Son, we are going to be crushed. Even Canada finds the F-35 unpalatable. We had better have one hell of a backup, and a full flock of pilots ready to go. We are going to lose every dogfight situation.
The plan is to have ten times more Lightnings than Raptors. Somebody seems to think 187 Raptors are enough or air dominance and then the Lightning has clear path for attack role.
That seems like cutting the quantity dangerously close to me.
Seems to me we should have 350-400 Raptors just in case. From what I’ve read Raptors enjoy a 280 to 1 kill ratio over enemy aircraft...which basically means it always wins, excepting human error.
I don’t like that quality/quantity mix....unless they believe we have something that is near ready, that is better.
The whole Raptor Lightning saga is really interesting, but air dominance is too critical to really enjoy the saga.