Pentagon Hangs Its Hat on the $243 Million Dollar F-35

[unhappycamper]

unhappycamper note: Since the Pentagon has ‘requested’ that I only post one paragraph from articles on Army Times, and Airforce Times, I’ve decided to give ya’ll an unhappycamper summary of the article and a link to the OP. To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.

To read the article in the military's own words, you will need to click the link.

I didn't realize that the Pentagon/MIC could restrict my First Amendment rights as well as morph the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107 with zero, zip, nada Congressional approval. It sure is beginning to smell like fascism.[br />
unhappycamper summary of this article: Hey, the F/A-18 costs 'only' $86 million dollars. Why would we want a kick ass airplane that's only $150 million dollars less than the POS F-35?



Today’s Air Force is adapting 21st-century asymmetric warfare, with a growing emphasis on drone aircraft and cybersecurity. Its fleet of F-15s and F-16s is shrinking, and its number of F-22s will be much smaller than originally anticipated. Instead, the F-35 is expected to fill that role.


http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2010/08/air-force-looking-at-2030-challenges-083010w/

[zipplewrath]

1. F/A-18 isn't an F-35

They are significantly different aircraft. Truth is, the navy will be complaining soon about their F-18's and will be wanting to replace it. They are currently being told to use the F-35, but they don't like that aircraft.

What no one wants to admit is that the days of the "fighter" aircraft have been over for 20 years. Even the F-16 was being forced repeatedly into a "ground support" role practically from its inception. We don't do air to air combat anymore, we use anti-aircraft missiles. Our methodology right now is to "establish air dominance" and then use it to do bombing missions. We don't need "fighter escorts" for bombers anymore.

The navy needs some intercepter aircraft for fleet protection, but air battles between carriers is a thing of the past. Ships are going to be attacked by various forms of cruise missiles fired from distant aircraft, or even launched from other ships. There will be no more low level aircraft attacking a carrier by skimming across the water and dropping torpedoes.

The F-35 is the DoD last gasp on manned high performance aircraft and the know it. They'll want to get as many as they can, because a bit like the B-52, it's going to be doing work for the next 50 years.

[DainBramaged]

2. Bring back the Warthog, perfect for today's Air Force mission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhPwaApe4Rk