F-21? Kinda obvious the sting from the F-15X is biting...

Manufacturer's website here.

Ya know what we'll never know unless someone writes a book or hits the talk circuit?  How long the talk has been floating around the Pentagon that the USAF needed to build capacity!

When news of the F-15X first hit, that was the song the AF Chief Of Staff sang.  He needed the F-35 but he also needed capacity (how that could be when the numbers of F-35's being projected to be bought easily accomplished that goal).

We all know better don't we?

The F-35 is hopelessly late.

We know that there was a quiet debate about buying additional F-16's and/or F-15's.

Well the USAF chose their bird and Lockheed Martin is trying to sell the F-21 to India.  I'll skip the designation idiocy (I don't understand it and I don't think they do either) and just give this thing a quick look see.

First thing I noticed?  They loaded up this thing with fuel.  Don't know the size of the drop tanks or the conformal fuel tanks but this thing should fly far...farther than a standard F-16.

Next up is the missile loadout.  Eight AMRAAMs and two Sidwinders?  This is for the long range fight.

They might be peddling it to India but I'd bet bodyparts that I'm fond of that they also tried to peddle it to the USAF.

The last thing is that they're trying to tie this into the F-35.  This is what the website says...

F-21 – India’s Pathway to F-35

Lockheed Martin continues to leverage technologies across its portfolio to drive affordability within new and existing platforms and is committed to delivering the F-21 at the most affordable price for India.

The F-21 has common components and learning from Lockheed Martin’s 5th Generation F-22 and F-35 and will share a common supply chain on a variety of components. Approximately half of the F-21 and F-16 supply chains are common with the F-22 and F-35.

That's obvious and obscene.

Its damn near shouting that if you buy the F-21 now, you can climb aboard the F-35 later...after they get it working!

Lockheed first got my ire by the way they treated their partner, Patria with their AMV in the ACV contest.  Then the disaster that the F-35 became apparent to me.

But one thing you have to give them credit for.  They're audacious and arrogant as hell.  If their engineers were as in your face as their sales team that thing would be flying rings around the moon right now!