such trivial parts are hardly worth the effort of special mentioning as they cost pennies. what kind of cost saving do you expect to make from saving on such things?

how about aircraft hydraulics? machined metal components, Commercial off the shelf computer chips, circuit boards, capacitors, resistors, and other electronics parts? Color LCD screens?

You could probably buy these parts at equal or higher quality at a cheaper cost from any number of foreign manufactures in western countries without compromising your defense industry.

I’d have to disagree with you there. The SH is more than adequate for the USN’s current needs. It’s serving in greater numbers than the F/A-22 ever will and does a better job hauling bombs to the target.

It also saw true active service nearly a decade earlier than the Raptor.

The F-35 maybe stealthy, but it’s also at least 10 years until it even starts to active service.

Until that time, the SH is a great deal for the money.

Especially when the NK variant was in some areas better… as the Tu-4 was better in some areas than the B-29.

Well, that make it sound as if the US was never able to improve the B-29. They did. It’s called the B-50. For political reasons, they changed the designation from B-29D to B-50.

If the Russians were so great at reverse engineering and improving the B-29, why couldn’t they build a copy better than the B-50?

Sorry, but I don’t see copying the B-29 as an amazing feat of Russian enginuity.

If you are thinking about a D70 vs the D70S, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a used D70 if you trust the seller. There is very little significant difference between the two.

I don’t think that is true for the Canon 300 vs the 350.

Nice piece of fiction.

The cost item is kind of questionable. You take out the pilot and replace him/her with a lot of computers, software, expensive electronics and comm gear.

The F-15s day as top dog in the fighter world is clearly passing. The clear advantage it once held over other fighter aircraft is no longer present.

That’s why the USAF wants the F/A-22. The USAF Chief of Staff will be the first person to acknowledge that.

As I recall, the Rafale entered service as an air superiority fighter with the other mission capabilities to follow in later upgrades.