Originally Posted by
Video Mixdown
I suspect few serving pilots would share your enthusiasm for sending them into combat in outdated, obsolete aircraft. What evidence do you have that F-35 is 'delicate '?
Big Pistons seems to have answered the delicacy with his observation on availability.
As regards going to war in an obsolete aircraft, I think the difficulty is that we are unable to afford the latest generation of combat aircraft in sufficient numbers for them to be effective. So a doctrine that has our limited supply of advanced aircraft providing top cover and something cheaper doing the mud movimg is likely our only option.
Sensibly the mud moving could be done using drones so as not to dampen the enthusiasm of our serving pilots. Those drones could also be something rather less advanced than the reaper (£13m) or protector (£15m).