Big Al still couldn't afford one of these!

[Alvin Walton]

CRedskinsRule wrote: you don't fight stealth with upgraded fighters, you fight them with R&D into missile tech.

This would imply a conflict with China, which is plausible.
So lets say we have a C-5 and C-17 lifeline to Japan/Korea from Hawaii.
How do we protect them over the ocean?

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Alvin Walton

CRedskinsRule wrote: you don't fight stealth with upgraded fighters, you fight them with R&D into missile tech.

This would imply a conflict with China, which is plausible.
So lets say we have a C-5 and C-17 lifeline to Japan/Korea from Hawaii.
How do we protect them over the ocean?

Hmmm? how does a stealth fighter with limited range reach our planes over the ocean? Further, see the dogfight expectation and comparable quantities available of fighters. In 2020, they may send their force of 50 valuable fighters to attack a C-5 or C-17 lifeline that is guarded by a United States Carrier battle group or two with electronic surveillance monitoring support from Japanese and US naval bases. Maybe they even down one? maybe, at the expense of their full production run? Is it a war scenario, I suppose. Is it one that we can't reasonably defend against with our current assets and reasonable intelligence data, I doubt it