Article

2017-01-04 -Short Attention Span Theater-

F-35 pilot: Here's what people don't understand about dogfighting, and how the F-35 excels at it

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by gorb 2017-01-04 15:51|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 "The whole concept of dogfighting is so misunderstood and taken out of context,"

Nope. Just those who live to fly another day. War is like that. You live or you die. All the rest is Monday morning quarterbacking or excuses by the 'experts'.

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-01-04 16:51|| 2017-01-04 16:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Uh, not fully buying this one - why, then, did the Pentagon wait months to get this story out?

Posted by Raj 2017-01-04 17:18|| 2017-01-04 17:18|| Front Page Top

#3 So why did they give it a gun?

Actually, a question deserving of an article or two by itself, but the short version is that the USAF and USN embarrassed themselves badly in Vietnam when the F-4 Phantom II - our #1 front-line fighter around the world - was incapable of shooting down North Vietnamese aircraft with the miserable missiles of the time, and they Didn't. Have. A. Gun. Modern missiles (the AIM-9X and AIM-120) are not quite one-shot/one-kill, but they're damned close, and if we deleted guns today you could make a good argument for it - but the services are never going to forget the fact that they couldn't bring down the enemy because they didn't even carry the fighter's most basic weapon.

(Not to mention the last gun kill for the US military was by a Hog. No way they're going to let THAT go. :D )

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2017-01-04 17:19|| 2017-01-04 17:19|| Front Page Top

#4 Why this is complete BS, we need 1500 more A-10 and force the Marines, the RAF and the Navy to adapt to the past. Throw in 1200 Thuds and you got a mans Air Force.

Posted by Shipman 2017-01-04 18:00|| 2017-01-04 18:00|| Front Page Top

#5 And as far as the guns are concerned... the F-35c and F-35b mount them in pods for easy removal. The F-35a recess it's gun in the nose, out of the airstream except when actually shooting, hidden rest of the time.

Posted by Shipman 2017-01-04 18:04|| 2017-01-04 18:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Second Times is the Charm, eh?
The US bought the "missiles only: beyond visual range" theory going into the Vietnam War dropping onboard cannons. Unfortunately they way, WAY overestimated the lethality of the AIM-7 Sparrow:The Pk (kill probability) of the AIM-7E was less than 10%; US fighter pilots shot down 59[Note 1] aircraft out of the 612 Sparrows fired.[4] Of the 612 AIM-7D/E/E-2 missiles fired, 97 (or 15.8%) hit their targets, resulting in 56 (or 9.2%) kills. Two kills were obtained beyond visual range.[5]

Posted by magpie 2017-01-04 19:54|| 2017-01-04 19:54|| Front Page Top

23:58 Zenobia Floger6220
21:39 Silentbrick
21:38 Silentbrick
21:22 Procopius2k
21:04 BigJim-Ca
21:01 BigJim-Ca
20:59 BigJim-Ca
20:32 trailing wife
20:12 Barbara
20:04 Rex Mundi
19:54 magpie
18:04 Shipman
18:00 Shipman
17:34 swksvolFF
17:27 Mike Kozlowski
17:27 swksvolFF
17:21 Raj
17:19 Mike Kozlowski
17:18 Raj
17:13 swksvolFF
17:01 swksvolFF
16:54 Procopius2k
16:51 Procopius2k
16:45 g(r)omgoru