Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
How long does it take to build an F-18, etc from scratch?
Simple as it may be (compared to other designs), you won't be rolling them out on a daily basis and I rather doubt anywhere near fast enough to replace losses.
We see the Army requisitions tanks etc, so why wouldn't they do the same for more advanced, expensive and difficult to produce aircraft?
There's a war on. Supporting your allies with equipment is all well and good, but when your own troops are dying because of a lack of vital supplies, the US people are going to have something to say about it!
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The final answer is, nobody knows for sure. Modern aircraft being made of exotic materials and expensive electronics...it sure won't be like turning out 24 P-51Ds a day! The best guess for the F-16 is about 15 days from start to finish. How much this could be cut down is up in the air, that's why I crack jokes about GD going to three shifts a day, it really is the only way to produce enough F-16s to match the needs.
A lot of web sites talk about F-16/15/18s going all over the world...in real life, the USAF would be busy bringing squadrons up to wartime strength and struggling to build a reserve of ac. My own best guess is that nobody else will be getting front line aircraft, it would even be doubtful that F-16A/Bs would be sold, they can, after all, be sent into depots for full rebuilds. Older birds like the F-4s would be sold, and ac like the F-5s/F-20s would be the most likely ones sold overseas.
I tried to reason out a logical chain that would allow the RAF to pick up F-16s, but the major problem is this is a bird that the Brits do not fly, have no pilots tried to fly it and no support crew trained to maintain. It is very doubtful that the Falcon would ever serve in the RAF. The needs of the USAF/USMC/USN would almost certainly keep all front-line production for their own use. As one previous poster has noted, the Army seized tanks, certainly aircraft can be seized as well.