Originally Posted by
glad rag
The BIGGER picture Lw. Whilst I agree that one thing Mr P respects is a BIG stick [and the proven determination to use it if required] Escalating the ongoing situation in the region [no not Syria] by deploying stealth aircraft alongside bespoke modified nukes is hardly going to act an antacid for Russia is it?
The current strike fighters in the inventory are all nuke capable. None of them are stealth, the F-117 is retired.
All that the new aircraft (F-35) program is doing is making sure it is able to do what current strike fighters can do. No loss of capability. You act as though it is current capability with that post.
As you damned well know from our years-long F-35 thread, F-35 is not fully IOC (beyond modest B for the Marines in the Far East) nor currently deployed to Incirlik.
Mountain out of molehill, GR. The core competency and
raison d' etre of the F-35 is TACAIR. That it is to eventually become nuclear capable (tactical) is one of many capabilities, when they finally get systems integration sorted.
Same story with the Ticonderoga cruisers. Nuclear
capable, but their core competency was Surface to Air and Surface to Surface warfare, with a later mod of TLAM (conventional) for additional strike/Ship to shore as a replacement for the old long gun ship to shore capability. Tech changes in a continuum.
We are drifting from topic, so that is all.