Chart Credit: Lockheed Martin
Chart Credit: Lockheed Martin
You get what you pay for.
After all these years, the F-16 continues to be the best damn MRF ever.
It appears physics and engineering capped out in the early 1970’s.
In 10 or so years (late 60s, early 70s) we developed and deployed the F-16 MRF, the F-15 Air Superiority, the F-18 MRF, the F-14 Tomcat (killed by politics not ability) and the B-1 Lancer. Not to mention the craft that will never be bettered until we get warp drive: the SR-71 Blackbird.
The F-22’s avionics may have given it an edge, but it has never actually proven itself to be 1:1 air superiority over, say, the F-15.
The only meaningful change since then have been the F-117 Nighthawk and the B-2 Spirit. But they were incremental, not fundamental, changes.
My point is: Back then we had grand ideas that started from a napkin and ended in short order in production-ready craft that have stood the test of time.
Nowadays, we have the F-35 flying anvil which took 20 years to even get a test drive and are useless for any purpose.
A camel is a mouse built to government specifications.
We wont sell the F-22 even to nations like Japan of Australia. And nobody wants the F-35 moonpig. Its underarmed, underfueled, slow, can’t turn, and can’t accelerate.
Its the slowest machine we’ve built in decades. And its vaunted stealth will be stripped away by the next gen of computer analysis of radar images. This will likely happen before it is even fully deployed.
Who wants to buy a 25 year airframe that will have its main selling point ruined in 5 years? Better to go with a Sukhoi or a Strike Eagle. Or wait for an unmanned airframe.
“But its price tag, in excess of $100 million per airplane,[...]”
The price is in excess of $200 million per aircraft.
ping