TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Yes still ahead of the game as Russian and China still are trying to catch up to its capabilities and still are behind in either production (Russia) or RCS (China)
Doesn’t really matter as the U.S. can afford it. Despite propagandists claims the U.S. actually does only spend a small percentage of GDP and its federal budget on defense.
The majority of that cost point on the Sentinel is simply upgraded infrastructure to support it. Upgrades that would be needed no matter what the DOD did.
So please Spin harder it’s amazing to watch.
Haven’t seen this many strawmen since last year’s haunted hayride.
First F14 is retired because the Navy has different needs than the Air Force and
geometry wings are a nightmare on maintenance crews. That’s why almost every aircraft with them has been on the retirement list for years. Add to this carrier take offs and landing being very stressful on the airframe and that the USN being THE Carrier Navy of the world, they wanted to simplify training and maintenance. Why operate a dozen fixed wing aircraft each with different engines, components, training schools for both mechanics and pilots when you could do five? The F/A18 legacy Hornet started absorbing missions and retiring aircraft types the second it hit the Carrier deck. The F/A18 Super Hornet and F35 followed suit. It’s easier on a carrier deck.
No it’s faltering because of that. They flew the wings off the legacy Eagle fleet. F15 was planed to be maintained in reduced numbers until 2050. F16 was similarly to be sustained for some time. However the legacy fleet flew substantial hours in the GWOT and the air structure was breaking down.
You are correct the BOEING (not LM) line was maintained by export orders.. just like most other modern fighter lines in Europe and Russia are. The primary mission of both legacy aircraft though is home defense. The Air national guard mission because you don’t need a stealth to do this.
The F16 line did close but has since reopened. Because the F35 line needed more room in the Texas plant and LM wanted to trim the costs and have more control over the export.
F15 was supposed to be replaced by large numbers of F22 but the Cold War ended and China “peacefully rising”. Russia was “a partner for peace” and couldn’t afford anything that came close to F22 (spoiler alert they still can’t.) with some maintained though the 2040s
F16 The majority would be replaced with F35 over time but it’s an export hotcake. The “Industry dominance fighter” (I got that from a Russian by the way). Perfect to sell to countries not quite ready for F35.
A10 is on Congress. Should have been retired years ago. The most exquisite COIN aircraft ever built save for the AC130J.
U2 the Global Hawk just didn’t pan out what else you got Scare crow?
Fashion sneakers from those big brands are crap. When I buy a sneaker it’s either a proper workout shoe or if I do buy a fashion sneaker it’s not one that only has a paper thin leather veneer that breaks two wears in. Also it’s preferably repairable
My preference is a goodyear welted or a Blake stitch shoe. Preferably double oak double soled. Because when you wear a hole in the sole you can take them to a Cobbler and they can take the old sole off and replace it with a new one. They can even upgrade the shoe with better materials or add some costom touched like a French toe plate or a you could have a rubber sole installed for the wet weather.
That’s the thing you know about quality. It can often be refurbished and repaired even made better with time.
And the F15 went through multiple revisions of its own. YF22 looks completely different from F22 and X35 changed too. Congratulations that’s aviation!
The F15E series made a number of internal changes and improvements similar to how the MiG 31 is different from the MiG 25. For the same reasons in fact. As the E focused more on a multi role aspect as opposed to “not a pound for air to ground”.
Basically I am just applying your own logic and reasoning.
As I pointed out to you when the F15EX launched the reasoning behind it are the EXACT same as the Russian MiG 35 and Su35. They wore out their legacy fleets and were looking at a mission that they didn’t feel anything else was suited to.
F15EX may not show much in the way of a dramatic change in external appearance just as to a glance those Russian fighters don’t look any different from their forebears, however they have undergone significant changes under the skin and in avionics, sensors, EW and more. The key differences are why they wore out and that where Russia turned around and had to develop their new versions of Warmed over coldwar era aircraft. The U.S. military just bought it off the shelf and set to install kit they had planned to install on legacy Eagle.
