On Jul 13, 2:13 pm, "David E. Powell"
wrote:
On Jul 12, 4:15 am, Eunometic wrote:


SNIP

Outspend em again?

Ultimately that's what it often gets down to. It is best to produce a
cost effective aircraft.

I think it was correct to make the bold decision to produce a stealthy
air superiority fighter. The appropriate work had been done in the
Have Blue program and experience had been gained with the F-117.
Aiming higher rather than lower was appropriate. The F-15 and to a
lessor extent F-16 were still outstanding aircraft with outstanding
radar and missiles that were in the same performance league as the Su
27 series and the MiG 29. What slight advantages these soviet
aircraft might have had in some areas in some variants of the aircraft
(helmet queuing of infrared missiles, miniature canards and thrust
vectoring for super maneuverability in some small production run odd
ball versions of that aircraft were not a decisive advantage. All of
these features were adaptable to the F-15 should it have been desired
and indeed all of them were at one point. Upgrading F-15 radars
(such as the AESA radars) or adding thrust vectoring still gives the
USAF one of the finest aircraft in the world. The USAF could afford
to gamble on the F-22. The aircraft is proving to be no more
expensive than an Eurofighter typhoon. In the end all of the fart
arseing around on the Su-27 and MiG 29 series to make them outstanding
dogfighters was a mere distraction from the reality that the new
generation of Soviet aircraft was going to be engaged and and
destroyed by stealthy aircraft at ranges well before a dogfight could
take place.

By the time the new generation of stealthy soviet aircraft go to
market in 5 or more like it 8 years time the F-22 will have radar
upgrades and probably upgrades to its thrust vectoring nozzles and
flight control software