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Old 2012-10-31, 06:30   Link #396
Alastor Mobius Toth
Idar Lead
 
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: World Marshall bureau
Time to play Devil's Advocate:

That's a bit of a stretch; yes, the first-generation American TSFs were not stellar, but they were 1st Generation machines, and no first-generation machine was truly good. The Tornado was average at best, and Gekishit...well, the nickname should tell you all you need to know. F-14s did fight against the BETA, and did reasonably, if not well. F-15 is used as the mainstay TSF of the United Nations, and seems to be doing reasonably well against the BETA. And there's the Strike Eagle and above all - A-6 Intruder and A-10 Thunderbolt II, which are about the two most effective anti-BETA TSFs ever designed (and as TDA shows, they can be brutally effective against TSFs as well), and both are American.

Of course, there's the whole debate about the export versions of given product being intended as inferior to what said product is in the mother country. This has happened in real life (Soviet Union, and it's mass of shitty Warsaw Pact tanks says hi), so I see no real reasons for Americans not to do so...if only for the profit for their industry. That and there's no guarantee that refits aren't being done by Americans themselves; I'm pretty sure Type-89 Kagerou was manufactured in America (or at least, by American interests in Japanese factories). A lot of refits seem about as increasing TSFs effectiveness, as much as about actually fitting the given machine in a country's military service.


And yes, national pride rears its ugly head again. The French constructed a 3rd Generation machine solely because ECTSF told it to go to hell with their engines. And Soviets are outright obsessed with showing up to Americans and continually failing (first versions of MiG-23 and early power troubles of Su-27 mechs). A lot of native designs are less about being more effective against the BETA (although, it cannot be denied that some, like the J-10 and its Israeli counterpart are genuinely superior to mother product), and being self-sufficient with their own industry, because relying on someone else for all your essential war machines is not a good thing in the long run... particular if you would be willing to go to war over the G-Elements. We already know that America is prepared to fight other nations...but there's nothing to say that other nations aren't prepared to fight themselves too. Hell, even Japan is considering an increase to its human-countering potential, if the trials of F-15SEJ is anything to go by.

Incidentally, the Prominence is exclusively U.N thing. Given Leon's remark, and Yuuya's initial dismissive attitude at first, I'm pretty sure America considers it more of a nuisance then anything else. Especially when we consider that there are almost no U.S personnel or test pilots out there...unless I missed some.


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At the end of the debate though, we should remember one thing:

"War are fought by weapons, but won by men."

Who has the better pilots wins. Everyone who played Ace Combat knows that if you're good, you can end up eating EF-2000s for lunch in your F-5E Tiger II.
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