[sten]

in the 0bama years, the most expensive, least capable, will win the award

of course there is a bonus if it’s foreign made

[spetznaz]

Ironically, based on the original description of a ‘5th generation fighter’ described during the ATF program that gave rise to the YF-22 and YF-23, as well as the follow on material on the production F-22; based on that description the F-35 is not a 5th generation fighter. The F-35 only meets two criteria- sensor fusion (of which the F-35 has done a good job) and stealth (and even then not at the level the Raptor has since the JSF program that gave the X-32 and X-35, and the follow on F-35, was supposed to spawn a ‘cheap-er’ aircraft to come and mop up once the deep IADS penetrators - namely the F-22 and B-2 - sanitised he crazier defences ....basically it was a stealth-y bomb truck under the original ATF + JSF paradigm, with the ATF being the hunter killer and the JSF the janitor). Anyways, strictly speaking the only 5th generation fighter operational so far is the F-22.

[Yo-Yo]

OK, let's see:

1^st Generation: Externally braced biplane.
2^nd Generation: Internally braced metal monoplane
3^rd Generation: Jet propulsion
4^th Generation: HUD and other electronics
5^th Generation: The airplane I'm trying to sell today.

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