Three F15 jets down on top of four US casualties so far.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow
What legend? It is an outdated fighter jet no longer used by the Israelis. It is being kept in service with superficial upgrades to maintain the appearance of a credible inventory in the US arsenal. It's replacement, the F 22, was never brought into production because its cost is prohibitive.

@sree251 The legend that it is the only fighter never shot down in combat. The legend of the "perfect" fighter.


It is absolutely outdated


Actually the reason it is still used by the USAF is both the F22 and F35 are too expensive to replace the fleet and maintain the overall size of the fighter contingent.

The F22 did go into production but in nowhere near enough numbers and the same eventually happened to the F35 when they tried to fill the gaps with the F35. It turned out just as expensive.


And the NGAD looks like it will be even worse. Lockheed is known for 2 things. Being late to deliver and over budget.

Same thing with the new ICBM in development by Lockheed. It is already billions over budget and it is still in development.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Benefit of the F35 is we sell variants to allies to recoup a good amount of money. NGAD is going to Boeing not Lockheed though. So you know watch out for those door plugs. :)

@Turtlepower Nonsense. The F35 cost 1.7 trillion dollars. There are not enough countries on the planet to sell them to to recoup that.

Same difference. Nobody can afford them in enough numbers to be relevant. It is while Boeing is currently spinning up the F15 EX an upgrade version of a 50 year old airplane and it is the same reason why the B 52 will be the first combat aircraft to serve for 100 years in the USAF.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow
I wonder who give these defense contractors the specs. Lead contractor for the F35 is Lockheed Martin. The Air Force uses the conventional F-35A, while the Navy uses the carrier-capable F-35C, and the Marines operate the vertical-landing F-35B. Congress authorizes and appropriates funding for Department of Defense (DOD) weapons acquisition. Pentagon top brass works hand-in hand with Senate and House Committees to fleece the American taxpayers. They all skim off the top 10% that includes a cut for the big guy.


US weapons are not meant for fighting real wars to defend the homeland. The fakery is too obvious to be true. I am beginning to think that it is foolish not to run for public office and take taxpayers' money for myself. I might even give you some of the loot if you also don't have a conscience.

@sree251 There is alot of reasons why the price gets astronomical. For one there are only 3 companies left which is by definition a cartel.

In the case of ICBMs only Lockheed still has the capability and have not built one since the disco era.

Thee F35 was supposed to be a cheap standardized plane they would all use with the original spec being 80% common parts between the variants.

That quickly turned into design by committee as each service demanded their own high speed changes to the design whether it was required or not.

Now they have I think 30% compatible parts. They look the same superficially but are effectively 3 different aircraft.

You also have alot of fraud going on. Boeing actually has to get exemptions for all USAF contracts now because a few years ago they got caught defrauding the US government billing for spare parts that didn't exist.

And according to US law that technically should bar them from any future contracts. But because there is only 3 companies left they cannot be turned away so they get their exemptions rubber stamped effectively getting away with fraud.

The Pentagon itself cannot even pass an audit and cannot account for 63% of their assets.

The entire thing is a money black hole.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow
The Brits invented the black hole. Do Canadians also have that hole also?

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I said it's a benefit. Not that it paid for itself lol. Also, raw materials and supply chain issues make the F35 cost increase more and more along with ever changing software upgrades etc. I'm curious to see what a non large corporation would be able to pull off as a competitor. There is a lot of waste throughout the process

@Turtlepower The F35 is also already having major issues because it uses material sourced from China which is no longer available.


The hilarious part is this is not the first time the US has done something potentially stupid like this when sourcing parts for their aircraft.

The vacuum tubes used in the avionics and electrical systems for the F 104 (all variants across NATO) were made in Czechoslovakia a Warsaw Pact country during the cold war. 😂