Peters, 64, has been one of the last people that about 20, 000 soldiers so far have seen before boarding the plane for the war zone -- and one of the first seen upon return.

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Critics carp that the plane is unneeded in a post-Cold War world and that we should, instead, only upgrade the F-15 and F-16 and wait for the proposed Joint Strike Fighter aircraft that's coming several years hence.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

Critics carp that the plane is unneeded in a post-Cold War world and that we should, instead, only upgrade the F-15 and F-16 and wait for the proposed Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft that's coming several years hence.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

During World War II, America's P51 Mustang fighter, a single-engine prop plane, creamed the first fleet of German combat jets, the Messerschmitt 262.

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The pilot of a First World War replica plane who was killed when it crashed at a Hampshire airfield was a 68-year-old man from Horsham in West Sussex.

BBC: Middle Wallop replica crash plane kills Horsham pilot

And if deploying that higher-priced plane presents a more credible deterrent to potential aggressors that dissuades them from making war, then its cost advantage over less capable planes is incalculably great.

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