somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...
Posted on 02/25/2021 4:07:10 PM PST by maddog55
We can’t afford the affordable replacements for the F16 which was hated by the Pentagon because John Boyd designed it to be an affordable stripped down high performance fighter. Turns out it is still affordable and still high performance.
I wonder how much the DOD will be paying Starlink. I see so much capability.
I think this is more Forbes admitting they don’t know what an F-35 is.
It’s an Fighter in the sense of it’s ancestor the F-105. It is more of a deep penetration strike aircraft. Where the 105 used terrain following the 35 uses stealth. They are polar opposites of the F16, designed as a fighter in it’s purest form. Load an F-16 down with fuel and munitions it would need to fly a F-35’s mission and see which one is a dog.
But.....by all means....what can we build to fill the niche of the early F16?
Looking forward to buying one when they hit eBay
Initially, it would likely kill 10's of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions.
There are some 400 million living in the path of a potential flood.
The estimates on the massive size and speed of the resulting "tsumani" are incredible (simulation at link).
Of course, food sources/supplies to China would be seriously impacted. Production of just about everything else would be affected as well - 15% of the world’s manufacturing would stop.
Hahahaha...
Anything they design now will end up costing more than the F-35. It’s the nature of the beast.
Best thing they could do is buy another batch of F-16s. But they won’t do that.
Probably, just out of the fact of the sheer volume of them that will exist and need regular and routine maintenance and overhauls.
But i already thought they have a 6th gen fighter design in prototype phase
We would hear the truth from an F35 pilot, but the article doen’t have a single quote from one. Instead, the article gives us the opinions oh a reporter and a program manager.
I’ve got the perfect solution. Create a new fighter. That doesn’t have a pilot. And let the Army have it instead of the Air Force.
And we need to design them a new plane.
You know better than I, God Bless the US Air Force, God Bless America!
somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...
Yep.
The only thing that can replace the F-16 is another F-16. Sadly I watched Lockheed tearing out all the machine tools that made the airframe parts in the winter of 2006, while ramrodding an equipment installation at FW for the F-35. So we’ll have to start over.
Having been that close to the F-35 program, I’m another guy who thinks that the popular press sells it short. Maybe that’s to the good. Sun Tzu said never to show your enemy your true capabilities.
But more likely it’s just Pentagon Budget Politics.
USAF can’t even field an advanced trainer to replace the 60 year-old T-38 in less than a decade.
They can’t even organize a piss up in a pub.
You’re right. In a shooting war with the Chinese, it’ll be our missiles from subs against their missiles. Our surface navy, particularly our carriers, will be far away from danger after the first ship hits the bottom of the Pacific. Anybody who still believes that their anti-ship missiles aren’t good enough is kidding themselves.
tooo funny...
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.
There are a hundred different ways to interfere with broadcasts to UAVs. There is a reason why first-world militaries don't deploy them against other first-world militaries. Absent independent AI that doesn't need to phone home (which creates its own issues), UAVs will never replace the Mark I Eyeball...
So your takeaway is we need to throw more money at the “problem”?
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