Which, as we all know, is the top dog, super-pooper, invisible and the best aircraft, like, ever. That is what all those "analysts" with backgrounds in journalism and LEGO design tell us all the time. Yet:
I will leave commentaries on this "Stealth" thingy to people who never saw basic Radar Equation in their life, but the move by USAF is very telling. If one dismisses the whole cat-fight in Congress regarding who gets what:
Five senators from states where the F-35 is produced, including Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, sent President Donald Trump and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan a letter before the Air Force detailed its budget request that warned against funding F-15 planes at the expense of F-35s.
But the issue here is rather simple: F-35 is a disaster. It is multi-billion dollar combat embarrassment designed, for the astronomical price and meek combat capabilities, to fight third world militaries. It is not survivable in a modern peer-to-peer airspace. F-15, on the other hand, is an old reliable horse which at least flies and costs much less than F-35--thus fewer political ramifications if one is shot down. In general, something is up with this whole US combat aviation thingy and most likely it is just continuation of a "commercialization" of the military technology in US because "investors" want their Returns on Investment (ROI) fast and juicy. And so the saga of USS Zumwalt-class DDG, F-35, LCS and other commercial items continues. Who cares about defense or offense, for that matter. As long as fat cats are happy with their checks, anything goes. You know, like newest, still non-existent Columbia-class SSBN:
So, $145 billion/12 submarines=$12.1 billion per single submarine. Lovely! Can I get a cut?
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