The question arises what happens in about 2020 when many of the US airframes will be reaching the end of their lives? The F-22 was meant to replace ageing F-15’s. I seriously doubt that the F-35 will be in service in considerable enough numbers to replace all the F-15’s and F-16’s that will be expiring in the near future. There was talk in a recent AFM of cutting the US fighter fleet. Is this going to happen?

It seems that the whole US defence procurement strategy has become one big cluster f@%k.

The F-22 program is finally reaching maturity after near two decades, and instead of becoming the backbone of the USAF it will become a silver bullet much like the B-2 or F-117. Such fleets are costly to maintain because of a lack of economies of scale. Furthermore any attrition from accidents will reduce the effectiveness of the aircraft as will the need for it to be maintained.

Cancelling the C-130J program will leave the US with hundreds of ancient C-130E/H’s whose usage rates will surely affect their future performance. Have there been any proposals to at least increase the acquisition of C-17’s to make up for the proposed C-130J cancellation?

And the really idiotic thing is that they are proceeding with the acquisition of the V-22, an aircraft that is potentially impractical, and the F/A-18E/F, an aircraft that is arguably no better than exisiting combat aircraft and even possibly a downgrade in comparison to the F-14’s it’s replacing.

PLA who is that gorgeous babe on your avatar? She has a haunting stare….

1. Hilary Duff still won’t marry me. 🙁
2. Cancellation of tranche 3 Eurofighter acquisition by the Brits (if it already hasn’t happened).
3. More Chinese Su’s.
4. Metallica will still suck.

I just got back from the Negev, where something more or less similar happened:
There was a big drill that morning, that included tanks and helicopters that were firing missiles, so we were adviced to stay in the same place for a few hours.
While resting, a group of girls went to do what they had to do. A few minutes later, a UH-60 appeared from nowhere, about 20 meters above us and directly where these girls were. I only later realized that the pilots might have “enjoyed the view” :diablo:

Were they going to the toilet? “Doing what they had to” sounds like they were going to the toilet.

If so, yuck. Nothing is more unsexy than a chick taking a dump….