Anyways, back on topic, I have heard good things about the Bison+ECM combo. However, the Bison still of course has a radar and afterburners. Another thing you might find interesting is the PZL-230 Skorpion (which was a cancelled Polish ground attack aircraft). Stealthy, don’t think it was going to include afterburners, and was optimized for low level flight.

You are of course spot on about the Bison having radar+ab. I threw out the specifications just to get discussion/debate going – no radar, no ab was just a cheap and dirty way to cut cost (and capability) with this speculative fighter, and give an example of what I had in mind. Every aspect of this is debatable and up for civilised discussion! 🙂

The F-35 is way beyond the specifications I suggested. Even if economies of scale do make it a relatively cheap fighter to procure (and that to me is a big if) it will still be a complex beast to maintain. I’m not doubting for one second it’s capabilities, but I regard it as beyond the scope of this discussion. Essentially I’m suggesting something as simple as a Mig 21 or F-5, but with inherent stealth characteristics. Not multi role, not tasked with deep strike or anything else, beyond defending home airspace.

If this aircraft is unmanned, to me that would imply bigger expense in R&D, compared to a conventional fighter possibly based on recycled pieces from existing programs. I’m not an expert so feel free to kick that supposition of mine to bits!

On the one hand, I see this as slotting in beside more capable aircraft in large air forces, but it would also offer a cheap air defence system to smaller nations.

And if it’s to be the sole Air Defence/Policing aircraft of a nation, then yes it would certainly require radar, be it a relatively simple+cheap Grifo, or something more complex

Some kind of cheap compossite detachable plates to cover the bay, probably, still if is reccessed then the aspect to get a decent return is limmited with or w/o plates/covers

I agree, this is the kind of cheap and easy solutions we are not seeing

The advantage of a hood you just blow off is exactly what you say – if the bay is recessed then the return is still low, so if you run out of them well it’s not going to matter much – you’re more likely to run out of things to shoot anyway.

Someone is going to come up with the “Keep it simple stupid” 4.5/5th gen fighter. Right now I suspect it will be China.

And if it’s widely exported, it’ll be a game changer.

Cheers for the feedback so far, I decided to open a beer, or six, so best not reply now.

This was just an idea and I like that it hasn’t been completely shot down. The specs I gave are just pulled out of mid air, it’s more the idea of the aircraft i.e. it’s more specialised and has certain advantages at the cost of other abilities – to lower cost.

Just a quicky regarding the AB; I decided to mention that just for aircraft simplicity – I don’t actually know how many headaches an AB section actually adds to modern aircraft, but I doubt it’s critical. A lot of the ideas are arbitrary and completely open to debate, but the basis is:

a relatively cheap fighter aircraft, with inherent advantages over multirole 4/4.5 gen aircraft in the A2A role – at the cost of swing role/omni/multi/insert corporate talk here.