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Comment by ecf | Hacker News Reader

I’m trying not to think about how many resources were wasted to design an aircraft that only saw a little over 100 combat encounters.

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One could argue that is a measure of success. How many resources were wasted building tactical nukes during the cold war? In this sense, I'm glad they were wasted. Sometimes the threat is effective without execution.

Its all about deterrence and control of airspace. Enemies are not stupid, if they know that F-15s are in the air then they are very likely to stay the hell away. No combat encounter, but mission success and other assets protected. If the F-15s weren't there then the enemy aircraft would have been free to wreak havoc.

That’s only air combat (plane vs plane). These planes regularly engage in plane to ground combat. Dropping bombs, firing missiles.

Also, not every engagement is a combat engagement. Example: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22807/oregon-f-15s-scr...

F-15C shown here is pretty much as purebred air superiority fighter as possible. They definitely do not regularly engage ground targets, unlike it's multirole cousins (F-16 and F-18)

They did eventually (begrudgingly) develop separate strike variant (F-15E), but those aircraft are conversely dedicated to that role.

How much money have you wasted on home and auto insurance?

   You are thinking it wrong.
   There were 100 combat encounters. Let's forget the human life. The cost to train an F15 pilot is $9.2m

https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs...

   So if the combat and the pilots were lost and we had to train new pilots, the cost to train new 100 pilots for f15 would cost $920m. 
   I'm sure it cost less then $920m to have good UI design in the F15 cockpit.

You've probably heard the term "Force Multiplier" via bad Hollywood movies. Well, a fighter-bomber is that in spades. You are able to project force into the 3rd dimension, flying above the enemy troops almost with impunity in order to kill them and destroy their infrastructure. So that they don't do it to you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_multiplication

Not all combat missions involve shooting, even when the intention is to do so.

Heck, if I were a MiG pilot in the middle east and saw an Eagle on my radar warning display, there'd be no chance I'd be going on a suicide mission against it. Better save the plane and the pilot for another day.

The best weapon is the one you never have to use.

I wonder what the consequences would have been of 100 successful enemy missions which were averted?

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