Originally Posted by
GeeRam
That was exactly my point, that the gestation lengths, production times etc., of these 5th gen etc compared with the speed of development of yesteryears.
Probably not a great comparison but first flight to OSD of the Javelin was barely 17 years......but even the mighty F-4 Phantom, the last of the incredible 5,000+ run left the production line 21 years after first flight, and here we are just shy of 20 years after the F-35 first flight, and its effectively still the 'new kid on the block'.
I think the difference is possibly that a "today" not yet FOC F-35 (as an example) will knock the spots of basically every other fighter-sized aircraft on the planet for the military tasks it has been assigned (with the possible exception of the A-10 argument, but that discussion would hold equally true for any other airframe produced). Javelin as per your example was a) effectively keeping pace with the competition and b) fielded in a time where airframe/aerodynamic/engine development was key, not replaceable mission systems.
FOC is clearly a capability set that needs to be reached, but if it needed to be reached right now for operational reasons, a lot more people would be spending more time, effort and money making sure it happened.