You read about some of the exercises we've done with some of the Europeans and the Indians and the like with the latest types. There is some chatter that they had done very well against the F-22. Of course, the chatter from our side says differently but it is also always followed up with the refrain, "Well, so what. In real combat the F-22 would have killed those guys before they even knew it was there."

Okay, so it seems that most of the advantages of the F-22 and almost all of the advantage of the F-35 lie in their BVR capabilities. Well, whoop-de-fricking-do. We have never fought an air war where we allowed our aircraft to shoot down potential enemies without making visual identification. The F-14 could shoot down aircraft at 100 miles in the 1970s, but that capability was of little use in anything short of Armageddon against Russian bombers because of our rules of engagement.

So, are we really going to send our F-22s and F-35s out to hot spots to get into knife fights with Su-27s and the like where most of their advantages are gone?

It would seem to me that the original High/Low mix we had envisioned needs to be tweaked. They didn't build enough F-22s. So, the F-35 is going to have to take over some of the High mix. Really, what we need is a High/Middle/Low mix with the F-22 on top, the F-35 in the high middle/ and something like an upgraded F-15 on the low.