On: A Cold War Legacy: The Decline of Stealth

> The US Air Force is spending ever more per airframe.

Except at the lower-end, where Super Tucanos, AH-64s and A-10s dominate. That environment is a numbers game, not a platform-capability game.

Notice how Comanche was cancelled in favour of continued Kiowa / Apache teams; stealth undermined by cost. The US Army saw the future ahead of most others and stealth wasn't it.

> Stealth isn't going anywhere.

For Tier 1 platforms I agree. For everything else, and everyone else outside the top 10 spenders, it's a nice-to-have afterthought.

After their dismal performance in the Iraq War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_attack_on_Karbala), I dunno if I'd point to the Apache as an example of how stealth isn't necessary...

the blackhawk used in the raid on bin laden had stealth capabilities.

my guess is that stealth now includes keeping it out of public's knowledge, to minimize risk.

with helos sound comes into play as well, as detection comes down to human ears if used in rescue or raid situations.