Comments on: The history of fighter aircraft suggests a massive edge for better capability

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 22:35:38 +0000

They could, of course, have been used to shoot down the airliners ostensibly piloted by illiterate Moslem terruhists on 9/11, but that would have defeated the purpose.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 00:38:18 +0000

I apologize in advance for this stake in the red, white, and blue heart.

Fighters haven’t been used in a peer conflict since the Total War Against Germany. (For those unfortunate consciousnesses drifting unmooredly through time, that was Damned-Near Eighty Years Ago.) In that War, fighters were used for two purposes: to defensively escort and offensively shoot down bomber squadrons, and to defensively escort and offensively sink battle groups. Since that regretful conflict, spearheaded by known communist and cripple, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fighters have been used mainly by Israelis against A-rabs in an unspeakably bizarre campaign to occupy the single worst place on earth, for admittedly very impressive sportsball flyovers, and in peacetime generals’ bureaucratic hot-house dick-measuring contests. No one has ever convincingly explained why militaries are still flying the F-15 (first flown in 1972) or the F-16 (first flown in 1974) if this is not true.

To really drive the point home, the F-16 has been “in service” for 49 years and the F-15 for 51. The Orvilles’ first powered flight was only in 1903, or 120 years ago. That means that the U.S. military has been flying those two specific airplanes for fully 42% of the history of powered flight. Concretely, if an ordinary F-16 pilot is 23 years old, both his father and grandfather could conceivably have flown the same airplane. And the U.S. Air Force allegedly intends to keep flying the F-16 for another two decades at least.

Do these machines sound more like instruments of war or more like movie props and flying museum-pieces?

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:49:57 +0000

The Kuomintang is still a major political party in Taiwan, and they handily won the last round of municipal elections on the island. Moreover, their official position is that Taiwan is a province of China, and they, too seek reunification, albeit under their rule. The Kuomintang leadership also meets more or less regularly with CPC leaders.

Should the Kuomintang win the next national elections (2024?), they may make some progress on reunification, and that would really reduce tensions in the region.

Of course, our genius leaders in Congress have suggested that if China and Taiwan are reunited, peacefully or otherwise, the US should bomb TSMC into oblivion. They might want to bomb it anyway, once our factories are up and running.

Don’t you just admire suggest far-sighted leaders?

By: Wang Wei Lin

Wang Wei Lin — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 23:27:16 +0000

With a homosexual military, China and others have nothing to worry about. Just wait for the military to self-destruct.

By: cassander

cassander — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 19:04:08 +0000

Re-starting F-22 production is a non-starter. it would take almost as long and cost almost as much as designing a whole new fighter. A huge share of development costs are standing up the supply chain, almost all of which needs to be reconstituted from scratch. And at the end of the day, you’d get an F-22, a plane designed to duke it out with the soviets over eastern Europe, not one meant to fight in the pacific.

Anyone who recommends such a course is basically disqualifying themselves as a serious aerospace analyst

By: Gavin Longmuir

Gavin Longmuir — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 15:44:34 +0000

Whatever happened to “Give Peace A Chance”?

The Pacific Ocean lies between China and the Continental US. China has given no indications of preparing to cross half the planet to attack the US. The US has long acknowledged that Taiwan is part of China, and Vietnam gave the US an expensive lesson in the wisdom of staying out of other people’s back yards in that part of the world.

But let’s stick to the practical situation rather than the strategic or moral dimension — How many imported Chinese parts & tools would the de-industrialized US need to build these expensive wonder-weapons?