Could J-10 not be an good option? Should be capable and cheap and could strengthen ties with China.

You still got the most powerful and best equipped Air Force in Europe.

Funny thing is you neglect the fact moving ramps clearly effect the “Thrust” part of the Thrust/drag ratio. While we are talking about drag;

F-15 airfoils: NACA 64A006 root, 64A203 tip; F-15 wing area 56,5 m2
F-22 airfoils: NACA 64A?05.92 root, 64A?04.29 tip; F-22 wing area 78,04 m2

-While camber is undisclosed; this shows F-22 wing has nearly same % thickness at the root; and its thicker at the tip, which should mean higher Cd at same AOA. F-22 weigh 24300 kg and F-15C 16392 kg. 42% increase in weight, compensated by 38% greater lifting area. Similar airfoils ensure lift and drag coefficients remain similar. As F-22 needs to to generate 42% more lift to remain in the air, this also means generating ~42% more drag in the process.

-In terms of static thrust, F-22 has 45% better thrust to compensate its 42% percent drag; which begins to degrade as soon as aircraft reaches M0.85, due to lack of variable ramps. So yeah, F-22 should have comperable acceleration at subsonic, maybe better acceleration at transonic, but at above M1.2, I don’t see any single quaility in F-22 which makes it even slighltly faster than a clean F-15.

Note that this comparison is strictly on wing/weight/thrust basis. Neglecting the aerodynamic sacrifices F-22 may have by following a VLO shaping, and the need to carry internal bay / larger fuel tanks etc etc.

Oh; before dismissing the importance of variable intake ramps, simply look at how F-16 compares to MiG-29 from M0,8 to M1,2 acceleration (8 seconds faster = 23% superior) and from M1,2 to M1,6 acceleration (9 seconds slower = 34% inferior). Inlet ramps not only mean higher speed, they DO help in supersonic acceleration.

Just that the F-22 does not have fixed wing like the F-16, it has moving parts inside the nacelle. A plane does not supercruise at M1.3+ easily if it is draggy. Fact is F-22 is faster than EF in the transonic regime and supercruises faster. And the Typhoon is quite fast in that area.

I think SOCOM needs to become it’s separate branch.

I suspect there are massive efficiencies there given large overlaps across the board (e.g. ODA, SEAL, Delta, DEVGRU, CIA’s SOG etc etc, and then USAF/USAR/USN flying units etc etc).

And Special Operations is far more relevant these days than mechanised combined arms ops etc so a single combined branch might result in a better structured force.

And SOCOM has shown a tendency to buy off the shelf to give the troops what they need.

There is a simple solution, let SOCOM and the Marines have their own budget and let them buy the stuff they see fit for COIN. It would be faster cheaper and more efficient.

A-10 is too expensive to be used in Afghanistan or Mali and too vulnerable for high intensity conflicts. Withdraw them.

It is like a Fokker Triplane vs a F-4. The Pak-Fa will swat the F-15 out of the sky like a bug.