Cancel the F-35, Buy F-15SE or Advanced F-18 Instead

As my friend Mike Fredenberg says in his recent National Review article (see link below), the F-35 is a procurement mess that should be cancelled.  The Pentagon would have you believe that there is no alternative to the F-35.  Actually there are two alternatives.  The F-15SE Silent Eagle and the F-18 Advanced Super Hornet are both possible replacements for the F-35. The F-15SE was originally proposed as an exportable stealth aircraft for foreign sales to countries who weren't approved to buy the F-35. It's got stealthy characteristics, much better weapons payload, better electronics and costs about 2/3 of what an F-35 costs. I believe the development on this airplane wouldn't take much time, since most of the design work is already done and it's based on a currently deployed design. The Israeli Air Force wanted to buy the F-15SE, but they were denied an export license for it. The Pentagon forced the IAF to buy the F-35 instead.  Trump's tweet on developing a stealth version of the navy's F-18 is also possible.  A reduced radar cross section F-18 Advanced Super Hornet has been proposed, which might be why Trump mentioned it in his tweet.  The way to stop procurement train wrecks like the F-35 is to cancel them and buy something else.

Original article:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443612/f-35-donald-trump-should-cancel-failed-f-35-fighter-jet-program

Articles on F-15SE Silent Eagle:

https://warisboring.com/israel-prefers-f-15-silent-eagles-to-more-f-35s-ca9789521b6f#.j1j5ymk0k

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/f-15-silent-eagle-may-get-a-reprieve-as-israel-requests-1740179374

Article on the F-18 Advanced Super Hornet:

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-resumes-advanced-super-hornet-push-as-us-navy-425221/

 

My post on military procurement:

http://www.conservativeruckus.com/2016/05/the-problems-with-us-military.html