Re:The F-35 still has a long way to go
by WalterBright on Sunday April 02, 2017 @04:00PM
(#14018750)
A few airplanes sunk the Yamato. It would have been far more effective if the Japanese had sunk (!) that money into better aircraft and better pilot training.
They had great pilots and great aircraft at the start of the war, but by the time Yamato was sunk it was all gone. They didn't even have enough fuel for a round trip - they were going to ground her and use her as a fixed gun emplacement.
Re:The F-35 still has a long way to go
by WalterBright on Sunday April 02, 2017 @09:56PM
(#14020142)
> They had great pilots and great aircraft at the start of the war
A handful. Nowhere near enough. The Battle of Midway wiped out the bulk of them. The Zero rapidly became obsolete, too.
The Japanese government was afraid to send the Yamato into battle, but that had nothing to do with money (after all, its sister ship was deployed at the 2nd battle of Leyte Gulf). The problem was they'd used it as a centerpiece in their war propaganda, and they thought losing it would be a PR disaster that outweighed any possible utility in battle.