Korea

[Cthulhu]

eagl..

Whats your take on the new Silent Eagle? Do you think it has a competitive future or has the the Eagle platform seen its glory days and this is just a way of cashing in on it before it goes out..

Unsolicited programs like Silent Eagle are pretty common when aging platforms are looking at retirement, especially when the cost of the replacement (in this case the F-22), or the viability of the replacement (remember the A-12 program?) have congress concerned. Boeing saw an opening when real talk of canceling the F-22 began to surface, and they acted on it.

[JunkyII]

NK isn't going to do anything.    This isn't 1950, Taiwan is still a powder keg, I see China doing something stupid before NK.

Your probably correct here, but this is kinda the explosion Im talking about China and NK being allies can help eachother get what they want in the orient seeing they probably are the strongest countries in the reason besides the Bear up north

[eagl]

eagl..

Whats your take on the new Silent Eagle? Do you think it has a competitive future or has the the Eagle platform seen its glory days and this is just a way of cashing in on it before it goes out..

Honestly I thought it was a hoax when I saw the first pics of it.

My second thought was, even if it was real, who'd buy it?   Especially if it costs more than a "regular" F-15 variant currently in production?

[SSgtHam]

I know I don't really have any bearing on this conversation, but I thought I would throw my $0.02 in anyway.  I don't really know much, so take it for what it's worth.

Pertaining to Korea, I personally think that N. Korea wouldn't have the necessary resources or availability to conduct a full-scale war for very long.   They may be able to launch a good initial campaign, but I think politics and questionable allegiance to the country might have an effect on how long they would actually be able to keep it up.  I'm not dismissing them as a threat by any means, I just think they're blowing a bit of smoke and showing some muscle.  "Hey, look at us.  We're still a big enough country to launch our own rockets, tee-hee!"  *BOOM, MISSILE DESTROYED*  "Aw, shucks, guys...lemme show you just this once how tough I am?"

For that Silent Eagle, I have no idea how important stealth is to the modern Air Force, but I think having all these stealth fighters is pointless if they cost a ton of money and there are only a few of them.  Depending on the type of warfare, a bunch of easier to produce, cheaper planes might be better than a few stealthy, expensive to maintain and produce planes.

Remember, I don't know a ton...go easy on me

[Nilsen]

Honestly I thought it was a hoax when I saw the first pics of it.

My second thought was, even if it was real, who'd buy it?   Especially if it costs more than a "regular" F-15 variant currently in production?

Its set to be cheaper than the F35 so i think they are targeting those who find the pricehike of the F35 to hard to swallow. We are gonna order the F35 but i actually find the Silent Eagle interesting for a couple of reasons. It has the speed to intercept the russians we usually have to go intercept and its got the safety of twin engines that i think we really need over the places we fly.

[eagl]

Don't get me wrong, I think the F-15E is a great airplane and an updated variant would remain a valuable asset for another couple of decades at least.  I just don't realistically see any buyers.  The USAF has stated multiple times that they're not buying any more non-stealth combat aircraft, even though there isn't a replacement for the F-15 or F-15E anywhere.  The F-22 will not be purchased in great enough numbers to replace the F-15C, so it's not a viable replacement.  The F-35 is a stealthed up viper with gucci electronics and revolutionary integrated systems, but it's still a viper replacement.  So there is no F-15 replacement program anywhere in sight.  IMHO that means we ought to buy a few hundred more F-15Es while we still can, and we should get the cheapest ones possible because we can upgrade them later.  More to the point, buying an entirely different F-15 variant would I think be needlessly expensive to buy, operate, and maintain.  If we really need a stealthy attack fighter, a re-designed stretch F-22 built with cost effectiveness in mind from the beginning would be my first choice.

But I'm not the CSAF and never will be, so what do I know eh?