Wishing they would of used the F-35 instead of the F-18.
The F-35 can’t simultaneously fly and shoot missiles. It’s a worthless POS.
There’s a reason that both the Air Force and Navy are pushing a faster timeline for acquiring their respective the sixth gen NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) fighters. The Air Force has already flown a prototype of their NGAD about five years ahead of their original plan because the F-35s are such a POS that they’ve ruined the F-22 airframes by running too many hours on them.
The original Air Force plan was to jettison the F-16s and A-10s entirely and use the existing F-15s as backup/secondary fighter and attack craft while the F-22s were the frontline interceptors/fighters and the F-35s served as secondary interceptors/fighters, the main attack planes and took over close air support. Instead, the F-35s have proven useless as fighters/interceptors and can’t beat out the A-10s for Close Air Support. They barely function as standard attack craft.
So as a result, the Air Force have completely switched long term plans and are producing new F-15EX to fill in for the F-35s as secondary frontline fighters/interceptors until the F-22s completely disintegrate or hopefully the new Air Force NGAD is brought online. The A-10s are getting new wings to continue their service WAY past their planned lifetime. The F-16s will be kept as secondary attack Craft almost a decade past their previously planned retirement.
So in other words, here was the original plan versus current plan in bold thanks to the F-35 completely failing almost across the board.
Type: original Plan vs
current plan
Frontline Fighter/Int: F-22 vs
F-15EX & NGAD
Secondary Fighter: F-35 vs
F-15EX
Primary Attack: F-35 vs
F-15E, F-15EX & F-35
Secondary Attack: F-15E vs
F-16C
Close Air Support: F-35 vs
A-10 modified
And the Navy likewise has completely revised its plan which was essentially nothing but F-35s and will load up on more Super Hornets at about the same rate as the F-35s. They weren’t planning on needing a quick NGAD but instead they are ramping their program up as well (despite the same name, the AF and Navy NGAD programs have different planes involved, they at least learned their lesson here).
Type: original Plan vs
current plan
Frontline Fighter/Int: F-35 vs
FA-18E & NGAD
Secondary Fighter: F-35 vs
FA-18E
Primary Attack: F-35 vs
FA-18E & F-35
Secondary Attack: FA-18E vs
FA-18E