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This should probably have a (2012) added to the title, it's interesting but a bit dated. For example the criticism of Australia not buying F-22s, when the discu
by pseudo0 5y ago
This should probably have a (2012) added to the title, it's interesting but a bit dated. For example the criticism of Australia not buying F-22s, when the discussion the last few years has been all about F-35s.
- sudosysgen 5y agoThe article does discuss the F-35, as the Joint Strike Fighter
- sbierwagen 5y agoThe Australians might want to buy F-22s, but Congress banned exports. Much like the F-15, the previous air superiority fighter, for which external sales were very limited.
- publicola1990 5y agoPerhaps you mean the F14 which was only ever sold to Iran. Iran and US remain the only operators of F14 till date.
- laverya 5y agoThe F-15 was initially sold only to a relatively small set of foreign operators - Israel and Japan. Saudi Arabia was added in the early 80s, but it took 20 years after that before another foreign operator was introduced. Now, the F-15 is flown by the Israel, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the USA - but SK, Qatar and Singapore were all sold the F-15 after the F-22 made its first flight. Had F-22 production continued, it's quite possible we would have seen a similar pattern there. EDIT: in comparison, the F-16 is operated by Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, the UAE, Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Chile, Venezuela, and of course the USA. 26 countries vs 7.