yeah, he prolly still looks at FR, so HEY DOG... i hear ya laughing!!!
Posted on 11/29/2015 8:12:51 PM PST by Mariner
The U.S. Air Force might buy 72 upgraded F-15, F-16 or even F-18 fighter aircraft due to low F-35 production rates and the high cost of the F-35.
The U.S. Air Force “is struggling to afford 48 F-35s a year†for the first years of full-rate production a senior Air Force officer told Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
Full rate-production is slated to begin in 2019 and the U.S. Air Force wants to buy 60 planes in 2020, and 80 F-35 per year after that. This year, the Air Force is to receive 28 F-35s, whereas in 2016 the number is slated to increase to 44. By 2038, the service wants to have 1763 F-35 aircraft in service. However, this procurement schedule might not be financially feasible for the Air Force.
F-15s and F-16s will serve longer and will outnumber F-35s and F-22s through the late 2020s.
Boeing is proposing an “F-15 2040C†series of upgrades that would extend the life of the fourth-generation F-15C air superiority fighter to complement the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor. The 2040 version would double to 16 the number of air-to-air missiles the fighter carries, extend its range and improve its lethality and survivability with upgraded electronics.
An F-15 2040C would also extend the fighter’s production line in St. Louis, which with 84 F-15SAs destined for Saudi Arabia has firm orders through 2019. Boeing previously offered a stealthy “Silent Eagle†version for South Korea’s F-X III fighter competition, but that country last year settled on the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II for the requirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at nextbigfuture.com ...
I agree wholeheartedly. In fact I believe it will be one of the great light attack aircraft.
But we DO need to augment our Air Superiority numbers to make their flying unobstructed.
250-300 new F-15 2040c's will put us in position to fly 1000 F-35s in an attack role, with some light Air Combat missions.
They are using US Military ground vehicles, weapons, commo assets and your head, bozo. Yeah, since you don’t know- the saud have been training in Idihidiho- for some time now- fkstick.
They are using many of the same make/model that were sold or gifted to other countries.
The issue on the table here is the USAF purchase of upgraded F-15s.
The Muslim Brotherhood, or ISIS, will never even set eyes on them...mush less fly them.
fkstick.
You bet.
yeah, he prolly still looks at FR, so HEY DOG... i hear ya laughing!!!
Money is going into a useless program because the perfumed princes of the USAF command want to send sacrificial lambs into danger to prove they are still relevant.
While air power is HUGELY important, splitting them from the ground forces was the single largest tactical error ever made by the armed forces of the entire planet, imho.
Because of the split, the single best ground support platform ever devised (A-10 Thunderbolt, AKA Warthog)is in danger because the USAF hates it, while the grunts and all other ground forces WORSHIP its aid!
Most, if not all air forces HATE having to fly anything that isn’t a “fast mover”. Flyboys are awesome, but wars are won by heavy lifters, not JUST zoomies.
You know the mil buyers and the builders need to re-think everything when it makes more sense to go with a beefed up 40 year old platform over the new design.
Buying new build F-16’s is what USAF should have been doing all along. Several evolutionary improvements to the F-16 have been proposed over the years, and USAF always shot them down in their mad chase for an all-stealth fleet.
I did not realize their builds are still so low. Still, six wings with thrust vectoring will make the turning champ.
This is excellent news.. for the other aircraft I’d agree.
Not for the American taxpayer, it’s a nightmare when it comes to the F-35. 15 years in developmental test and it’s a pathetic aircraft but like any government program they just keep dumping money into it.
“The Air Force should have pulled the plug on the POS F-35 years ago.”
That’s politically impossible because we sucked in our allies to put up money to develop this turkey. Italy has already built an aircraft carrier for their versions. The world-wide investment has been huge. Several years ago, a congressman said we should cancel the program and it provoked a huge international brouhaha.
Incidentally, Turkey was among the fist to sign up. Anything Turkey gets will be shared with Iran.
I guess they never heard of flying the birds out before the "hurricane" hits?
Lockheed made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
Did someone wake up somebody in charge at the Air Force!!!
The A-10 shuld be added to that list!!!
This article is garbage. Lockheed won’t sell the F-16 to USAF, it’s foreign customers only. Lockheed has already told the USG repeatedly, “If you wanna buy F-22s or F-35s, great! Wanna buy F-16s? Hit the road, Jack.”
It really is that simple.
Oh, you don't want to sell us 240 upgraded F-16's? Fine.
We'll cut our order for F-35's by 400 and buy and extra 100 of the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15's.
I agree with you, go buy strike eagles and tell Lockheed to suck it. Maybe they’d reconsider selling block 60 F-16s after a couple hundred strike eagles were purchased. Right now, the F-35 is the only jet on the USAF table as far as Lockheed is concerned. USAF bought the last F-16 in 2006.
“So aren’t the P-51 and F-86.
Should we keep buying them?”
The P-51, Yes. They would be amazing close air support attack aircraft.
Seems to me there would be a role for piston engined close support aircraft. Being less expensive, they could be produced in higher quantity -- serving as efficient "bomb trucks".
However, wouldn't a modern version of the P-47 be better equipped for this job? The air-cooled engine would be less vulnerable to small-arms fire than the liquid-cooled engine with radiator on the P-51.
Or better yet -- fire up the old AD-1 Skyraider line.
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