Although I agree with that assessment, I still don't think anybody should have free reign over my hard earned (or maybe not so hard earned) tax dollars on the basis of "your ignorant, so just let me handle it..."
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The Air Force needs help winning yesterday's war
- Thread starter snake020
- Start date
I didn't read the article, but I have heard the arguments against the Raptor and they tend to be very ill informed. First, when has the media ever got anything correct on a weapon system or warfare, ESPECIALLY aircraft? Second, you are not privy to information that the Pentagon is privy to, and for good reasons.
Ignorance is bliss. Our AF/Navy Fighters are "good enough"... But I ask every single one of our AD/Reserve/Retired/Future Pilots and NFOs if they really want to be in a "fair" fight. These reporters are quick to point out that our enemies have knives when we have guns, but will they want to walk into a knife fight knowing that they may die? Personally I want to walk into a knife fight with a sawn off shotgun in my other hand.
I guarantee every soldier wants to know that they have the best technology and advantage on their side, because they want to go home to their family and send their enemies to hell; not the other way around. Is that worth a billion dollars? Absolutely. But then again, I am just some guy who understands the value of being able to live the dream that only this country (and those who defend it) can allow me to have.
I guarantee every soldier wants to know that they have the best technology and advantage on their side, because they want to go home to their family and send their enemies to hell; not the other way around. Is that worth a billion dollars? Absolutely. But then again, I am just some guy who understands the value of being able to live the dream that only this country (and those who defend it) can allow me to have.
I wonder if the author thinks there were SA-10/12/20s, Flankers, and PL-12s in WWII?
Having fought the Raptor in the Eagle, I'm a true believer in the Raptor. Phenomenal airplane, and it has nothing to do with the supercruise/menauverability argument that the author of the article hangs his hat on.
Having fought the Raptor in the Eagle, I'm a true believer in the Raptor. Phenomenal airplane, and it has nothing to do with the supercruise/menauverability argument that the author of the article hangs his hat on.
That's great in theory, but having the "best" this or the "best" that means that the government is going to have to pay for it. Like it or not, we just can't afford to have all of our military hardware be 10 times better than the next guy.
Brett
Excellent point, we are already coming to a time where we are going to have to make some very hard and tough choices in the next few years.
How broke are we, and what is it going to mean militarily (I know, I know, we can't talk about it)?
fudog50
Registered User
So we have a consensus then, worst article written by another unkowledgeable media hack.
Guess what? He got paid a lot of money to write that crap!
And it's a good thing the "public" we seem to think are so ignorant don't make the decisions!
Bottom line is that the guy made money and maybe 10% of the readers believe that BS anyway.
And he made the "Airwarriors" forum! Not in the least he wasted my ten minutes and i even responded to the garbage!! Now thats funny.
Guess what? He got paid a lot of money to write that crap!
And it's a good thing the "public" we seem to think are so ignorant don't make the decisions!
Bottom line is that the guy made money and maybe 10% of the readers believe that BS anyway.
And he made the "Airwarriors" forum! Not in the least he wasted my ten minutes and i even responded to the garbage!! Now thats funny.
We're not broke, and it's not that we "can't afford" the next-gen, high-end stuff. What we can't afford is the abomination of a procurement process we've got. Planes (and tanks, ships, etc etc) take much longer to field and cost much more than they should. The political games that go with buying any big systems nowadays are the real problem, not the systems themselves.
That being said, the author of this article is an idiot. These same pieces have been recycled since 1990 or so. Before they were short-sighted, now they're just naiive. It's like telling Britain at the turn of the last century that battleships were obsolete, since the Boers didn't have a Navy. Yet the peak of the Boer War, when the Brits were fighting lightly -armed insurgents, was only 15 years before Jutland.
Russia and China are building advanced weapons systems and, more to the point, selling them to even more unsavory characters. Meanwhile, our equipment is more than outdated, it's becoming dangerously old. F-15's literally falling apart in flight? We've become complacent in our role as sole-superpower, pure and simple, and it's going to bite us in the ass unless we get our acquisitions act together.
That being said, the author of this article is an idiot. These same pieces have been recycled since 1990 or so. Before they were short-sighted, now they're just naiive. It's like telling Britain at the turn of the last century that battleships were obsolete, since the Boers didn't have a Navy. Yet the peak of the Boer War, when the Brits were fighting lightly -armed insurgents, was only 15 years before Jutland.
Russia and China are building advanced weapons systems and, more to the point, selling them to even more unsavory characters. Meanwhile, our equipment is more than outdated, it's becoming dangerously old. F-15's literally falling apart in flight? We've become complacent in our role as sole-superpower, pure and simple, and it's going to bite us in the ass unless we get our acquisitions act together.
Just a bit off topic, but why does it seems that Russian jets are cheaper and easier to work on than US jets?
For example, the Su-35 is supposed to be around 35 million USD per unit. This is cheap compared to the cheapest F-35, the A model, at 48 million and the F-22 at around 137 million. To be fair though, the F-15 cost around 29 million a piece.
As for being easier to repair, I just remember watching a show on how Russian MiGs could be maintained by a kid with a toolbox in the middle nowhere.
Maybe I'm missing some important information here, so please point me in the right direction. It seems like the Russians always manage to develope a new-age fighter, but do it using very simple technology to keep cost down and make it easy to maintain.
For example, the Su-35 is supposed to be around 35 million USD per unit. This is cheap compared to the cheapest F-35, the A model, at 48 million and the F-22 at around 137 million. To be fair though, the F-15 cost around 29 million a piece.
As for being easier to repair, I just remember watching a show on how Russian MiGs could be maintained by a kid with a toolbox in the middle nowhere.
Maybe I'm missing some important information here, so please point me in the right direction. It seems like the Russians always manage to develope a new-age fighter, but do it using very simple technology to keep cost down and make it easy to maintain.
+1 Why does everyone always blow off IADS less the aircraft?:icon_rage
Superior American electronics.
RADAR and such.
Russian aircraft and maintainance.
"This word, I do not think you know what it means."