If F-16IQ is the best they receive then TuAF is safe. It’s the IS, Syrians, and Iranians that will complain.

When you price out the engine costs the F100 is as cheap as it gets, three F100 cost what two F110 cost. F404 is slightly more. F110 and F414 are cheaper than EJ200, but a tad more in cost than M88. They will go F100 in my dirt-based estimation. Cost is less, upkeep is higher. Nothing stops them from going for something like Al-31F2, which would probably match the service life of the airframe better. F100 > Al-31F2 but cost is much lower. I wouldn’t sell too many F100’s, EJ200’s, or anything else until they ween back from the Chinese. They are too cozy IMO.

Humility escapes the annular zigzag argument /two beats and a cymbal smash

So much hate, Tony. And to be honest, your political beliefs still sound ludicrous. You sound like an apologist in some ways and blame Israel for a Semite issue. Not Jew, Semite.

Tony, some of what you said not only cannot be substantiated, it’s plainly inconsistent with reality. Statements like Obama is a christian and story of the flood the same are at best superficial falsehoods. And the tea part comments are not only OT, but patently false. You would be in the same boat as the people you paint being prone to shonky politics.

The truth is there wouldn’t be any air strikes if political pressure from both domestic and international sources weren’t a major issue right now. The weak foreign policy under Obama has created a literal minefield for the US military to navigate as it fulfills long standing roles. ISIS has to be contained before it spreads to Israel’s borders.

Flankers have some stressors on their upkeep, like the production from two different assembly lines with some inherent compatibility. Then the constant revisions mid stream of production runs make projects like the C-5A look easy in comparison when it comes to parts replacement. You have to bulk refit models just to bring them back to commonality.

I can only imagine Su-35 and T-50 projects address these matters. F-22 certainly did. F-35 further improves it. Will they?

I’d venture zero chance for catobar Mistral. It’s on 20,000 tons. But if you intend to be widely deployed and deployed often then why not Mistral style of minimalism for STOVL?

Mistral was built 1:6 in cost compared to military standards. If you could have built even THREE light STOVL carriers for the price of either QE or PoW then it made sense.

Helicopter-borne AEW will never compete with fixed-wing AEW assets for obvious reasons.

How many Mistrals could one have for the cost of either QE or PoW if you had earlier settled on VSTOL?