From: Monte Davis 

"George Sherwood"  wrote:

>according to them the F-86 would be the
>best fighter ever built.

Umm... no. They're saying that *since* the F-86, all but a few designs have
concentrated design effort/$$$ on some Good Fighter Attributes instead of
(or even at the expense of) other Good Fighter Attributes
-- and that the latter are better correlated with air superiority in
combat, rather than in contractors' Powerpoints.

Of course an F-22 could take out a gaggle of F-86s; at those prices, it
damn well better. The question is, given the much greater unit cost in real
dollars... and given that as a result we have fewer and fewer units... have
we been getting our money's worth? Could the trend lines be better?

> The organization itself hasn't supported any major weapons purchase
> since before the B-1.

A little Googling on the two authors should dispel any idea that they're
knee-jerk anti-military types. The CDI is a "loyal opposition"
think tank with a *lot* of military experience in its ranks.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5