i just do not believe we can afford the F-35 package - the airframes in sufficient numbers (what? 200 airframes to give a land based strike force, a CVF based force, attrition replacements and training aircraft?) and all the enabling capabilities - the ELINT, Tankers, AWACS, and the CVF (and all support that it needs) to make having F-35 justifable.
having a sharp spearhead is useless if the shaft is rotten.
That's the point of F-35! It doesn't rely on AWACS as much, has less reliance on Tanking support than Typhoon, Rafale and F-18 and does a lot of ELINT itself.....it has less reliance on all these platforms than current platforms making it a force multiplier.... what am I saying? F-35 has a lot of in-built shaft to its spear already
