CompuServe Messages

Well, yes and no. Yes, the stock F-15 avionics are much better than the 29's. The problem arises when somebody buys the 29s cheap, and calls, say, British Marconi to upgrade the electronics. THEIR stuff (and other Western suppliers) has track while scanning, multiple targets, etc., just like the fine Hughes radar in the F-15. More importantly, if you limit the production of new planes to prototypes, and never go into production, you will lose the ability to do so. Possibly permanently, and certainly for a decade or so. That is, when the crash emergency orders go out to Lockheed to deliver 500 ATFs, you would get the first ones in about ten years, if you are lucky. Because the entire industrial base to build them would be gone, and would have to be rebuilt from scratch. Parts suppliers, skilled workers, production techniques, ALL would have to be reestablished from nothing. It can't be done in anything like a reasonable time. It might not be able to be done at all. -Karl