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Old November 5th 03, 04:26 AM
gizmo-goddard
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"Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...
On 11/4/03 5:37 PM, in article
,

"gizmo-goddard"
wrote:

"José Herculano" wrote in message
...
You have a very good point. Yes, the F35 is only a single seater
although LM does have a 2 seater "mockup".

Looking at what an F/A-22 (single seater) and a B-2 (twin-seater) can

do,
I
find it harder and harder to justify a thing like an F/A-18F....


Well for one thing, the US Navy can actuallly afford the F/A-18F. While

it
doesn't really add any more capability than the F-14D has, it is far

easier
to maintain :-)

__!_!__
Gizmo



Gizmo,

Far be it from me to be a Kool Aid drinker (despite my current VFA
association), but I disagree with you based on what I see the F/A-18F

doing
these days with HMCS, ATFLIR, AESA, and AIM-9X.


Oh I don't doubt it one bit. I was speaking of general flight performance,
stuff like top-endspeed, range, that stuff. Certainly late nineties
technology is going to be much better than early to mid 70s and 80s
technology. I can imagine what the Tomcat could have done if it were
retrofitted with that technology, but realistically, that'll never happen.
At least the Navy isn't having to spend 200 million a copy for the darn
things. :-)

__!_!__
Gizmo

There's much more growth potential based on architecture.

And that maintainability counts for a lot.

--Woody