Originally posted by Gun Boat
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~1/3rd of the F-22 fleet is reserved as training birds and not combat coded. Same goes for F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, etc. The F-35 fleet will need a lot more than 108 aircraft reserved for training based on the planned production numbers. Why spend money bringing early production training aircraft up to a spec they don't require when you can put it towards additional combat birds instead?
Do you consider the F-35's flight performance unremarkable? It meets or exceeds the speed, agility, and acceleration of a combat loaded F-16 or F/A-18 while carrying significantly more fuel to boot. Sure a clean F-16 will outrun an F-35, but throw a couple 2000 lb JDAMs, AMRAAMS, gas bags, and targeting pods on it and suddenly the F-16 is the sluggish one.
VLO characteristics aren't a feature that can just be nullified. Improvements in radar, computer processing, and increasing use of other types of sensors will slowly increase the ranges at which stealth aircraft can be detected and tracked. But these same improvements will also MASSIVELY increase the detection and tracking range against 4th gen aircraft, leaving stealth incredibly important going forward.
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