It’s called concurrency, they’re literally developing the plane and its systems as they’re building them, all at the same time.

Based on how thep programe is going so far, giving the F-35 a new canopy and raising the seat would probably take a lot of time and money and probably not be as simple as it would seem. Considering that they couldn’t figure out how to properly make a tail hook for the C what makes you think they could all that quickly…

You’re right, to a point. Where you’re wrong is thinking that dogfighting equates to guns, it doesn’t, dogfghting means maneuvering to get yourself into a position where you can effectively atack your target with your weapons be they missiles or guns. Where guns came into play during Vietnam was not so that the F-4s…

Kind of, but it was the Galactica that couldn’t be hacked because it was so old and not networked. The old Vipers were used because the Galatica had a whole squadron’s worth in her museum that were, conviniently, still space worthy with intact weapons to boot.

ACU pattern uniform or UCP camo pattern? You realize that they’re two totally different things, right? You can make any uniform in UCP and you can have ACU in any camo pattern in existence.

I’ve got that one beat, when I was in I was a 7242 and nobody from my recuiter to my DIs had a clue as to what a 7242 (Direct Air Support Operations Operator) was and I strongly suspect that a lot in the Wing would give you the same look as in that comic if you tried to explain to them what a 7242 and a DASC was,…

You still need to do the occasional live fire to keep proficient, not to mention that you’ll need to test fire whenever you adapt it to a new platform. The middle of a real fight is a very bad time to find out whether or not one of your weapons works as advertised and can (potentially) lead to a very bad day.

Really? You can say for absolute certainly that the Corps would never deploy a ARG (of any size) somewhere where there might be a strong electronic threat? With that sort of perfect vision you should go work for the Pentagon, you could then tell all the brass there what exactly what we need to buy and not buy as well…

Because the Corps doesn’t fly Super Bugs, they’re sticking with legcay Hornets for now and will eventually replace them and Harriers with F-35s. The thinking is probably is to simply things by using only one airframe instead of the 3 right now.

How else do you propose they test these missiles? Also, $100,000 for a missile is pretty damned cheap, this is a sophisticated guided missile we’re talking about, not and unguided rocket.

Like what? It’s not like it would be money just sitting around waiting to be used. What would happen, and has happened, is that the money just simply wouldn’t be factored into the DoD budget so the budget would be minus whatever development and procurement would be, it’s not going back into a pot for others to pick up…

More like the military brass who thought that the idea of concurrecny was a good one and telling/allowing LM to go ahead with it. The military should have insisted on mature or near mature techonolgy for the F-35 instead of trying to develop brand new tech while building the plane at the same time. Remember the old…

I also think that they might have gotten the body armor wrong for Operation Just Cause too, the old Kevlar PASGT vests were standard issue then, I’m not sure that that style of body armor had been developed yet and if it had, it certainly wasn’t standard issue.

That thing has a very Russian look to it, it just needs a glazed nose and it would look right at home in the Russian Air Force.

And as good as or better dogfighter than the F-16.

Because you can only upgrade a platform so much before you’ve either designed an entirely new aircraft or you’re better off just designing a brand new aircraft. There’s more to making a 5th gen fighter than simply cramming new engines and avionics into a 4th gen frame, or giving it a stealth coating. If you want to…

That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, don’t discount the fact that the F-35 is a stealthy next-gen fighter being a factor, by that I mean the appeal of being able to say that you have a stealthy, next-gen figther instead of an upgraded older design that may be only a fraction less capable and a lot cheaper.

The FA-18 was a development of the YF-17 that lost out to the F-16 when the Air Force was looking for light fighter to complement the F-15. I could be mistaken, but I believe that FA-18 was meant to be the Navy’s answer to the F-16, a light fighter to complement its fleet of F-14s but also replace its A-6s and A-7s as…

That and the later models from the Tiger on had crap for reliability and more Geran heavy and super heavy tanks were lost to mechanical breakdowns and scuttling by their own crews than to enemy fire.

Rules of engagement can and will negate any BVR advantage and keep our planes from firing missiles from long range. The F-14 is a prime example of this, equipped with long range Phoenix missiles and a powerful radar they never got to fire them in anger and were eventually equipped with high powered video cameras in…