American S-27's

[Joe C-P]

An interesting article, and definately a fun what-if project. How about a CVN loaded with Su-27s, JSFs, and Merlins?

However, the rah-rahs for the F-14 and A-6 neglect one important point - maintenance. The newest F/A-18s require significantly less maintenance time per flight hour, and the builders are reducing the number of parts and fasteners on a regular basis. Less maintenance time means more aircraft in the air more of the time.
Both of the earlier aircraft are also basically 1960s designs.
Also, the Navy blew it big time on the A-12, costing them dearly in lost time and money, so dropping the A-6F in favor of an upgraded F/A-18 may have been their only realistic option.
Finally, if the EA-18G Wild Weasel version comes to fruition, it will reduce the number of aircraft types, simplifying the supply chain. Also, it will be better able to keep up with the rest of the strike package than the EA-6B, and will have better self-defence capabilities.
My biggest gripe is the Navy's slow elimination of the S-3s. Unless they know something about foreign submarine proliferation that we don't, that strikes me as at least short-sighted.

[Nick]

Just a little bedtime reading for you all. It seems that various people are taking a look at the USN possibly buying Russian Sukhoi 27's to make up a shortfall.
Could it be that a what-if? might come true after all? :m

[a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/SPRING/systems/FlightJournal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"]http://web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/SPRING/systems/FlightJournal.pdf[/a]

You will need Adobe Acrobat to read this as its in pdf format.

Nick