It’s even funnier because last I heard, the NGAD was maybe getting cancelled, because aerial combat paradigms are changing a LOT. The B-21 is rumored to be able to carry a LOT of AIM-120Ds (and there’s a swath of new stealthy and/or long-range Fox-3s on the cusp of deployment); between that, AWACS, and a few F-35s running point as sensor platforms, you could theoretically wreck whole airforces with a dozen or so B-21s just hanging back and lobbing missiles for a while.
But orangeboi want fast plane name for him so he get good fast plane. Pay no mind to the fact that it’ll certainly not be taking advantage of economies of scale (on top of the F-35 cancellations from Portugal, and serious reconsideration by Canada and several EU countries), because they surely won’t approve export to anyone (except Russia maybe? Who knows). Air combat maneuver is going to be a fully obsolete domain the second we get workable energy weapons, and we’re already deploying shit like that as a CWIS replacement on destroyers. High-maneuverability will be owned by drones (can you pull 30Gs indefinitely? Because a bunch of integrated circuits can, if you package it the right way). Human-crewed aircraft will be strategic/oversight platforms. This is frankly a silly investment in an area of defense tech that is actually kind of a dead end at this point due to other advances. As much as I love flight sims and the physics of ACM, its just going to stop mattering at some point in real life military conflicts.
All in all, absolutely not shocked he’s done this, and it’s true to form in a lot of ways.
It’s even funnier because last I heard, the NGAD was maybe getting cancelled, because aerial combat paradigms are changing a LOT. The B-21 is rumored to be able to carry a LOT of AIM-120Ds (and there’s a swath of new stealthy and/or long-range Fox-3s on the cusp of deployment); between that, AWACS, and a few F-35s running point as sensor platforms, you could theoretically wreck whole airforces with a dozen or so B-21s just hanging back and lobbing missiles for a while.
But orangeboi want fast plane name for him so he get good fast plane. Pay no mind to the fact that it’ll certainly not be taking advantage of economies of scale (on top of the F-35 cancellations from Portugal, and serious reconsideration by Canada and several EU countries), because they surely won’t approve export to anyone (except Russia maybe? Who knows). Air combat maneuver is going to be a fully obsolete domain the second we get workable energy weapons, and we’re already deploying shit like that as a CWIS replacement on destroyers. High-maneuverability will be owned by drones (can you pull 30Gs indefinitely? Because a bunch of integrated circuits can, if you package it the right way). Human-crewed aircraft will be strategic/oversight platforms. This is frankly a silly investment in an area of defense tech that is actually kind of a dead end at this point due to other advances. As much as I love flight sims and the physics of ACM, its just going to stop mattering at some point in real life military conflicts.
All in all, absolutely not shocked he’s done this, and it’s true to form in a lot of ways.