Jack Linthicum wrote:
On May 7, 6:18 pm, Arved Sandstrom wrote:
wrote:
"Boeing has started publicly marketing two
concepts for a stealthy, tailless, supercruising
strike fighter to replace its F/A-18E/F Super
Hornet after 2025.
Both twin-engine concepts, which feature
optionally-piloted cockpits, resemble a
modern-day replacement for the ill-fated A-12
Avenger. The carrier-based stealth bomber
project was cancelled in 1991 amid cost
overruns and technical problems."
So if the A-12 was the Avenger II:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-12_Avenger_II
Maybe they should call this one the Avenger III.
How would this compare to an improved JSF?
This'll be for a fleet of how many planes d'you think? Ten? Twenty?

AHS

The Canadians were talking about 65

Yeah, "talking about". 65 NGFS (Next-Gen Fighters) under a contract to
be signed by 2012, with deliveries starting in 2015-16. Realistically
you'll see that chopped, maybe not below the symbolic 50 where numbers
start looking really absurd.

But with this new Boeing proposal we're talking something that is
presumably better than JSF and comes in 1/2 a generation later. Which
means considerably more expensive. Although I was joking about the 10 or
20 numbers, this next plane - if ever built - might be procured in the
low hundreds by the US, because they are still pitching "optionally"
piloted, so it'll be even more stupid expensive than the JSF or F-22.

If Canada does get some JSFs she sure won't be buying any later
generation fighters after; she won't be able to afford it. Well, OK,
maybe a single squadron.

AHS