Comments by "josh fritz" (@joshfritz5345) on "The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters"
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@RomanHistoryFan476AD Aircraft catapults are not a small investment, especially for a carrier that wasn't really designed to use them in the first place. The Queen Elizabeth class is a relatively small carrier, and it faces a lot more limitations than it's US counterparts. Maybe you could get the catapults to work if you could fit them, but the cost of doing so would be considerable, and it may be cheaper just to use the F-35.
Also, a lot of the criticism of the F-35 is overblown. The project has had a series of cost overruns, but this is, unfortunately, quite commonplace in modern weapons development. As for the numerous apparent flaws in the aircraft, these are the kinds of bugs that can be expected in a new weapon system, and most will be patched out as the weapon system continues to be developed. Even the really bad sounding one, the fact that firing it's cannon results in damage to the airframe, that isn't necessarily as big an issue as it may initially sound. The F-35 was initially designed without a cannon, it was intended to be a purely missile and bomb armed fighter. Lacking a cannon is not a significant disadvantage these days, as missile technology has advanced to the point where guns are mostly superfluous.
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I am a conspiracy theorist, but I've long held the belief that the conspirators are too stupid to be good at being evil. Sure, they do stuff like human experimentation, assassinating public officials, using fear to control the behavior of the people, but I believe that this is largely just the result of putting a bunch of midwit scumbags in control. They conspire from time to time, but the majority of conspiracies are small scale local things like corruption, embezzlement, extortion, election rigging, etc. None of those need to be national or global conspiracies, they could all take place on a local level in many different places at once. Thousands of poll workers could individually decide to throw out certain ballots without ever talking to each other, and a small group of corrupt FBI officials could independently decide to go after their political opposition without taking orders from any public officials.
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@redknight6077 That is actually normal for a modern weapon system in development. Also, keep in mind, while Russia tends to overhype their tech as being better than it really is, the US DoD is incentivized to publicize how bad a project is going because Congress's solution to every problem is to throw more money at it. Also, since our media isn't really state controlled in the same way that Russia's is, they can cover stories about screwups in weapons development. A great many excellent modern US weapon systems started out facing a huge amount of criticism, largely from people who know very little about weapons development, including some who ought to.
Two famous examples of this included the M1 Abrams and the M2 Bradley, the development of which faced huge media backlash after a handful of trouble making pentagon bureaucrats known as "The Reformers" criticized them publicly for being too expensive and relying too much on unproven technology. Despite a lengthly and expensive development process, both turned out to be highly effective weapon systems. The F-35 is effectively the same story, but the amount of money involved is much larger because stealth jets are more complicated and expensive than tanks.
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I love the A-10 as much as anyone, but it has its drawbacks. It's electronics are not top notch, and CAS aircraft really should have top notch radar and IFF systems in order to best avoid friendly fire incidents and maximize combat effectiveness. Also, as durable as the A-10 is, it isn't invulnerable to modern SAM systems. For low intensity conflict, drones can perform a similar role at a lower cost. For high danger, high intensity conflict, the A-10 has a huge firepower advantage, but could expect to take heavy losses from surface to air missiles. In the latter role, a small stealth strike aircraft like the F-35 would perform better, since it would be almost invulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles. The A-10 is iconic, and it still has its uses, but its primary role as a tank buster and CAS platform are starting to be taken over by other types of aircraft better adapted to a modern battlefield.
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