USAF Problems with Congress and the Pentagon

[iluveagles]

Oh I'm not saying the Eurofighter is not a solid platform, in fact I like the aircraft very much, however if you can get an American made aircraft that is more advanced than the Eurofighter why would you buy the Typhoon instead? Thats my point.

Well actually it would be replacing a little over 500 F-15s total. Why? Again the USAF buys aircraft on the basis of being able to protect, more or less, North America and fight two major conflicts. The whole idea is being prepared, the US is a big place that has to be patrolled 24/7 365 days a year. Why do you think we haven't started deploying 22s to other places in the world. 183 is not enough to do so. It may be true that the Russian aircraft are just concepts or it might not be. Either way we must be prepared for at least a newer generation of Sukhoi's like the Su-35 and 37 along with any of the newer variants. The job of the F-15 is not gone though. The countries that are major threats to us, or could become major threats, have good sized air forces. Though old and not the best trained they still have a good size force to deal with. Having a bunch of F-22s, as the USAF envisions, sweeping in an destroying all aircraft at one time would be a huge feat and would allow for the almost immediate invasion after a few days bombing of strategic targets.

But even then, why would you put a pilot in harms way, if you can launch a cruise missile from hundreds of miles away to destroy it. Not only that, but then the aircraft can focus on the destruction of enemy aircraft. Why would you need stealth weapons? A missile is already tiny on radar and besides its pretty streamline anyhow. Along with that, what are they going to do? Shoot down a bomb or a HARM for that matter?

I don't disagree that aircraft w/one engine are quite potent. When I said I'm not a big fan of such aircraft it was an opinion. The aircraft that are small, such as the 16 and the 35 have just never appealed to me. With most produced, you also have most sold. In my opinion, having more produced and more sold just means you have produced a capable and cheap aircraft. Along with that, the government obviously realizes that selling the 16 for instance is not going to be a huge threat to us, if a country were to decide it no longer liked us. Versus selling an F-15 to some other country. The F-15 is the greatest fighter, next to the P-51D, that was ever built. Selling that to different countries is not a smart. Plus its not as affordable for some other countries. As for the high to low step up, that is because the F-15 is a specialized aircraft(C-Ds). It is specifically designed to patrol the skies and shoot down all enemy aircraft. The F-16 on the other hand has a dogfighting capability, but was designed more to the side of air to ground attack and close air support. You don't need as many F-15s as you need F-16s, plus one is more expensive than the other.

F-15
F-106
A-10(If there is an aircraft that best shows specialty, its the A-10 this plane kicks some major a$$)
B-1B
Mirage 2000
Su-35/37

[Raptor]

Actually i thought the F-16 was designed primarily as a fighter then used for multi-role purposes when they found it was potent enough. Which is probably why the Gripen is a so much-better multi-role fighter than the F-16. In most respects. 

I think there's a favourite aircraft list thread somewhere, iluveagles. 

There's something to be said about working WITHIN technology. We can't just say "oh this is the ULTIMATE fighter jet so we don't need to replace it cos it can shoot down any other plane out of the skies." The F-15 is about air superiority. If it can no longer be the top dog-that is, take on another plane and always come out on top no matter how good the other pilot is. (Well, maybe not that extreme but you get the picture.  ) Then there's no point using it any longer you'll just build up casualties. So maybe we should start getting over the Eagle. When it goes down, it's going hard.

Selling the F-15 can be both a good and a bad decision. Say they have an ally that flies the F-15 in a war-zone. That ally would have the facilities and parts to maintain and repair any broken '15s that they happen to use in the area. (as well as other jets, but since we're on '15s here...) Which is a bonus, of course. Unfortunately, if that same country chooses to turn against you... Well you Americans have the Raptor to ruin the F-15's perfect record, don't you.