Dustin.
Active member
13447244:cobra_commander said:
I'm pretty sure the last 12 years of nearly exclusive CAS employment has displayed the emphasis the AF puts on CAS these days. That's precisely the reason cutting A-10s is such an outrage these days, and precisely the reason that explanations of why we need a 5th gen fighter like the F-35 are scoffed. I think the answer is let the Army budget buy A-10s, because the AF is spread so thin we can't afford the things we need to support what Congress requires us to be good at.
The difference between you and I is that I actually study and employ the knowledge of what everyone else can do as my PRIMARY mission and not a hobby. That is a unique aspect of SEAD players, Block 50 F-16s most of the time, and not your standard 1 each fighter pilot. And you misunderstood my take on the F-35 program. The development and engineering was slow, costly, and unnecessary in many ways. But I am not suggesting we don't need the F-35, quite the contrary due to many of the reasons cited above.
Why don't we buy more F-22's? Because 187 of them is an assload. Those jets slay air to air, but that's basically all they do and you have to cover all your bases. The F-35 is the F-16/15E on steroids. It is the upgrade to both and the answer to "How do we defend against X threat". The F-22 upgrades the F-15 in air to air and has potential to assist the F-35 in similar stealth related roles.
You look at individual capabilities. I look at an entire force package. In an ideal SEAD vul I would not shoot at all because we were able to utilize stealth, comm, space, and intel to get in and out before the enemy could shoot at all. That's the difference between us. You're talking about 1st grade. I'm talking about Harvard Law. I'm talking about SEAD/strike anywhere in the world, you're talking about Ace Combat and Afghanistan.
