F-16.net

Mal68 wrote:

Why not use a laser to range and track the plane?

A while back the USAF put out a paper about using Lidar to track stealth AC.

You can use a laser to get range, you have to find the target first....As said, laser rangefinders can be detected.

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I hesitate to get involved in this, but has anyone considered advancing the state of technology as a reason for building the F-35? Sure, the F-35 costs more than the F-16, certainly not as much as the F-22, but am I wrong when I say that every successive generation of fighter aircraft has cost less to fly per flying hour (assuming you futz with the dollar amount to account for inflation, etc.)? Am I wrong when I say that it takes fewer people to maintain a squadron of F-16s than it did to maintain a squadron of F-4s? The fact that you get more bang for your mission planning buck with a fifth-generation fighter than you ever did with an older aircraft? We can do things with these aircraft that we never could have imagined twenty or even ten years ago. We are advancing the state of the art with new materials, construction methods (we build the JSF on a moving conveyor belt), Avionics software, you name it. We need to build the JSFs of today so we can build the X-wings of tomorrow. (Cheesy, I know.)

Just my $0.02.

Best Regards,

Aw Joe, don't go bringing logic into this.... Wink

F-16.net

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Why again are we going with the JSF?