gosquidgo

Wow, don't know how I missed it on the news, my mistake. Yup, I live here on Hickam and the F16's were flying their CAP as far as I could tell. When the grounding was lifted they were flying missions like there was no tomorrow. Didn't know about the F-18s though.

That's strange, it didn't even make the local news here in Honululu. They had brought in some F16s to fly their CAP missions while the Eagles were grounded, the past few days there have been quite a few F15/F16 joint missions, I can only assume that they also practice dogfighting while they are out there.

Actually, one F22 is better than ten F15s. I'll have to dig up some recent articles on the Red Flag and other excercises that F22s have taken part in. The kill ratio was something like 69-1 and that the loss was only because a Raptor pilot got ballsy and crossed the merge with three F16s. He killed all three but a heater from the last F16 got him too. In all the other engagements, the other planes couldn't even find the Raptors. Pilots transitioning from the F15 to the F22 couldn't believe how one-sided and easy the engagements became. Another big factor is the cost of training and retaining the pilots, not mention the associated costs of support personnel, aircraft maintenance and other costs. The more planes and pilots you have, the greater the cost.

FA was (and still is) my favorite multiplayer flightsim. Airbase attack mode was the greatest!! Wrench, were you in an online squadron? I used to be in MEQ and then the 71st. Those were the days.