There’s an article over at Forbes on one company’s manufacturing military jet aircraft using off-the-shelf components:
So when Rhode Island-based Textron and its partner AirLand Enterprises unveiled an off-the-shelf strike and reconnaissance jet late last year, no one was certain the idea would fly. The Scorpion—a low-cost, two-seat, twin-engine, subsonic jet built largely from commercially available parts—is designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR for short) as well as light strike missions. It’s not quite a fighter jet and it’s certainly not an ISR drone, but it packs the pared-down capabilities of both. Designed and developed in secret over just two years, the Scorpion defies the general expectations of what a military jet should be—expensive, super-capable, and years in the making. The $20 million Scorpion is inexpensive to buy and operate and just capable enough to be effective.
Most countries in the world don’t face threats from high tech enemies. The threats they face are distinctively closer to home. And jets have a certain cachet that turboprop aircraft just don’t have. The market for the Scorpion may be surprising high.
People talk about the technology revolution but they generally don’t recognize where the real revolution has been. It’s been in building things from standardized, and, importantly, off-the-shelf components. Those are the reasons you can afford to buy a personal computer or a smartphone and they’ve now come to military aircraft.
The Scorpion sounds like the nephew of the original F-16, which I still love best.