Thread: Should we be concerned about China's air capability?

Originally Posted by THE BOOGER

We are all armchair warries after we retire but no harm in keeping our ear to the ground

Old Indian proverb. Man with ear to ground, get arrow up arse. Bob

Originally Posted by 85 county

nice to read a bit of non armchair stuff.

the f22 f35 etc, in fact all of them can do the same. the f111 may have gotten there a bit more quickly but with today's defensive systems it is doubtful it would get there at all. the f22 f35 are heavily biased towards getting there.

The trouble is it's taken so long for the JSF to get operational that counter measures have already been designed that diminish it's stealth capability,even if it does ''get there'' it only carries two bombs.The JSF is a very exxy way to deliver two bombs. Pat

Originally Posted by THE BOOGER

... there is no replacement for the f111 probably never will be it was a one off that got it right almost from the start ...

My memory was the F111 was plagued with delays, problems, cost blow outs and much criticism from the start.

Much like the F35 today

Originally Posted by Ferret

My memory was the F111 was plagued with delays, problems, cost blow outs and much criticism from the start.

Much like the F35 today

Awesome in the end. Funny name that though Aardvark. Comes from having a bent nose I guess.

It was but got sorted in the end all new military equipment has problems at the start mainly because governments are involved As I pointed out the Rafael and Grippen both had long delays from 1st flight to operational, the F35 is more expensive but will have problems too that doesn't mean we give up on it and waste the money spent so far. The Phyisics of the aircraft are pretty well sorted but the software is causing problems

And then we have devices like the Tomahawk, relatively cheap LT $2,000,000 a pop, well established since 1983, long range, 2,500 km.
A cheap solution when you want a precision strike, certainly cheaper than an F111 or F35

How long before it is all drone based.

With the FA18 and or F35 armed with the AGM 158 $700 000 ea we can do the same now as we could with the F111

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...updated-01966/


I like the phrase 'unspecified missile enhancements", from the budget and what the list price is we should have some where between 400 to 500 of them But then the govet were involved