I’m on the side that forced enlistment is a form of slavery.

Sorry, I Gawker threading is killing me: This is to the original poster. I’ve lost track of which side of the issue you are on.

This. Exactly this. The draft is slavery and immorral.

Slavery is the word you are looking for. Forcing someone to work literally at gunpoint or face loss of liberty.

It’s also how we got gender added as a protected class. So it’s been around a long time. But it’s still stupid.

Hypothetical future cost when development cost has been amortized over large purchase orders, is my thought. Bullshit, in laymans terms.

Sources?

Who exactly are they defending against exactly that requires new aircraft?

F-35A is not $85m unit cost. I believe with the engine and no development costs it’s still over $100m and that is the most generous calculation.

I think they want longer range fighter/bomber, not replacement of f-16s

Realistically, the Su-34 is a good choice for the situation.

Jordan is buying the sale pitch. There current inventory of handme downs and crap is so old they still have ashtrays and automatic seatbelts.

IMO Russia’s helicopters are as ugly as their fighters are beautiful.

Ugly is beautiful in the 28's case.

Having worked security at this very gate, I can personally attest to that. I still remember times where I was staring off in space while on guard duty, listening to a dry, hot wind, as it caused a small piece of metal to make a clinking sound against a nearby light pole.

I'm thinking gate security looks a little different tonight.

Ok, first, I’ve got literally thousands of hours in this model of jet. How many? I’m going to say well north of 4,000. So, over 5000 total pilot time.