Originally Posted by
dead_pan
But an AD fighter it ain't. Is it even supersonic?
Agreed, but i mentioned it because it is relatively cheap, contains a lot of commercial parts, has a long life, can be utilized for maritime patrol which considering they are an island would be useful, can also double as customs and border protection operations, can provide manned, persistent surveillance and tactical command and control and finally if needed, shoot at bad guys, I cannot envisage a scenario where they will come up against bad guys in fighters, but they may meet bad guys in airliners, and it should be capable of handling those.. One would have thought flexibility would be an advantage over a pure AD aircraft. Heck you can even use it as a trainer..