Quote:
Originally Posted by scorefour
The Russian airforce isn't necessarily the concern, it's who they sell them to. If the Chinese get their hands on them, then the Asian-Pacific arms race is in high gear.
The bigger issue in my mind is that the Russians (and Indians)will probably be able to produce an airplane roughly equivalent to the Raptor. Sure this will probably take longer than advertised, but I'll bet it will cost a heck of a lot less than a Raptor.
The U.S. military budget is larger than the rest of the world's combined. For all the money and effort we put into this program, I wish we would've come out further ahead.
Designing a plane in 3 months just to comply with a ridiculous schedule then to spend the next 20 years testing it seems like the wrong approach. Allow enough time to really get it right, then speed up the testing process. You'd better believe the Russians won't be testing this thing for the next 20 years!
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There won't be an equal to the current Raptor for another 15 years. By that time, the Raptors would have been upgraded.
Also we didn't spend 20 years testing the Raptor. We spent 15.
The air frame wasn't the focus of the test. It was the sensor package. Raptors are like stealth AWACS that can supercruise and lob missiles. The avionics is the crown jewel of the jet. Not the air frame.