Oh, you’re talking about something like an armed RQ-8.

Not really, and here’s two reasons why:

Yeah, I’d be worried about how those old engines could have handled the hot/high conditions of Afghanistan.

But the A-29B? I loved that idea. Hellfire, shmellfire. Brimstone is the shit. Brits are using them on their Apaches and Tornados, they’re putting them on the Typhoon. I think they’ve just been cleared for Reaper…

So what you’re saying that he has more commentary value because Gawker hired him to generate clicks?

Someone has to put out some actual facts. I have as much right to be here as you do, so if you can’t stand my comments, go someplace else.

Point by point...

We have been mothballing them and pulling parts from the old ones to keep the others flying. We now have more A-10s than we have F-15s. But at some point, due to economics of scale of the logistics chain, maintenance and training, you have to retire an entire fleet.

These aircraft were completed 30+…

Gen 4 fighters are at least aerodynamically stable...

THE AIRFRAME IS CRACKED. THE STRUCTURE HAS PHYSICALLY BROKEN. It ain’t like patching a goddamn tire.

I’m referring to using older airframes and upgrading them.

Between a hot dog vendor and the guys who’ve been actually working with these weapons systems - who have been a part of the test programs, stood up squadrons, planned operations in combat areas, planned massive joint training exercises, trained aircrews, deployed to combat theaters - done all of that on a daily basis…

- B-52s don’t have to worry about salt corrosion that the F/A-18 fleet has to.

- B-52s haven’t been racking up hours enforcing no-fly zones for the past 24 years. After Desert Shield and Desert Storm there was Provide Comfort, Northern Watch, Southern Watch, Deliberate Force, Desert Fox, Allied Force, Noble Eagle, Endur…

Just like we’ve done with the B-52 for all these years...

I think he’s a hot dog vendor.

He’s a self-described “Aviation Technology Aficionado.” Not an engineer, not an operations planner, not a pilot, not aircrew of any kind. An aficianado.

Because:
A. The youngest F-15C is 30 years old.
B. The airframe is 2-3x over it’s structural life
C. The Su-27 was designed to be an Eagle-killer
D. The F-15 isn’t survivable against double-digit SAMs
E. As you start adding on things like AESA radar, IRST, sensor fusion, etc. basically all the avionics to make it…

I will be submitting my plan for force structure alternatives soon, as I did years. Ago,

Funny how every time you go apeshit over how dumb the USAF is that there’s actually a rational reason why we all can’t have ponies.

CFTs carry less fuel than the wing drop tanks, and last I checked, bombs aren’t zero drag. So you’ve got a net loss in range/station time, which means more trips to the tanker. That means more time transit to/from the tanker and less time over the kill box. Those extra bombs aren’t doing anyone any good of you have to…

Because those legacy platforms are 30-40 years old, have been deployed for combat constantly over the past 24 years and they were built with only so much structural life in them. Metal wears out. We’ve literally flown some of these aircraft apart.

The only threat CFTs pose to is the the F-16 fleet. We’ve already had to…

Define “much less.”

What would it cost to upgrade an F-16 to the same capability as an F-35. Range, payload, sensor fusion, etc.?

And as Vietnam showed, an older, less sophisticated aircraft can still be lethal. How many F-4s were downed by MiG-17s and -21s?