One of the few good looking F-16’s and it is seriously capable, I have read that ultimately the radar will be able to track 50 targets and in th last edition of AFM there was a picture of one carrying 4 2000lb Al Hakeem PGM’s. I realy wouldnt want to mess with a block 60.

Further proof, if any were needed that the USN is the most powerfull navy in the world and is likely to remain so for the forseable future. In fact with the move to an all destroyer fleet and the new generation ships coming along it is only going to get more capable.
Lets face it you cant argue with a fleet that will in the coming years be able to deploy 24 flat-tops (lets be honest the amphib ships are aircraft carriers by anybody elses standards) flying the JSF (to be one of the worlds premiere combat aircraft) and the E-2D hawkeye.

I would point out that in my view you are mistaken. In world war II, it was always said by the allies “get the nazi leader, and the pack disintegrates.” This was because the nazis were indoctrinated in ideas of hate and absolute obedience which are the fundamentals of dictatorships.

Can you tell me what happened in the battle of Britain, why the nazis could not overwhelm a force inferior in numbers to them.

Why did such a numerically and supposedly superbly trained air force and ultimately the nazi war machine collapse. The answer is very simple, dictatorships produce citizens who wear blinkers and refuse to move beyond what they are trained for. In other words they could not innovate and adapt to situations as the allies could.

A notable exception was Rommel but what happened to him? he was straitjacketed by people around him who could not tolerate his innovative and unique ideas.

Though the soviets cannot be compared in evil doing with the nazis, their downfall was also due to straitjacketed thinking.

Regards

It is you are mistaken, the reason for the Luftwaffes faliure or overcome the RAF in the battle of britain is becouse of a number of factors, none of which involve pilot skill.

1)Luftwaffe fighter pilots were forced to fly at the very limits of their endurance giving them just ten minuts over london to defend the bombers.

2)The decision to change the focus of the bombing from RAF airfields to the cities, although a mistake it is one that would likely have occured in a democratic society also.

3) The decision to invade the soviet union pulled resources from the battle of britain to the east, effectively ending the campaign.

I agree with matt, the original author of this thread has already shown what his opinion is and is extremely bias.
But my two cence, The quality of pilots is based largely upon training and equipment, if this is the best then the pilots likely will be also.
To claim that people who live under dictatorships are less innovative than those from ‘free’ societys is fundamentally flawed, just look at what came out of the soviet union and nazi germany.

The greatest issue would probably be the VSTOL, how to make it work and make it supersonic in th way the JSF is. Britain has experience with stealth (replica programme) and advanced avionics. The best bet would be to re-desighn the pegasus engine, in my opion anyway. But the customers for such a project would be zilch outside the UK. It would be better to just build the Replica with Eurofighter avionics and engine and make the new carriers CTOL as they always should have been.

I think the Bush administration is missing out on a good trick here, the idea is get all the other countrys to work together but in a subserviant role on what will be the mutts nutts aircraft of the next 40 years, the plane everyone will want, thus those countrys will not go it alone thus loose the capability to build their own and hey presto you have a captive market for the rest of time whilst cementing US influence in many areas of the globe.

I have always wondered how good the agile superhind would be with the 2500hp engines from the Hind-M upgrade that the Russians are offering. I think it would make a great helicopter with the ability to land a small number of troops whils having all the other pros of western helos and being an attacker.

I always preffered the Victor, 35000lbs instead of 21000lbs. And I always thought it was a better looker than the Vulcan.