As much as congress and generals might like to bluster, that’s all it is. Concurrency keeps campaign contributions flowing and retirement accounts filled. The F-35 could be literally poisoning its pilots (Raptor-style!) and at the end if the day the bills will be paid with a smile.

It’s not like the F-35 really NEEDS much trigger time in a dogfight, since it’s not likely to pull lead on a target anyway! ;)

And the engines would be constantly on fire.

Even when they were still in production, these were ‘modern’ when... back in the early ‘80s?

I absolutely loved these as well.

Enterprise gets the win for me, but hear me out!

Repurposing or reselling used drones reduces demand for brand-new drones, and therefore threatens the bottom line of the American defense industry. By now it should be obvious to everyone that the profitability of that industry is prioritized far higher by the defense department than the needs of our warfighters and…

Meanwhile, over in the USAF...

I love the rear-window clear engine covers that you often see on MR cars, but the effect just does not work with front-engines. The ZR-1 combination of hood bulge and window looked like it’d stuffed socks in its pants and then forgot to zip its fly.

The Mitsubishi that we really cared about died a long time ago. I adore my Evo IX, but while the current range of new cars may keep the brand limping along in the US, they aren’t doing it any favors.

“That scurrilous scoundrel who fooled you with that silly disguise, who dared to rob you and made you look so utterly ridiculous!” - Hiss

I guess it’s a good thing for SC that crowdfunding isn’t at all like normal investing, and Chris & Co. don’t have investors or shareholders to deliver any value to. That $100M budget is commitment-free money, so even if they come in way short of expectations, any revenue that they bring in at ‘release’ is gravy for…

Everyone whose had an opportunity to work with it in real life and who generally also has a vested interest in its success tends to agree that it’s a great platform? I never would’ve guessed! ;)

That’s painful to see, those were so pretty. Probably an SL though, so I can understand why it’s there. Those were the worst to work on!

Yeah, the addition of the FPS module in particular seemed like a pretty shocking example of scope-creep. An interesting study a few years ago showed that kickstarters that raised more than 10 times their original goal were half as likely to deliver on time, so it’s easy to see major revisions to original requirements…

Suddenly I very, very badly want to watch a Top-Gun film set in 1967-68, featuring:

There is no way that the USAF will meaningfully improve the capabilities of their legacy fighters while the F-35A is still so far in the red (see CAPES). If the range bumped up and the F-16 started looking like a more a capable long-term asset, then that’s a threat to the Gold Plated Fighter. Once the F-35A is past…

Omigod. When I was a kid, I had no appreciation for the fact that Wheeljack was a Lancia Stratos in Alitalia colors, and by the time I knew what that meant, I’d forgotten about him! Hasbro can have all my money!!

Is there any actual sign that concurrency is on the way out? Sure, Admirals and Generals can grumble and complain all they want, but at the end of the day they’re all getting paid. Are ANY major US weapons programs going in a different direction? The LRS-B looks to already be based on a cost-plus arrangement set to…

Thankfully, at least the Russians appear to be nearly as incompetent at developing 5th generation aircraft as the US is, and their carrier is in even worse shape than the Ford. Hopefully China’s massive defense procurement efforts are a lot less rosy than they appear from the outside, otherwise they’re looking to win…