"When it comes to aircraft, the United States of America has an embarrassment of riches. We have awesome fourth generation planes, state of the art fifth generation planes, and are starting development on the new sixth generation planes. All very good, all state of the art. If you are an aviation buff like I am, stay tuned. The best is yet to come."
Why can't they just die a dignified death, and make room for the next two generations of fighter jets? I mean, they have all of them, served our nation well. Time for the latest and greatest stuff. But here is the problem. Many of our fourth-generation jets were very well made. And because of that, the manufacturers have been tinkering around with putting some new and more modern capabilities into them and then relaunching them. Really? Like what?
The F-18 Hornet, which is the backbone of the fleet, has evolved into the F-18 Super Hornet. This is an old jet. I worked on the Standard Navy Airborne Computer which when into the f-18 Hornets when I was much, much younger (in the 1980's). But the Super Hornet has some newer punch to it. It fits in well next to the F-35 Lightning II stealthy fighter jets on a carrier. When will the Super Hornets be retired out to the desert? Maybe once the newer F-47 Navy variant enters service after passing flight tests. Until then, get used to seeing the Super Hornets on carriers.
The F-15 Eagle is another success story. No stealth with this bad boy, so why keep it around? Because it has a new variant. The F-15EX Eagle II. This old jet is still fast - faster than greased lightening. It can fight at speeds up to Mach 2.5 and sometimes approach Mach 3.0. But here is the real secret. It is like a flying tank with how many missiles and bombs it can carry. And with the standoff ability of today's missiles, one F-15EX Eagle II has enough fire power and range to take out an entire wing of Russian Backfire bombers. Take them out before they even knew what hit them. Thus, the F-15 still has a place at the table.
And then we have the age-old lighter companion to the Eagle - the F-16 Falcon. Single engine and nimble, it has served this nation well. Now it is time to go bye-bye. But hold the phone! The powers that be thought there might be some life left in this old bird. The F-16 Falcon has been remade, upgraded and updated to become the new F-16V Viper. And what makes this Viper so special? What it has inside. Almost Star Wars type of avionics with a radar which can see and track just about everything in the sky. The difference between the Falcon and Viper are like night and day. Meaning? Until the F-47 sixth generation jet is ready to go, the Viper will hang around and keep being very deadly.
Finally, I have to say a word about the butt-ugly (yet very deadly) Warthogs. Those would be the A-10 tank killers. Maybe the most survivable jet ever made. The pilot sits in a titanium "bathtub" with a tank killing gatling gun in the nose of the jet. And why are not these Cold War relics retired to the desert as of yet? Because some bright thinkers at the Pentagon thought it would be wise to sell these to NATO. And why is that? The Warthogs are still the best Russian tank killers around - hands down. So, some of them get to stay out of the desert - at least for a while.
When it comes to aircraft, the United States of America has an embarrassment of riches. We have awesome fourth generation planes, state of the art fifth generation planes, and are starting development on the new sixth generation planes. All very good, all state of the art. If you are an aviation buff like I am, stay tuned. The best is yet to come.
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