dogfight

American Fighters III: Is the current fighter plane strategy sane?

The move to revamp the entire contingent of the US air combat forces is unprecedented in the recent history of the American military. During World War II and since, a widely diverse array of aircraft have served for all manner of air combat needs. During the last decades of the Cold War, development was competitive among a few military contractors for both fighter planes and their specializations.

American Fighter Jets II: The F-22 Raptor – Air Superiority, but is the niche too thin?

When the United States started developing stealth aircraft, they were seen as the logical next step in combat equipment. Planes that couldn’t be detected on radar were seen to have the advantage of being able to attack without being spotted, and this advantage was apparently deemed so great that the other characteristics of air fighter superiority seemed to be abandoned – those of speed, agility, the ability to out-turn an opponent, and to duel in close-up dogfighting. In fact, the notion of what constituted “air superiority” itself was altered in the US view.