F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until 2019'

Re:F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until... by scottlocklin on Thursday January 01, 2015 @03:55PM (#8824277)

We actually ended up doing something like this with the F-111; ruining a generation of Soviet fighter planes (though the Aardvark and Su-24 are pretty good low level bombers). The F-111, you may recall, was the last "do everything, all three service branch" jets we attempted to field.

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Re:F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until... by arethuza on Thursday January 01, 2015 @03:58PM (#8824285)

You got us to cancel the lovely TSR-2 in favour of a modified F-111 version that was itself cancelled....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2

Eventually we ended up with a classic Euro-compromise in the form of the MRCA/Tornado - a swing winged jack of all trades.

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Re:F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until... by gaius on Thursday January 01, 2015 @04:43PM (#8824444)

Not the first time we've fallen for that American scam, you'd think we'd have learnt http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow#Cancellation

Prior to the cancellation of Black Arrow, NASA had offered to launch British payloads for free; however, this offer was withdrawn following the decision to cancel Black Arrow

So much for the "special relationship" eh?

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