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The U.S. Air Force’s top officer wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of Cold War-vintage F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated—but costly and unreliable—stealth fighters.
The result would be a high-low mix of expensive “fifth-generation” F-22s and F-35s and inexpensive “fifth-generation-minus” jets, explained Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr.
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WNU Editor: F-35s are very expensive fighter jets to fly and maintain. In an age of budget austerity, in certain situations a cheaper fighter jet will probably be more practical to have instead of the F-22 or F-35.
8 comments:
Only takes what, 20yrs? To field a new design? How about new build F-16's/F-15's with all the new black boxes.
The F16 was designed back in the day to be a cheap filler. It still is and still fulfilling its role admirably.
F16 the original swarm.
So you would want to go with all Panzer V's and no panzer IV's?
Swallow youre pride and buy from Saab, problem solved
Yeah that headline is misleading. F-35 has met its cost goal on a per jet basis but isn’t yet meeting its operations and maintenance cost targets. The F-35 was never pitched as a F-16 replacement.
If the AF wants a cheaper fighter for air defense or non peer to peer combat, just stop fighting insurgency wars in the Middle East and Africa. Then build drones for air defense mission.
F35 shouldn't have made it this far because it's so expensive. Now they end up spending more money just to find a replacement for it's price.
My feeling also, K.
To me it seems questionably complex to survive more than a short time. It's complexity and maintenance is a complexity that requires a large footprint. Large footprints get the bullseye painted on them.
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