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2021-02-26 Science & Technology

The US Air Force Quietly Admits the F-35 Is a Failure

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Posted by Besoeker 2021-02-26 01:50|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 F-15EX filling the role of cheaper air-to-air platform

Posted by Deadeye Jaiting7534 2021-02-26 02:42|| 2021-02-26 02:42|| Front Page Top

#2 F-15EX ($88M flyaway) costs more to buy and run than the F-35A ($78M). The F-35A costs only a little more to buy, but more expensive to fly, than the cheapest western fighter, the F-16V ($69M) and outperforms all other fighters except the F-22 in air-air. Non-stealth fighters are just very expensive targets for a low observable fighter.

If the general is worried about using up F-35s for third and fourth world quagmires, the USA already has 2000 F-15s, F-16s, A-10s, MQ-1s, MQ-9s and now the AT-6. The propeller driven Predators and AT-6 costs 1/10 to operate compared to an F-16. Better yet, stay out of fourth world civil wars.

Posted by Ebbereger Unainter6303 2021-02-26 03:16|| 2021-02-26 03:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Above is more fake news click bait.

TacAir Study Will Determine If F-35 Production Surge Needed
In a press conference at AFA’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium, Brown disputed recent media reports that have pronounced the F-35 a failure.

“The F-35 is the cornerstone of our … fighter capability,” and of USAF’s plans for the future, Brown asserted. The TacAir study he unveiled last week will simply look at what systems will be needed to complement it, he said. The age of most of the fighter force—averaging 29 years—compels USAF to “look ahead … 10, 15 years in the future” at the right mix of aircraft for the missions expected in that timeframe, Brown said. The study will develop “where we think we need to go, and how we get from where we are today to … the future.

He also acknowledged that, at the current purchase rate of 48 to 60 airplanes a year, it will be the mid-2040s before the Air Force’s planned buy of 1,763 F-35s from Lockheed Martin is complete.

“I’m not sure that’s fully appreciated,” Brown said of the long production run. If the service sticks to 1,763, the Air Force may “need to accelerate” the ramp rate, conditional on the funding that Congress will allow.

Posted by Ebbereger Unainter6303 2021-02-26 04:33|| 2021-02-26 04:33|| Front Page Top

#4 Adir Who? Israel’s F-35i Stealth Fighters

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2021-02-26 05:53|| 2021-02-26 05:53|| Front Page Top

#5 Skynet smiles

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-02-26 06:20|| 2021-02-26 06:20|| Front Page Top

#6 Interesting timing now that fiscal restraint is a dirty word.

Posted by rjschwarz 2021-02-26 09:32|| 2021-02-26 09:32|| Front Page Top

#7 Click Bait. Do you remember the F-111 Aardvark? It was supposed to be a multi-service, multi-role multi-everything and "a cherry on top aircraft" when the FX Fighter Project started.

After some problems, such as running out of hydraulic fluid and making holes in the hills of Thailand, it matured to have a long and respectable career. Once they decided what it was good for and jettisoned the "multi-role" fetish.

Posted by magpie 2021-02-26 09:45|| 2021-02-26 09:45|| Front Page Top

#8 "You don’t drive your Ferrari to work every day, you only drive it on Sundays.

I thought it was supposed to be a better mud bogger than the warthog.

Posted by swksvolFF 2021-02-26 10:26|| 2021-02-26 10:26|| Front Page Top

#9 It's a better Wild Weasel than the Warthog. Look at the casualty figures from the last time the Warthog was actually used against someone with an air force and antiaircraft missiles. I'd look it up again, but the last time I did it everyone forgot and it's a Brand New Day again in the morning.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2021-02-26 13:44|| 2021-02-26 13:44|| Front Page Top

#10 /\ Why would you want to use an A-10 for SEAD instead of a F-16 in the first place?

Posted by magpie 2021-02-26 14:13|| 2021-02-26 14:13|| Front Page Top

#11 This group of people were saying to shut down the 10 because the 35 could CAS better.

Who knows, with loiter munitions perhaps in many ways it can be.

I imagine emergency CAS requires a lot of loiter time, which the legacy aircraft are better suited for than the 35 from a logistics perspective.

The 6s and 10s are good in A league (Afghanistan, Africa Horn), the legacies did well against AAA (Saddam Iraq) where the 35 would have excelled and the 10 took some serious beatings (though I don't think they were utilized correctly).

I'm not sure how much long radar stealth can be a thing, if it still is at all, against ML teams. What civilian radar can do with doppler radar and space imaging, I don't see why there couldn't be a doppler reads cross with an infrared picture to pick out aircraft in flight. Computer factors in transmission delays, takes a picture of positives, compares to a silhouette for ID and flight characteristics, after a few seconds can determine potential path.

That's the hard way. The easy way, other than launching enough capable satellites, is to use the satellite keep an eye on bases and launch platforms and track from takeoff to landing. Factor in high velocity and direct energy weapons.

And that is where my brainstorming sessions get a bit hazy, in a ML fights ML, a dogfight or kaboom could be talked down; taking out satellites and radars is going to piss people off. On the other, if calling is airstrikes against the enemy proper likely has already done cyber and space strikes. Help me out here.

Posted by swksvolFF 2021-02-26 17:48|| 2021-02-26 17:48|| Front Page Top

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