Mary Shafer wrote:


I can also remember hearing people advocate the great simplification
of the all-up modern fighter to being a weapons carrier only. That
is, the AAMs would have all the integration and avionics and stuff and
these smart missiles would be carried and launched from relatively
unsophisticated (and inexpensive) platform aircraft.

Isn't that exactly what they've accomplished with
the F-16 and F/A-18 - both of which finally came
into their own only when smarter munitions became
available? (That is, missiles 'n things that no
longer required an expensive and high-tech weapons
control system to guide them? These days, hanging
a pod on the jet provides it with many non-native
capabilities.)

- John T.