Just so.
Lockheed was his employer and he designed the U-2 under a government contract for the CIA. The USAF and DoD had no role afaik in the management or supervision of the work. Nor did Lockheed line management, it was Johnson and his selected engineers and workforce.

He designed a lot more than the U-2 - the C-130,for example. He said they would probably sell no more than 100 of them. Now at about 2,500 and counting..

Looks like he’s getting bigger

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS_Mako/HEAT

They're flying in the same direction so...straight copy really.

What am I missing.
Technology allows inexpensive quasi autonomous combat vehicles, so much so that ethicists are raising cogent questions about their morality, yet these military staffs are endorsing a massive fighter bomber concept that will make the F-35 appear a bargain.
Is technology a forbidden word in European military circles?

I don't see how such a 500MM E silver bullet item could ever be bought in quantity sufficient to be more than a footnote to military records.

The planes are specc'd by guys whose whole life is about flying FJ's - if you say some spotty faced recruit sitting in a portakabin is going to replace them it strikes at their whole life and value system

You don't ask a barber if you need a haircut and you don't ask pilots if they want unmanned aircraft...........

(and just look elsewhere on PPrune to see the reaction of commercial pilots to the idea of one -man - or unmanned commercial 'planes................... )

Is that not why we have senior staff? People who are supposedly past the FJ stage of their lives and who try to maintain an effective military.

No, at that stage they’re putting in place arrangements for their directorships and vice-presidencies with the aircraft manufacturers....

I don't think this video has been posted before:

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...f-2018-9967606

Hoke said it was imperative to avoid mistakes made in the last big European military program, the troubled A400M military transporter, which has been plagued with cost overruns and technical challenges.

"It's important that the specifications (for the new fighter jet program) are developed with a sense of proportion," he said. He said it was important to "prevent requirements that are too comprehensive and that cannot be delivered by industry."

Only way that will work is if the French design and build it and the Krauts are dumb enough to fund it.

Of course if it were to fall under the blessing of Schultz and Junkers et al.... lodsa mon€€€€y.....

https://i.imgur.com/Ct04rlm.jpg He knows nothing.
https://www.pprune.org/data:image/jp...jpAZOcZrqdgf/Z

France expects combat jet announcement at Berlin Air show: report

PARIS (Reuters) - France expects to take a “first significant step” in the development of a new European fighter jet with Germany later this month, Defence Minister Florence Parly said in remarks published on Thursday...... Parly said that ongoing “active talks” should result in an announcement at the ILA Berlin Air Show from April 25-29........

“On a political level, discussions between the French and German teams are intense. The industrial groups are working well together and now we have to ensure the two processes come together,” Parly told La Tribune newspaper.

A French defense ministry source, speaking before Parly met her German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen, said the two sides would sign a high level common operational requirements document in Berlin, a 10-page document that outlines the basic needs of the two militaries. After that the companies involved - Dassault, MBDA, Thales and Safran on the French side and Airbus on the German side - would spend just under a year working separately on technical specifications before agreeing a common contract to work together.

“This proves wrong the people that said France and Germany couldn’t work together on defense projects,” the source said. It was too early to talk about including other EU partners in the project, she said. The source said France and Germany wanted to push the project forward quickly before bringing others on board.......

“We are looking at first delivery by 2040 to replace the Eurofighter and to prepare for a future beyond the Rafale,” the source said. “The industrial studies will start this year autonomously so that we can try to start to work together next year with a view to launching the program in the 2020s.”.....

Germany’s defense ministry did not immediately respond for comment.

Mais, sera-t-il habité...?

That's a principal that should be at the top of every RFP in any country

Well, that's what everyone tries to do. But as for the history of defense acquisition reform...

http://www.huttwaterpolo.org.nz/newsletter_200102.jpg

Love that French statement. "Replace Eurofighter" is a thinly disguised dig at the jet, suggesting it will be obsolete, while "prepare for a future beyond Rafale" infers it will not need replacing at the same time/before Typhoon.....

My bet is that this will go the same way as the proposed Franco/German Heavy Lift Helicopter of 2010; an idea that effectively subsidises industry for a couple of years but delivers an output that is clearly unaffordable. Germany will then pull out and go its own way (hence the CH-47F/CH-53K purchase..) and the French will do what they did when they pulled out of the FEFA project and try to design their own aircraft.......

FWIW:
To infer is to draw a conclusion based on non stated evidence.
A statement that presents evidence designed to cause another to come to a certain conclusion is to imply.

Seeing as this is a rumour network I did hear a rumour of the return of the fast jet WSO with UK FCAS some time later next decade. Anyone else heard that?

Absolutely!!! ;);););)