What will become of the aircraft that will be replaced by the F-35 over the next 10-20 years? I assume some will be kept for training and target use, but a good number of Gen4 air frames will leaving service. I assume many of these will be at or near their maximum air frame flight hours. Could these aircraft be refurbished and resold in some capacity? Put in boneyards? Or will they end up destroyed like the F-14s were?
Healthy supply of QF-16/QF-18s, rest will probably be sent to the boneyard.
F-14s were mostly only destroyed because of Iran.
>>29927062
This. Roughly half the total US purchase of F-16s is out of service already anyways.
Sold to Philippines which then sells it to China
>>29930457
The Flips are many things. But chink-lovers they are not.
>>29931079
How about money lovers?
Some might go off to the Air National Guard or a reserve, especially in the case of good and numerous aircraft such as F-16
>>29926951
I think these are all high milage airframes. Anyone that buys them is going to be in for a logistics/repair nightmare.
>>29931113
They're already equipped with F-16s, they'll be getting F-35As.
Just a reminder that it won't only be the U.S. that will be retiring its 4Gen air frames. Many of the F35 partner nations will be as well.
So is the general consensus that the air frames leaving service are too short on air frame hours to be refurbished and resold?
>>29931695
>>29931113
my home state's guard unit switched from F-16's to F-15C's.
>>29932198
yup. they're going to become target drones so when we go to Combat Archer and finally get to shoot off air to air missiles, we have something to shoot at.
>>29926951
Milsurp for the 1% to play with
>>29926951
Most will likely go to the boneyard to be mothballed until they decide to scrap them. Some will become targets, some may be sold.
>>29926951
They'll sit in the boneyard for years as reserve airframes.
The first of the F-16s that have been retired are being converted into target drones right now. They'll make a good replacement for the old QF-4. They'll be better as well in the role of targets as they're capable of higher G maneuvers. Right now pilots going against the QF-4s already complain that the 'pilots' for the drones cheat by making the F-4s pull such sustained G's that it'd make even the best pilots pass out or even die. It's not an uncommon occurrence for QF-4s to pull maneuvers and snap the wings off.
>>29926951
Many of them will be converted to drones.
>>29932292
The F-16 is limited by it's flight computer. You have 2 settings Cat III, which limits it to 4-5G and then you have Cat I which allows up to 9G. The F-4 is not limited in this way.
>>29932362
Good to know. I'm willing to bet that they'll probably alter that in addition to the other more standard alterations they made to the QF-4s to help them live a bit longer and hopefully take multiple hits (for a while they used what amounted to propane tanks on the furthest wing mount to try and lure IR missiles away from the fuselage to help them survive a hit).
It'll be interesting to see just how they fare. Friend of mine who got the privilege to shoot down QF-4s said he gained a healthy respect for the old bird after seeing what they could really do.
>>29926951
No idea op but happy top gun day.
i hope the new movie will the with the trillion dollar plane.
>>29932504
numerous errors there but w/e
>>29932232
Which unit?
Is there a list somewhere of which units are getting F-35s?
>>29932672
Ultimately unless they're using one of the non-replaced models like the F-15s, they'll all be upgraded to the F-35.
