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I'm amazed that this is even possible. I seem to recall that there are countries with unusable fighter jets, because the U.S. will no longer supply parts and e
by SloopJon 6y ago
I'm amazed that this is even possible. I seem to recall that there are countries with unusable fighter jets, because the U.S. will no longer supply parts and expertise for maintenance. The article indeed states: "the purchase does include all of the RAAF's F/A-18 spare parts inventory and test equipment, valued at over a billion dollars alone."
- paulie_a 6y agoAt one point Pepsi had the sixth biggest Navy in the world. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pepsi-briefly-became-the-6th-largest-military-in-the-world-2018-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pepsi-briefly-became-the...
- ceejayoz 6y agoThe Knights [edit:] Hospitaller briefly had a decently sized bomber fleet after WWII, as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta#Air_force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Ma...
- JorgeGT 6y agoNote, Knights Hospitaller, not Templar.
- ceejayoz 6y agoWhoops, got 'em mixed up. You're right.
- morpheuskafka 6y agoTrue, but the whole reason this worked is that they were a sovereign international personality separate from Italy, not just a private Italian organization.
- toast0 6y agoThey needed that Navy for the Cola Wars.
- benibela 6y agoThe East India Company probably also had a big Navy
- ForHackernews 6y agoHis company is a US Air Force contractor, so I'm sure they don't have a problem giving him parts and maintenance help. Is this another example of the DoD contracting out something that would cost half as much for them to do themselves?
- whatsreal 6y agoFrom the article he is saving the DoD some money on JTAC training operations. I'd imagine their role here would also save some money.
- ForHackernews 6y agoMaybe. The text hints that they also maintain their own adversary fleet in addition to hiring contracting firms like the one in the article. > These Israeli-designed pods are pretty much the world standard in modular self-protection jamming systems and are used on the Pentagon's own aggressor fleet...
- asciimike 6y ago> I seem to recall that there are countries with unusable fighter jets, because the U.S. will no longer supply parts and expertise for maintenance. Turns out the US has this problem as well... my brother is a Harrier pilot, and it seems to me like the US has mostly run out of spare parts for them. They bought a number of RAF Harriers for parts, but even so, it's a question of whether the F-35 will actually be ready in time to replace those squadrons.
- justaguyhere 6y agoI too am amazed that this is even possible, but for different reasons. Do other first world countries allow non-government companies to hold this much sophisticated military hardware? Maybe so, I just haven't heard of it. The other day I was reading about some Saudi prince's half a billion (!!!) dollar yacht. Sometimes I wonder if I live in the same planet as these people. It is hard for me to imagine such wealth and power
- wmf 6y agoThis company is a US military contractor so they're effectively part of the government.
- numpad0 6y agoStill I believe there were laws forbidding private purchases of military planes. Weird if export buybacks didn’t count.
- balls187 6y ago> Do other first world countries allow non-government companies to hold this much sophisticated military hardware? No, they don't. And neither does the US. The F18 is now nearly 40 years old. Typically the advanced and sophisticated aspects of airframes are not allowed for sale, to private entities, or even non-us government ones. The advanced avionics, weapons systems, etc, are all tightly controlled.
- mthoms 6y agoThe article claims that the configuration will not change from what the RAAF had been flying, and that the planes have been more or less fitted with the most modern upgrades available. So, nothing rivaling next generation hardware but also nothing to sneeze at either.
- lobotryas 6y agoAlso no munitions. Unless you are worried about info leaks to China (who else is sophisticated enough to take advantage of it?) I’m not seeing your concern.
- justin66 6y ago> I seem to recall that there are countries with unusable fighter jets, because the U.S. will no longer supply parts and expertise for maintenance. Fighter jets are heavily dependent on spares and expertise, but Iranian F-14 Tomcats managed to score something like 50 or 60 kills during the Iran-Iraq war, which happened after the US stopped playing nice with them. They're still flying a few of them today. If this makes you wonder how they're doing this if everyone is playing by the export rules involving selling arms to Iran, you wouldn't be the first. They have some native production capacity, but...