re: Can A Good Air Force Fighter Be Built Today For $50M?

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That said, it's not even really a "fighter". The generation of "fighter" jets is dead. Dogfights are a thing of the past. In a dogfight, the F16 gives the F35 a rash of shite. Alas, in an actual war, the F16 would be blown out of the sky before it even knew the F35 was there.

The same goes for a great many of international "competitors".

We definitely could build cheaper very good planes. But, we also would lose more of them in actual combat so, we would HAVE to build more.

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Exactly.

I actually went down this rabbit hole last month, and I still get suggested videos about the new gen of Russian and Chinese fighters. They are what you'd expect. Russia is selling its plane as being really really fast in a straight line. China tried to rip off the US deisgn and failed.

I think I read Russia is trying to build a fleet of budget-type planes like OP is talking about, which may work in conflicts like Ukraine...but it's basically lighting money on fire in a conflict against the US. Even our old F22 is seen as more likely to win in combat against Russia's latest offering.