Decision By Administration to Cut Defense Programs

[dnalexander]

There are jet fighter concepts numbered F23 through F34 but for any number of reasons the concept for that particular fighter never made it off the drawing board.

Several years ago and for whatever reason, the government decided to revert to numbering fighters and bombers starting all over again with number 1.

Under that backtrack, we have a B-2 bomber that is more advanced than the B-52 and an F-22 fighter that is more advanced than, say, the F104.

I have heard that the AF has retired the F-117 stealth fighter.

Their is also, an F-35 fighter called the Lightening II which has only 4 production models at current(And 13 test and\or variant models). It utilizes many of the advances of the F-22 that Varmit and I discussed above. The F-35 is more along the lines of the A-10 and Harrier vertical "jump" jet. This is a joint strike fighter that is getting funding from England, US, and several other NATO nations. It concepts and capabilities fit well with our current needs in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran. The Chinese even wanted some, but "we" said yea right, I don't think so. By the end of the current contract we will have about 200 of the super advanced F-22 Raptor. I believe the new budget announced by Gates authorized 2,034 of the smaller F-35 Lightening. I think a good fit for our current needs.

David


p.s. I just went back and re read some of the previous posts. Sorry for duplicate responses and saying the same thing twice.

David