SOME POINTS ABOUT BUYING FIGHTER JETS

 

Modern fighter jets are expensive toys. We must be very clear how we intend to spend our very limited financial resources when we want to buy new fighter jets.

More expensive than the fighter jets are the factories and the supporting industries that are needed to produce modern fighter jets. Few countries around the world have the market size or the demand that can sustain very expensive fighter jet production factories. All this has to be carefully kept in mind.

Presently there are only THREE countries in the world which have the production capacity to produce more than 20 fighter jets a year. No. 1 is of course China which has the capacity to produce over 200 fighter jets a year (various models). The exact capacity is not known but it is in excess of 200 units a year (from proven deliveries to the Chinese Air Force).

No. 2 is Russia which also has the capacity to produce 200 fighters a year or more.

No. 3 is the USA which has slipped well below the 200 fighter jets a year capacity - perhaps at about 100 or more.

The rest of the countries that can manufacture fighter jets like France, Sweden, South Korea may not be able to produce more than 20 jets a year. India can "assemble" about ten jets a year - assemble under license.   

America's F16 fighters are now 50 years old. India's MIG21s are 60 years old. The American B52 bomber and the Russian TU-95 bomber are 70 years old. They are all still flying.

Nations generally do not go to war anymore except the UK and the United States. Even then the British Navy only has about 32 surface ships (and about 34 vice admirals).

The United States unilaterally pulled out of the anti-missile treaty. They also unilaterally pulled out of nuclear treaties. (You can Google them). Hence forcing Russia to start rebuilding new missiles and aircraft - which the Russians have done so. The widely and loudly declared American policy of "militarily containing China" has also forced the Chinese to prepare their defenses. 

Minus the American gangsterism, wars should be a thing of the past. There is less need for armies and weapons of war. No country can build an aircraft factory to build 100 or 200 fighter jets a year when the actual demand may be less than 10 units per year. 

What does this mean for us? If we buy fighter jets from countries whose total production of fighter jets is only 10 or 20 units per year we are not going to be able to get spare parts easily (meaning the spare parts will become killer expensive). Also it is most likely that their jet fighter models can go out of production - meaning after a few years they will not make them anymore.  In case of any emergency we will be stuck without replacement fighter jets.

So be careful and use common sense where we are going to buy our fighter jets. 

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.