F-111 and McNamara all over again.
LOL you and I had the same thought. Seems the military never learns from the past and the Air Force never learns the value of mission specific aircraft.
The F-111 ended up being a phenominal interdiction/strike medium bomber, and the USN’s requirements changed to place a lot more emphasis on ACM.
As it was the USN’s F-111 replacement, the F-14 Tomcat, was getting new engines, new avionics and new sensors by the late 1980s and early 1990s, only about 15 years after it’s initial deployments.
The F-35 has been oversold, and it’s having the usual developmental problems that any weapons system integration effort of this magnitude can be expected to have. But from what this writer is stating I really have to wonder whether he’s being paid to flack for Rafale and/or Eurofighter Typhoon.
Consider that the official he interviews is only talking about notional future upgrades, which is being portrayed as an admission of obsolescence rather than a realistic statement that a weapon that will be in service for 30 or 40 or 50 years will need to be upgraded over the course of it’s life.
Again, the Tomcat is a great example. Perhaps even better is the B-52, which had major structural changes, avionics and new engines in the 8-10 years of progression between the XB/YB-52/B-52A and B-52H.