I helped write the first specs for the ATF back in the early 1980’s and have watched the program VERY closely ever since. Too many holes and overall a very disappointing effort no matter how you slice it. Given the current made-public performance numbers things are probably even worse.

It’s pretty obvious why this program is still alive.…the hillmen and the generals. A wise man told me once that there were only three things in life that I could count on: I’ll pay taxes, I’ll die and the AF will “need” a new fighter.

By the time that you’re finished upgrading an F-15 or F-16 with all of the latest electronics and avionics and redesigning the airframe to be stealthy you’ll have ended up with an F-22 and F-35 and wasted a lot of time and money in the process. You have to understand that the F-15 & F-16 are old, they were designed back in the late 60’s/early 70’s and there’s only so much that you can do with a 30 some odd year old design. Sure they can be upgraded to be a little better than they currently are but they’d still wouldn’t nearly as good as an F-22 or F-35 and would still end up being outclassed by every other next generation aircraft being fielded like the many SU-30 variants. We don’t want a fighter that’s only nearly as good or just as good as any other fighter out there, we want to better; much, much better.

However, when it comes to the political aspects of what some are posting…reading that nonsense is enough to pull what little hair I have left right out of my cranium.

There are those that continue to castigate President Elect Obama as if he is the Anti-Christ. The man is going to be the President…how insipid is he supposed to be? There is not one President alive or dead that managed to fulfill every single ideal or issue he thought was important or mentioned as part of his platform while running for election.

Not only that, but most politicians if not all usually experience a “coming of age” so to speak after taking office. They usually find that a lot of the rhetoric they were forced to spew has nothing to do with real life or the management and direction of a nation as great ours.

I just cannot believe the level of ignorance and fear demonstrated by individuals who feel as if this nation is threatened from within because a man named Obama is getting ready to take office. I’m not an Obama supporter but so far he’s not managed to sexually harrass a female worker, so far he’s not managed to create a hostile environment between the military, secret service, and the presidential staff. So far he has not managed to strip the military structure so far down to the bone that when a miltary conflict occurred troops did not have the proper equipment. So far he has not selected a command staff that when questioned by junior NCO’s about why they did not have the proper equipment the answer was “what would you rather go to war with, equipment you’d like to have or what you already have?” (Paraphrase).

We (this country) needs to stop urinating and crying about Obama and start working on our elected officials and begin pressuring them to get out country ready for the next major conflict.

Here’s some ideas:
Reset our military and replace our depleted/ damaged equipment levels to include replacing all forward deployed non-used but stressed items.

Continue the development and use of land and space based ISR technology

Understand the economics of the drug trade and how and why it’s destabilizing our southern borders

Strengthen our critical infrastructure (railways, tunnels, shipping, electricity, roadways). We’ve already seen what natural disasters can do. The damage may not be preventable but the response can always be better and different. If this nation cannot respond correctly to a natural disaster what are we going to do when the next terrorist attack comes?

Begin training the everyday citizen to understand the biggest and least expensive sensor that can be employed to detect anomolous
activity is in fact the citizen.

People need to wake-up and stop the “sheep centered” group think. The best armed soldier in the world is a smart, non-biased, intelligent and well informed American…wake-up, be informed, and learn about what’s going on around you.

I do like the F-22’s, and I do think we need them to counter forces from CHN and RUS, but it’s unrealistic to have a fleet of them. Upgrade the F-15’s and –16’s with vectored thrust, conformal tanks which increase stealthiness and improve range, and make some awesome weapons to reach out and touch someone.

Thanks GOD you are not making ANY decisions concerning our military.

Given improved weapons, any of our existing weapon platforms can carry the battle to the enemy. Keeping the F-15 or F-16 lines open would have been a much better solution. New weapon platforms based on proven technology carrying the world’s best weapons is the only way to go–unless you need to provide R&D jobs. An even worse reason to argue for bleeding edge “fighters”: if you happen to be a retired military officer with your hand in the tax payer’s cookie jar–you’d have a reason to back the F-22, F-35, and other future weapon platforms.

Heaven did help you all. Palin said it’s in god’s hands and god has decided. Get over it.

XXXXX

Yeah, right. The man that was against the new GI bill. The one that ensures that wounded soldiers can get the care they should be getting w/o a lot of b/s on the side. Not to mention improved opportunities in education and trades that previous generations of vets got.
While he and Bush were against this bill, when Bush had to sign it, he tried to give McCain credit for it knowing full well that McCain was against it too.

Senator McCain would have been the answer but, the majority of American people have spoken… heaven help us all!