Posted on 02/25/2021 4:07:10 PM PST by maddog55
Yep, and they’re having the same problem with the new generation of tankers too. The KC-46 has become a huge boondoggle. The KC-135’s are still the backbone of the fleet but they are now over 60 years old and in desperate need of replacement.
F-15EX better plane coming soon.
Air Force Boss Wants Clean-Sheet Fighter That’s Less Advanced Than F-35 To Replace F-16
With a “son of F-16” under study, the Air Force's original procurement plan for the F-35 is looking increasingly precarious.
The F-15 is a blowtorch. It can smack lots of enemy targets.
I understand in the short-term that it failed in saving money, but what about the long-term? Will the costs go down long-term?
Perfect.
And they deep-sixed the F22 Raptor for what a layman could
see was going to be a failure to execute. (the F35)
Every time they made new claims about how wonderful the F35
was, I just shook my head.
McCainiac was in on this.
Agreed.
However, perhaps Musk can start up "AirForce-X" or something similar. I wouldn't doubt that he could build something better than the X-35, but at ~75 mil a piece. And, on a shorter timeframe.
Would be great to provide some modern competition to the legacy military contractors.
Turn the F16’s into drones that can swarm. Mix in a bunch of reapers and have at it. I hat I would imagine is hundreds of smaller drones being armed and launched off an aircraft carrier.
I know, forewarned is forearmed, and zer0bama ruinated our manufacturing base to favor china, and skated away laughing while he counted his bribe money.
Why does everyone think a missile into 3 Gorges Dam would win a war with China?
It provides less than 5% of their electricity at peak capacity (it does not operate peak other than in monsoons and drops off production greatly during their dry season - 6 months) and if the dam burst unleashing the reservoir it will kill a few million people in a nation with over a billion. Due to the dry season there, they more than have adequate power production to make up the difference.
It is certainly a big piece of infrastructure, the crown jewel even, but it would only inflame a nation of a billion people against us, piss off much of the world for such a casualty count, and invite similar attacks on our own infrastructure in an escalating tit for tat.
You are correct. The Warthog was to be replaced by the F35, as was the F16. Compromise.
Never going to happen. By the time mission creep, profiteering, delays, and overruns are done, it will probably cost as much as a B-21.
Or maybe buy a batch of SU-57s.
I have been a defender of purchasing the F-35 to replace th2 F/A-18, but with the trillion dollar overrun while it continuously fails to perform as advertised for YEARS, I have to admit it is a boondoggle.
A UAV is a device that isn’t limited by a pilot’s ability to withstand G-forces.
They’re great anti-attack-fighter weapons. Like smart anti-aircraft missiles
They are limited by their fuel requirement though which is why I believe they should be dropped into an area we want “air superiority” at a high altitude by a B-52 (or maybe the C-130).
And controlled by stealth jets to limit delay- or by “pilots” in a safe airspace.
Q. What is an elephant?
A. A mouse built to Mil Spec...
“The F-15 is a blowtorch. It can smack lots of enemy targets.”
That is very true but the eagles have lost every simulated contact with the F-35 in the war games exercises.
Mind you, the eagles have never had an air combat loss in over a hundred real world incidents but the R-35s swat them out of the air before the eagle drivers even know they are there.
People tend to hate facts.
Darn you.
What are we defending again?
Excellent and reasoned post.
God’s Eye is a significant leap forward in air power.
Quantity is a quality of it’s own...
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