"Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...
On 11/4/03 5:37 PM, in article
,
"gizmo-goddard"
wrote:
"José Herculano" wrote in message
...
You have a very good point. Yes, the F35 is only a single seater
although LM does have a 2 seater "mockup".
Looking at what an F/A-22 (single seater) and a B-2 (twin-seater) can
do,
I
find it harder and harder to justify a thing like an F/A-18F....
Well for one thing, the US Navy can actuallly afford the F/A-18F. While
it
doesn't really add any more capability than the F-14D has, it is far
easier
to maintain :-)
__!_!__
Gizmo
Gizmo,
Far be it from me to be a Kool Aid drinker (despite my current VFA
association), but I disagree with you based on what I see the F/A-18F
doing
these days with HMCS, ATFLIR, AESA, and AIM-9X.
Oh I don't doubt it one bit. I was speaking of general flight performance,
stuff like top-endspeed, range, that stuff. Certainly late nineties
technology is going to be much better than early to mid 70s and 80s
technology. I can imagine what the Tomcat could have done if it were
retrofitted with that technology, but realistically, that'll never happen.
At least the Navy isn't having to spend 200 million a copy for the darn
things. :-)
__!_!__
Gizmo
There's much more growth potential based on architecture.
And that maintainability counts for a lot.
--Woody
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