We had Robin Olds as a guest speaker at an event at our museum in 2005. He liked his drinks and the more he drank the more he let his feelings be known. In conversation I had with Robin Olds, he talked of Dog Fighting in an airplane that is too expensive to risk like the F-22 and F/A-35 (original designation). He said this is bar room gossip and will not happen. One on one at long distance those two birds probably don't have anything to match them. That is their job, like trucks that haul artillery to the front lines. When they dog fight, they have already lost. He said the F-22 was a waste of money. He said something like this, someday an enemy, like the Chinese, build 1,000's of cheap F-5 type fighters, guns and cheap heat seeking missiles. We launch a flight of 16 F-22's each carrying 4 AIM-99XWs against 200 F-5 type fighters, the F-22 at 100 miles out launch their 64 $10M missiles, which cost more than the airplane they are shooting down and take out 64 (100% kill ratio) of the F-5 type fighters. Now they go to guns in a 16 to 136 dog fight and loose most of our fighters, or we use our supersonic cruise, withdraw from the conflict, and cede airspace superiority to opponent We was worried about Generals looking for promotions more they are looking at ways to destroy potential enemies. My one on one with a very drunk fighter pilot. I drove him back to the hotel.
Tellement vrai !!!!!
