Posted on 02/25/2021 4:07:10 PM PST by maddog55
The U.S. Air Force’s top officer wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of Cold War-vintage F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated—but costly and unreliable—stealth fighters.
The result would be a high-low mix of expensive “fifth-generation” F-22s and F-35s and inexpensive “fifth-generation-minus” jets, explained Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr.
If that plan sounds familiar, it’s because the Air Force a generation ago launched development of an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of Cold War-vintage F-16s and complement a small future fleet of sophisticated—but costly and unreliable—stealth fighters.
But over 20 years of R&D, that lightweight replacement fighter got heavier and more expensive as the Air Force and lead contractor Lockheed Martin LMT -1.4% packed it with more and more new technology.
Yes, we’re talking about the F-35. The 25-ton stealth warplane has become the very problem it was supposed to solve. And now America needs a new fighter to solve that F-35 problem, officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Why would we attack mainland China to defend Taiwan? That would open the door to them attacking mainland USA.
Oddly enough a squadron of EA6s would probably last 3 months.
Same thing happened with the F-111B, which nevertheless became one of the most effective light bombers in American history . . . although it was designed to be a fighter/bomber.
However, every time you go for “cheaper & more,” the argument comes back, “who wants to fly a plane that doesn’t have state-of-the-art weapons/electronics?” We found, for example, that we couldn’t even sell the F-20 Tigershark because everyone wanted the F-16/F-15s.
+1
No. A10 is not a fighter. It is only a bomb truck.
Let the army take over close air support. Let the zoomers be zoomers and have standoff air support.
Simple.
We wouldn't. The US has recognized Taiwan as part of China since 1983. When the PLA lands in Taiwan, it will go down like when Germany "invaded" Austria in 1938.
A updated b58 stealth bomber might widen our envelope.
I agree.
But it doesn’t address the question.
If its “biggest problem” is that demand exceeds supply, then it is not a failed platform. Israel is the prime example, although they heavily modify it.
The Dems back in charge and the propaganda begins to cut funding for the F35.
The AF made it very clear that the reason they want some cheaper aircraft is that, “...you don’t take a Masserati out every day...you take it out on weekends... .
They don’t want to waste the flight hours o the F35 on doing basic air cap missions, anti insurgency, non peer missions. The F35 is for peer competitors...as in China.
“Wasn’t the F-35 meant to be the version of the F-22 that’s carrier capable?:
No.
Different missions. F22 Raptor is air superiority fighter.
F35 is multi role focusing on attack aircraft or the former, “fighter bomber” role.
In 1942 and 1943 we launched 151 aircraft carriers.
Now, it takes nine years to build a single one.
You might tell that to the Israeli Air Force, whose F-16 squadrons strike at will across Syria with relative impunity. They, like we, possess the Electronic Warfare capabilities to jam, confuse and blind those latest Russian SAM systems. That’s why we often hear about Israeli air strikes, but rarely about IAF aircraft losses.
2. Not sure why you would capitalize a comment (as if to refute something I posted) regarding the electrical grid. I said nothing about the topic.
3. I simply posted some estimates by others, on the damage if the dam were to fail, in response to your statement "if the dam burst unleashing the reservoir it will kill a few million people."
4. As for not being "catastrophic" further away from the dam...the Chinese infrastructure isn't in any shape to have to evacuate (for example) the entire populations of California and New York together (~50 million people), let alone ~400 million in a matter of hours. Even a day or two.
It's all speculation of course, but based on the volume of water, population density, local geography and local "infrastructure," I would say even within a few hours from the initial event there would be far...far more casualties than "a few million people"
Replace the zoomers with AI and Gamerz REMFs.
It was not meant to be personal or snarky. I am frustrated that every thread about conflict with China mentions or insinuates that knocking out this dam as if it would somehow “end China”.
It does not even meet the criteria of a “military target” as we view it in the West. It is a “total war” target that would be on par with using a nuke on a civilian population and the CCP would view it as such.
The quickest way to antagonize the Chinese populace would be to do something like this. Everyone should stop mentioning this dam as if somehow the breaking of it and subsequent flooding (and power loss as stated by many) would bring China to its knees. It is fantasy.
The CCP is the enemy of the Chinese people and the West. Too few understand the unlikely coalition of “China” and how the majority of the Chinese people DO NOT want to dominate the world. They just want to live their lives like we do and they don’t like the CCP either.
Reagan understood how to defeat communism. Sadly, that lesson is lost on most of our leaders today and the one man who understood it was removed by those who serve the CCP’s interests here in our own country.
Let gamerz be gamerz. They fly the most missions anyways.
I favor a combination for close air support. It’s all about loiter time and how much firepower you can bring onto the enemy. Plenty of A10s,spooky gunships, apache helicopters, predator drones, heck even a ton of A1 Skyraiders. Precision guided missiles or artillery.
Soon there will be EXACTO laser guided bullets. A squad could control a 10 mile wide valley.
In the Falklands conflict, the Brits converted 2 cargo ships into light carriers in a matter of WEEKS. Try that with standard zoomer aircraft of today.
Wasn’t the F20 just an updated F5?
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