Chinese J-20 stealth fighter David Axe argues in Wired magazine that developing a stealth jet is cheaper than mass-producing them at $100 million per airframe, giving America, the world's reigning economic superpower, a near monopoly: Once the dilettantes are factored out, there are really only three countries making viable stealth fighters, and only two — the United States and China — capable of making them on their own. If there exists a market for 4,000 stealth warplanes over the next three decades, probably 3,500 will be U.S. models. That’s not a monopoly, but it’s pretty close. The U.S. radar-evading advantage might not be as overwhelming as it once was, but it could still endure for decades — thanks mostly to the incredibly high cost of stealth.
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Posted
Jul 08 2011, 10:00 AM
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