F-35A and F-35B will be attending Red Flag this year.
Red Flag is noteworthy in that the adversary group is very proud of humbling the blue forces.
They do it with some regularity.
It would be illustrative to the haters of the Lightning II program if such humbling did not occur this year.
Part of the problem a lot of critics are having is they missed that the paradigm changed.
F-35 changed things as big as the change from bi-planes to supersonic jets.
The pundit world has yet to catch up.
It's still a swelteringly expensive program, but per-unit cost is coming down (as predicted and expected) and as long as Congress doesn't go full retard (like with B-2A and F-22A) that trend will continue.
Next fighter item we need to start working on is the replacement of the F/A-18E/F with something F-22A equivalent for the Navy's Hi portion of the Hi/Lo mix. Perhaps we can even sell a version to the Air Force like back when the F-4B was ported to the USAF as the F-4C.
The maintenance hour cost on the F-35 is horrendous for a new airplane thought... $37K/hr for a NEW platform???
ReplyDeleteCan you source that? The maintenance costs are supposedly classified.
DeleteYou don't get better training against someone who is less skilled than you are. Train against the best and soon you are the best.
ReplyDelete