On 2/23/13 8:13 PM, Califbill wrote:
wrote:
On 23 Feb 2013 20:42:21 GMT, F.O.A.D. wrote:

wrote:

It is the future of carrier aviation.

The future of aviation may well be drones. Our government has shown a
serious aversion to sending pilots in harms way, even if they want to
go.

Carriers are easy targets...stupid to invest in any more or new planes for
them. $350 billion is a waste.

When you are talking about a 1st world country like the Russians or
Chinese, you are right. When they asked Zumwalt how long our carriers
would last against the soviets he said "a couple days".

On the other hand carriers are a great way to project power against 3d
world countries but you don't need an F-35 to do that. The FA-18 is a
very capable platform and can actually put more ordinance on target
than the F35.
They are not stealth but most of the people we bomb don't have radar.

I still think the next generation of carrier aircraft will be the
carrier drone.
The F-35 may end up being the next B-1 or B-2. Very expensive, very
capable but without a real enemy worthy of all of that capability.

If you really just want to kill every MF in a quarter mile circle, it
is hard to beat a 60 year old B-52 and they can still deliver
precision munitions. That is no doubt the best bang for the buck that
the US has ever had from a military development program.

The problem is the military wants, fast sexy plane. Wasn't it the F20
where the general said 'not one pound for guns'? What we need is a follow
on to the A10. We have decent air superiority fighters nw, but we need
Sandies. Ground support killers. The no guns was a big problem on the
original F5's in Viet Nam.


There is no justification for spending the amounts of money being
projected to build and maintain these F35's.

--
I'm a *Liberal* because I knew the militant christian fundamentalist
racist militaristic xenophobic corporate oligarchy wasn't going to work
for me.