“We are going to make our best effort to not over-design the aircraft,” says Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “We are intent on ordering a capability that is not extravagant.”Wow, sounds great. But then what do they want the plane to have?
- stealth (which is expensive, since it requires special skin that helps to evade radar and more);
- "capable of intelligence gathering, conducting electronic warfare and linking to offboard sensors"
- "non-kinetic weaponry, including high-power microwave weapons, lasers and electronic attack."
- "large magazine, which means small or repeating weapons, long-range radar and the ability to judge the effects of electronic attacks." [Won't the long-range radar make the plane easier to find since radar is the sending of signals to bounce off of stuff? I am no expert here so correct me if I am wrong.]
- "at least some supersonic dash speed"
All I can think of this: more things change, the more they stay the same.





