That thing looks like an SR-71 had it’s way with a BD-5 and then was drawn by a caricature artist. It was supposed to combine STOL, lightweight, but also armored… all while being so small that one wonders where the fuel was supposed to be stored.

Me thinks the designer went to work for Iran on the Qaher-313 after the Skorpion was canceled. :rolleyes:

That is not “driven underground”, but “delusional” :very_drunk:

On a related note

Bundeswehr pilots can’t get enough flight time amid helicopter shortages and are losing their flying licenses as a result. The report is the latest to shed light on the embarrassing state of Germany’s armed forces.

More than one-in-10 helicopter pilots in the Bundeswehr lost their flying license in 2017 because they could not absolve the required amount of flight time, the government said on Thursday.

More at the jump
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/193038/one-in-10-german-military-pilots-lost-helicopter-licenses-for-lack-of-flight-time.html

By “3 years” I was referring to when Finland could get it.

If you’re talking “maturity”, now… Block 3F.

The main CAS weapon is no longer a gun and has not been so for decades. The main CAS weapon now is the PGM which depends on sensors and situational awareness for maximum effectiveness. In that regard, the F-35 is more that “fit for CAS”. In fact, CAS was so important the USMC for the F-35B’s that they declared IOC early just to get that capability ASAP.

In case you missed it, Block 3F is a “great DEAD/Strike platform” (no need to more the goalposts to Block 4).

Meteor is in the Block4 plan.

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I think he was just BS’ing you on the “stealth” issue. Did it have a small RCS, sure.. But that was due to size, not some special sauce. If NG had that kind of tech back in the early ’80s, then they should have had a major advantage leading up to ATF…. which they did not have.