. Back in the Big One,,the USA was able to put a fighter into combat in months, from drawings, to production, and on to war.
a production run of 5000 planes would reassure me. 125 of them and its really "So What?" in an extended war.
How soon before they're combat tested in Iran?