The US DoD is full of bullcrap. We're gonna lose a war because of all these obscenely expensive weapons systems.
Okay fine we have stealthy aircraft, that cost tens of thousands of dollars per flight hour, meaning pilots get less than 15 hours per month (not even enough to maintain safe aircraft familiarity, much less combat prowess). (Source: 2022 Congressional Budget Office analysis:
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57713)
Remember when the Serbs took down an F117 with an old SAM system and a new technique? Supposedly the F117 is stealthier than the Raptor (read, the F22s are screwed).
All that tech amounts to nothing when a 78 year old 88mm finds its mark.
The Pentagon has dumped over $1,000,000,000,000 into the JSF F-35 program over the past 27 years, and we still don't have a truly effective force of them. Plus, the pilots call it the Penguin on account of its handling. Great. (Source:
Top Gun by ret. USN Capt. Dan Pedersen, published 2019)
Reminder that the Tomcat took FOUR years from Navy request to entering service. Yes it had some teething problems but it took 23 less years than the F35.
Vietnam taught us that the altar of high technology and BVR kills is a false god's sacrifice. A lot of good men died in Vietnam because of those foolish ideas. Now they're saying almost the exact same thing, except now they're saying stealth instead of BVR missiles.
We need a LOT of F16s is what we need. None of these stupid 5th-6th generation toys.
Navy needs the Tomcat back in service, Hornets simply cannot run the same range without a very expensive inflight refueling network.
