Originally Posted by
LowObservable
Mon cher Touriste, old bean...
You really can't go on about the so-called naysayers (that always sounds like a horse to me) "dishing out abuse" and then talk about internet kiddies posting from their bedrooms.
When I was a kid, we most certainly didn't have an Internet. We had to make do with the adventures of Ms Fiona Richmond in the pages of Men Onl[That's quite enough of that. - Ed.].
I have talked to those who conceived, argued for and designed the JSF. I talk to people who love it. I talk to people who know what they are talking about and who think it's a strategic mis-step.
If you are familiar with how the Post Goldwater Nichols acquisition process was set up, and the Roles and Missions debates after Desert Storm, then you understand how the "one size fits all" requirement came into being. if it's a strategic mis-step (which it may be) it's a SYMPTOM of a much larger disease.
It will be a multi role fast jet.
I believe that bumping up Grosler numbers isn't a bad idea -- and I agree, the electronic threat only gets tougher with each passing year -- and the USAF may even get in on that, as they finally got with us in EA-6B when EF-111 was retired.