
The US Air Force’s radical plan for a future fighter could field jet in 5 years - protomyth
https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/2019/09/16/the-us-air-forces-radical-plan-for-a-future-fighter-could-field-a-jet-in-5-years/
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bediger4000
"developing small batches of fighters with multiple companies, much like the
Century Series of aircraft built in the 1950s, Roper said."

Do we even have multiple companies anymore? Sure, there's Boeing (Boeing,
McDonnell, Douglas, maybe part of Convair?), Northrup/Grumman (Northrup,
Grumman), Raytheon (I don't even know how many rolled up in this one),
LockMart (Lockheed, Martin, part of Convair). That's 4, out of the multitude
of 50s-era aviation companies: Consolidated, Vultee, Martin, McDonnel,
Grumman, Northrup, North American, Fairchild, Republic, Vought, others I'm
forgetting. There's 4 companies, optimized for extracting large dollars from
DoD and CIA contracts, instead of 10-20 companies, optimized for getting
airplanes on runways. I kind of doubt this will work. The DoD, and Air Force
in particular, have quit getting things done in the last 30 years, in favor of
spending money in all the congressional districts in the US.

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simonblack
But, but, but ..... wasn't the F-35 supposed to be the be-all, end-all plane
that does everything, even washing the dishes?

