Are they going to paint them white?

Perhaps AfD will allocate them to the Grenzschutze to shoot illegal migrants

Frankly, at this stage it’s a buzzword bingo list of all the latest salesmen pitches......

AW&ST: .......”The Franco-German fighter, details of which first emerged in July during a meeting of the Franco-German council of ministers, would feature “enhanced capabilities” in terms of range, persistence, electronic warfare, survivability, situational awareness and weapons capability. Artificial Intelligence would also play a major role, the officials said.

Airbus has begun detailing its take on the German requirements with a family of manned and unmanned platforms in which the manned aircraft act as command-and-control platforms. Swarming fleets of unmanned combat air vehicles carrying sensors, jamming equipment and weaponry could be launched by Airbus A400M airlifters and directed into action by the fighter jet.

“Fifth-generation aircraft will have to do some [command and control], and if you operate four of them together, you can achieve some air superiority,” says Antoine Noguier, head of strategy at Airbus Defense and Space. “This [future] fighter needs to go beyond that, with a combination of low-observability and long range; it will need to crunch data internally to provide local and distributed [command-and-control] perspective on other effectors.”

Open software architectures to allow easy upgrading of onboard systems and a directed-energy weapon were also necessities for the new aircraft, Noguier says.”.......

Absolutely!!

....and with everyone trying to get their snouts in the trough................

When Bombardier bought Shorts in 1989 they made absolutely sure that all overall design, assembly, flight test and marketing skills dispensed with - apparently in response to Canadian union/political pressures to ensure that there would be no threat to these capabilities held by DHC and Canadair (as they then were). Shorts became a (very successful) sub-assembly designer and manufacturer but getting back into the overall design, manufacture and assembly of something as sophisticated as a fifth / sixth generation fighter would be an exceptionally tall order.

But if LM manages to replace every F16 in the world with export versions of F35A, then the unit cost of that variant will be very much lower than the Bs or Cs, and the programme cost would be far lower than developing a different replacement from scratch.

Isn't that the NATO east European expansion construction gig?

:)


Correct, everyone wants to be friends now. I guess the Germans have learned their lessons though. If they are gonna pay, they want what They need in time, at budget. No NH90/ Typhoon kind of multination/ industries drama's. The French they can use, the rest can be second tier supplier / customer.

We're now in the real of total fiction imho.
No large defense program has ever come in on budget or on time afaik.
The normal experience in the US used to be 100% overrun, some much worse.
Here the challenges are well above average, so experience would suggest well above average delay and cost growth as well.

My personal preference is for small and agile, not expensive and capable of all, just the task at hand.
If it means UAV's that's fine, we're leaving the realm of pilot capability with extreme speed and G forces, so let's have tiny tactical stingers, capable of supersonic speed and with the ability to mount an array of weapons, defensive or offensive.

There are spotty kids out there that may be the generation we need if a global war were to break out, not aircraft nd crew costing squillions of pounds that won't be able to get to their targets.

If he could, I think Kelly Johnson might disagree with you...

They may also be thinking about export markets (the French will for sure)

The F-35 is too expensive and probably restricted, the F-22 is out of production and REALLY restricted and any F-22 replacement will be unbelievably expensive and never exported.

Anything Russian or Chinese is relatively unreliable and not competitive (yet)

A lot of countries will be faced with replacing all those F-16's, F-18's F-15's, MiG 29's & Mirages and quite a few of them are not poor and will be serious regional players by 2030-2040

..we can all fly pigs?

Seriously, I don't think there is a single customer out there who will replace F-16s with F-35 on a one-to-one basis. For most, perhaps all, export countries the eye-watering cost of the F-35 has lead to a cut in overall aircraft numbers when compared to their F-16 fleet. Even if the unit price were similar the bespoke and expensive facilities needed to support the F-35 have made quite a dint in the budget.

So does that mean, it persistently breaks down, is aware it has broke down and when realising the threat is great, it turns and runs away utilising its enhanced range while dumping its own weapons to increase its speed, thus ensuring it survives?

Germany looks to develop its own sixth generation stealth fighter jet | Defence Blog

http://defence-blog.com/wp-content/u...S-FCAS-web.jpg

It does look very much like a two seat F22 though

https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cd...g?resize=768:*

Though I do wonder if it will cost as much as the

http://www.historyinorbit.com/wp-con.../4oPuCX2-1.jpg

Yes, apart from the configuration, two man cockpit, wingshape, functional specification, engines and tail, the nose is a kind of pointy too. :}

But they are a very similar shade of grey - surely that clinches it as a straight copy...

PDR

Afaik, he worked for the CIA, rather than under DoD rules, in the 1950s. Is there a more recent counterexample?

Fairly sure he worked for Lockheed who had contracts with various agencies.