……Total costs of Iraq and Afganistan have been about £18 billion. Today our debt is increasing by about £15 billion every MONTH!

Ouch, that sounds really painfull.

If I am not mistaken then two out of your three parties have already shown that they are uncapable.

Would the third one be a promising choice?

To put it across bluntly the T-50 really does look like it is “hand me your ass time” to anything with F-35 written on it.

To deny this even as a possibility is severe faliure of reason.

You are most probably right but then the same goes for anything else flying today except for the F-22.

Todays facts are that the T-50, or stealth gripen, or F-35 are not operational, and i expect that those buying/building t-50 will face the same budget troubles that stopped the F-22.

Still, I still have the same question that all discussions on this thread (no matter how interesting) have not answered:

“does an f-35 have substantial value in the future war theater it may end up in?”

Is it that mass produced partner for the f-22 as the f-16 was for the f-15, or is it becoming an overexpensive unaffordable monster?

With current quotes of up to 92 million a piece it is getting quite close to the 120 million quotes a piece for a few hundred extra f-22.

Did you read the second part of the sentence, or only the part that you wanted to?

tatata, no sense of humour, don’t you :):rolleyes:

for sale,

second hand parachute, in very good condition

only used once, never opened

ROFL!!!!!

Give me a break. If it was a site that you actually COULD use an F-16 against (no stealth needed) the F-35 has a payload of nearly 22,000lbs. If you NEED stealth then the F-35 can still carry 4,000lbs (and missiles to defend itself in the unlikely event it’s detected) while the F-16 sits on the ramp SOL.

if i need stealth, i will use f-22

if i don’t need stealth, I will use the two F-16 that I bought instead of a single f-35

by the way; which enemy requires stealth in the next 10 years?

JWcook,

do you really think that the Typhoon would have been the best choice for Australia?

Today and in the immediate future, probably yes, but if we look 20-30 years into the future, would a fighter with external drop tanks, external munitions and pods still be acceptable?

Of course not 😎

a plane like the jsf that is unable to carry any weapons to avoid compromising its stealth capacity will be a lot better :diablo:

All this talk on the importance of stealth is very nice but unless these planes can fly on vapour they will need external drop tanks at some point, and unless they intend to destroy enemy facilities using mysterious schockwaves they will have to carry bombs

and I just don’t see these things carry all that in the internal stores :confused:

but now that the “Nunn-mc i don’t know who” procedure has been initiated we will all have to wait and see what happens next