What happens when you fire a $100,000 Stinger missile at an F-35? You get a $100,000,000 scrapheap. And do you know what happens when you do the same thing to an A-10? YOU JUST MAKE IT ANGRIER. And if we’re tangling with the Russians or Chinese, I think the survivability of the A-10 is the LEAST of our worries.

I vote for the YP-80 which flew some covert mission in Europe.

Maybe it’s one of the Top Gun students showing up. There was a similar scene in the British film “High Flight”.

The best Tom Cruise movie never made:

Why do they use an F/A-18 in stead of an F-35? No room in the F-35 for a booster seat.

And there are exceptions. Rickover was in 63 years and only made Captain at the 26 year mark. Grace Hopper was 32 years when she made Captain. Yeager was retired after 35 years, and Jimmy Stewart flew from WWII thru Vietnam as an observer in B-52s.

Really wouldn’t count on that. It depends on who’s in the cockpit of the Tomcat. You see, I seem to recall that during the Six Day War, while most of the Israeli kills were planes on the ground, they did beat some Egyptians in the air who were flying more advanced Soviet planes.

Actually, even the UCAV scenario wouldn’t require this aircraft. It would be more effective to equip the AWACS plane in the area to act as a back-up for ground based flight control, since it would be in the area to begin with. Unfortunately, there’s a social element involved. The Generals and Admirals who make the…

Actually, “stealth” aircraft, both accidental and intentional go back to WWII. The de Havilland Mosquito was the first “accidental” stealth bomber because of it’s speed and the fact it was made of wood. And the Horten brothers incorporated the fist use of radar absorbent material in the HO-229. And then there was Jack…

Not a really good idea for the flying public, but a step in the right direction. We don’t need ANOTHER “invisible” airplane. Given the nature of the conflicts that we’ve engaged in since WWII, what we need is a “bomb truck”. Break out the plans for the last generation of B-52s and have Dale Brown consult on the…

But we do have the USS Ponce.

Here’s some food for thought about “space piracy”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062512/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_54

Technically it’s not the only “live fire” test. During Operation Starfish they used Thor IRBMs to put warheads into low orbit to test what happens to nukes in space. SURPRISE! An EMP burst that knocked out and interrupted power as far away as Hawaii

Revisionist history at it’s finest. If you think that all of Japan was ready to surrender before the, guess again. Even AFTER Nagasaki and the decision to accept the terms of the Potsdam Conference by the Emperor, there were elements in the Army that wanted to continue fighting (see the Kyūjō Incident). I also suggest…

And currently scheduled to fly until near it’s CENTURY mark.

Most of the countries that we have fought, and those that we may yet fight(short of WWIII) fly 40 year old planes. And if you think having newer planes make you better, just ask veterans of The Six Day War.

And others continue in denial after even photographic evidence is provided.

I think you’ve got your planes confused. The ME-163 Komet was a delta-wing rocket plane(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet). I believe you have it confused with the HO-229(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_Ho_229). And flying wings without computer assisted flight control can become unstable.…

You might want to read the “Axis of Time” series. It starts out with a UN naval task force in 2021 preparing to invade Indonesia to overthrow the Islamic government that had taken power. One of the ships is a civilian vessel that’s conducting some advanced physics experiments when things go wrong and the battlegroup…

But the problem is the USW “bubble” around the battle group has been reduced due to the retirement of the S-3 Viking.