Rerun

The Navy revisits its tac-air problem. Lots of good metrics in this article.

Again.

New year, same issues...for years.

All of this was totally avoidable. And there is no way F-35 production will fill the gap.

Worse, the F-35 will cause more problems, not less.

It cost more per flight hour. Will be less safe with one engine for carrier ops. Will be less survivable and less versatile than the Super Hornet. Think about that. Not hard to figure out.

A recent spend of $8.3B in the new budget would get you 90-some Super Hornets.

So, not hard to have an all-Super Hornet tac-air setup for the carrier deck.

Dumping the legacy Hornet will also get rid of a lot of expensive maintenance issues. Continuous build of the Super Hornet will also get rid of the Block 1 Supers.

Neither the F-35 nor the Super will be able to stand in the face of emerging threats well. However, the Super is more versatile, safer, and cheaper to own and operate.

The carrier deck is better off with Supers combined with UCAS-N, than any other available solution.


HARM


JASSM


JSM for FMS customers


Maverick

Harpoon:


And no F-35 needed: