For years I’ve watched from a distance as our military services struggled to bring forth a 5th Generation, Joint Strike Fighter. As with all new major weapons developments this one has had plenty of naysayers and numerous setbacks during its creation. Most of the criticism has come from former military pilots who could not envision any aircraft being able to successfully meet the needs of their own service while simultaneously doing so for the other two military services. I confess to having joined that chorus of critics when the air Force announced it would be sending the A-10 Warthog to the barn once the F-35 was fully operational. Like most who read here, my criticism was born out of a very limited knowledge of the F-35’s battle space role and capabilities. We grunts complained that we didn’t need a high tech fast burner covering our butts, we need something low and slow with a fearful strafing cannon like the Hog.
Well our complaints were heard and DoD put a hold on the Hog killers, ensuring it’s continued protective presence over our ground forces in current combat areas around the globe for a few more years while the developing Lightning II gets refitted to handle a strafing cannon. In the meantime the Air Force, Navy and Marines have continued to build their operational F-35 squadrons with those birds now rolling off the production line. Because the Lightning II is such a complex weapons platform, all three services are staffing those squadrons with their very best pilots and it is their evaluations of this aircraft that I have been waiting to hear. They are now speaking up, to the extent the government will allow them and what they are saying is that while there are still bugs to be worked out, this is the most amazing aircraft they’ve ever flown.
Back in February the Air Force hosted Red Flag 17-1, their hyper-realistic combat flying exercise at Nellis AFB in Nevada (I had a friend fly his plane into the ground when he became too engrossed in a dog fight). For the first time, the Lightning II was a participant and aviator eyes all around the world were fixed on the exercise to see whether they were right or wrong about this much maligned aircraft. Well, if they bet on the bird, they made some bucks. The actual performance numbers vary but only in a good sense. The worst I’ve read anywhere is that the Lightning’s kill ratio was 14 to 1in air to air combat while the official report is 20 to 1. Those air combat kills were accomplished while the F-35’s and their pilots were also managing the battle space for far greater numbers of F-15’s, F-16’s, F-22’s and even close air support aircraft of various types. I don’t know if A-10’s were involved but common sense dictates they should be.
And therein lies the rub, as they say. I think most of us ground-pounders envisioned the F-35 as just another fast burner with minimal capabilities in CAS. At Red Flag, due to their ability to fly undetected by the very realistic anti-air defenses set up at Nellis, they were the lead aircraft to enter the battle space where they destroyed virtually ALL the air defense positions, freeing the battle space of threats to the sorties of other aircraft following. Then, due to their ability to see the entirety of that battle space to a far greater distance and in far greater detail, the F-35’s were able to take stand-off positions where they successfully directed the other friendly aircraft to their targets while maintaining a protective air cover. The pilot interviews are universally positive, informative and reinforcing of my growing opinion that we just may have developed a winner here despite all the critics. I was particularly struck by a pilot from one of the two operational squadrons at Hill AFB, UT, who flew in RF 17-1, where he revealed that he and his amazed fellow pilots are continuously learning even greater capabilities of the aircraft as their leadership frees them to explore just what it can do. As those constraints are lifted, they are finding more and more to like.
The Marine version of this aircraft will be of particular benefit because of its vertical take-off and landing capabilities which allow it to be carried aboard amphibious assault ships and other smaller craft that transport Marine expeditionary units. Even if there is no carrier task force in range, any Marine landing force will have state-of-the-art air cover in the F-35B sitting right offshore no matter how remotely deployed they may be.
The more I learn about this aircraft, particularly from the young men whose lives will depend on its performance in combat, the more confidence I have that we birthed a wonder and not a boondoggle as the critics contend. Yes, it’s damned expensive but the unit costs decline substantially with mass production and at this time several governments other than the U.S. have committed to orders that could come to 700 aircraft in the next few years, and that’s in addition to the almost 2500 the United States intends to purchase. One nation’s imprimatur that impresses me is that of Israel, which already owns a handful of F-35’s and intends to buy a total of 50, and, no, I’m not Jewish. I do, however, have great respect for their military acumen and their pilots refer to the Lightning II as “awesome.”
Like me, I think they’ve been struck by lightning.
