pieces at air shows and whatnot, but that's just me
@ForzaMilan
From the data I've got, the F/A-18E/F'll be pretty good for the missions
the USN envisions for itself, but against an opponent fielding a
Su-33/Rafael, well... it's a tossup. The brilliance behind this was "well,
the Soviet Union is no more, let's reduce our capabilities as well." It's a
see-saw argument; hell, the USAF kept up with F-22 even tho it was
WAY too much in a post-Cold War era.
No doubt the JSF will be deployed tho, too many ppl invested in it for
it to sink right now. I'm not sure about the wisdom of buying
BOTH the F-22 AND the F-35 from the same manufacturer tho.
@Katyusha
I know about the revolt of the Admirals scandal way back when, but
I don't remember hearing the USN actually shooting down a few
USAF planes just to make their point. Or they gloss over THAT part of
history...
Considering the move to gel-fuels and new improvements in neweryou talking about AIM54 Pheonix? na, they are way too old...
models of the AMRAAM, yeah, the AIM-54 is showing it's age. Plus
if you look up the "World's Most Unreliable Weapons" thread, the
Phoenix didn't have a proven track record in live-fire situations.
...but as Norman Schwartzkoph <sp?> said in the Gulf War (1991),
if ppl THINK you got a working weapon system, then it works