F-35 Declared Operational

[mutt]

Something I think people fail to realize:

1 US Gen 5 fighter with all the technological wiz-bang...

vs. 5 Chinese Gen 5 fighters (hacked from our blueprints) + 25 Chinese & Russian Gen 4 fighters

= US is going to lose each and every time.

You can have the most technologically advanced flying robot in the world, but if you don't have sufficient numbers of them, you're just pissing away money for no reason.

I'd rather have the 20 "outdated" fighters in production compared to the 1 F-35 for the same cost. I don't see the F-35 ever being cheap enough or produced in sufficient quantity to ever make any tactical difference.

The last I read the US has more fighters and attack aircraft than Russia and China combined. To top it off we're the only ones fielding and operating real 5th generation aircraft. While the Russians and Chinese are working towards fielding their own 5th gen, they are markedly behind the US who is undoubtedly already testing 6th generation fighters. When it comes to air power the US is more than capable of fighting our nearest rivals. Our technology, our training and our tactics are simply better - for now.

No one fields the giant air forces of WWII anymore. Even if the tactics of WWII air warfare still applied (they don''t), no one could afford to field modern warplanes, even gen 4, in those numbers. I don't see the Russians or the Chinese cranking out enough planes to give them a 2 to 1 numerical advantage (which would not give them the edge), let alone 20 to 1. Even with cheaper labor and lesser tech, that would be an incredibly expensive undertaking. Even if they could magically build all those planes, who's going to fly them? You can't crank out competent fighter pilots over night. It takes years, one could argue at least a decade, to train a first class fighter pilot.