The Air Force has embarked on a course to replace the most numerous fighter aircraft in its inventory, the F-16. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) may evolve from the tri-service Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program to replace the F-16 (and perhaps other Air Force ground-attack aircraft) as well as other air-to-ground fighters used by the Navy and Marine Corps. As the JAST program proceeds to a hardware demonstration phase, the Air Force is drafting statements of mission needs and operational requirements for the new aircraft. The Air Force asked RAND's Project AIR FORCE to analyze inventory levels, affordability, and mission needs for the new fighter, to augment Air Force and contractor studies. The study, documented in this report, found that the constraints of future budgets will severely circumscribe Air Force options for the JSF. Without a sharp reversal in defense budget trends or the allocation of a higher share of the Air Force budget to fighter modernization, the JSF will need to be a relatively low-cost, moderate-performance aircraft to fit within Air Force budget constraints. The good news is that an aircraft with a combat radius of 650 nm, moderate stealth, and a turn rate comparable to that of today's multirole aircraft can probably meet most of the services' needs in future regional conflicts.


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    Title :

    Next Generation Attack Fighter: Affordability and Mission Needs


    Contributors:
    D. Stevens (author) / B. Davis (author) / W. Stanley (author) / D. Norton (author) / R. Starr (author)

    Publication date :

    1997


    Size :

    87 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English