[Muck]

Originally Posted by cincibuck

Understand that the F-15 is worn out, but much of that was by design. Repair parts were non-exsistant for something like the last 5 years and the basic air frame had been out of production.

The recent crash was due to failure of the fuselage longeron. That's the backbone of the aircraft. That wasn't caused by a maintenance issue it was due to structural fatique. Almost 200 F-15s were permanently grounded and sent to Davis-Monthan after inspections.

The 22 just eats chunks out of the AF budget for relatively few aircraft. It runs in the back of my mind that early in its introduction, when the Eagle was put up against smaller cheaper aircraft in numbers we could have expected in a full scale war with the Soviets (now Chinese), it lost. Numbers trumped technology. Maybe Muck can enlighten.

The last time I checked the Russian AF has about 1,000 front line fighters (Mig-31, Mig-29 & SU-27 based platforms) and had retired most of their older planes to save money. Not sure about their current structure.

The PLA has something like 4,000 fighters! But more than half of those are Mig-19 & Mig-21s. They've been working on massive modernization programs over the past two decades however.

Currently I think they have a little over a 200 Russian built SU-27 platforms (SU-27SK & UBK, SU-30MKK & MK2, SU-33) but they also bought manufacturing rights from the Russians and have started up their own production lines to start pushing them out. They are planning on building 200 or so J-11s (indig built SU-27s) and 150 or so are currently in service.

The indigeneous J-10 (it's the one that looks like the Israeli Lavi from the 80's) has started serial production and there are probably 100 or so in service with a production goal of 200.

There is also the FC-1/JF-17 which was designed in conjunction with Pakistan. It is their version of the modern cheap lightweight fighter and will replace the Mig-21s & Mirage IIIs in Pakistani service. The Paks have ordered 150 so far will an option to expand to 300. The Chinese are also evaluating it as a possible replacement for their older airframes.

But the feud about providing fixed wing aircraft for ground support has been long standing between Army and Air Force and Marines and Navy. One side always wants to focus on higher and faster and the other always worries about the need for close in support.

Easy answer. Lift the "fixed wing" ban the Army is stuck with and let them do their own damn CAS. The AF has never been overly interested in it and Army pilots would be able to integrate with the ground force structure much easier.

*shrug*

BTW the AH-64 as a primary CAS platform has a lot to do with the Army agreeing to only fly rotorcraft.

Understand the F-35 is supposed to be a joint aircraft and up for export. The question is, aside from being ugly, can it do the job on the ground?

Well that remains to be seen. I'm guessing that if all the end users didn't think it was up to the job they wouldn't be on board the program. But keep in mind that it was designed primarily as a bomb truck rather than an A2A platform. So air to ground is what it's supposed to do.