Orac,
The AW&ST Editorial article follows a theme I have seen over the past two years from analysts re the F22.
Personally I think that it is good to see that people are actually questioning the validity of aircraft such as the F35, the F22 and the Typhoon.
Whilst admirable in concept, to design, produce and operate the best aircraft it becomes untenable due to a number of reasosn. These reasons being namely: -
- when one can not afford to have sufficient aircraft to defend ones self
- When operational costs are prohibitive causing loss in training and effectiveness of pilots
- Over complexity of systems causing huge maintenance costs
- Over complexity of systems causing high rates of down times, and incidents caused that are extremely dificult to analyse
- Leading edge designs that take so long to develop that they are out of date and no longer meet requirements due to changes in doctrine, plus developments by potential agressors
- Over complex designs that just do not work
- Unrealistic expectations raised and requested in tender process
Personally I love new shiny things that have more flashing lights and a big "wow" factor. Realistically I actually prefer evolution to revolution. Why didn't the USA take a good airframe, such as the F15 and see what could be done with that, even down to a rethink of how good it couild be made from a maintenance point of view such as the F15SE Silent Eagle.
Hval