{"id":61376,"date":"2015-08-15T07:25:34","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T11:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=61376"},"modified":"2015-08-14T05:38:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T09:38:53","slug":"more-f-35-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=61376","title":{"rendered":"More F-35 “Good News”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most TAH readers have heard about that new F-35 \u201cLightning II\u201d that DoD insists will be ready for prime time \u201creal soon now\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 (Yeah, I know the USMC has accepted it and declared it “operational” – but I won’t consider it truly “ready for prime time” until it can perform its Close Air Support [CAS] role too.\u00a0 And as I’ll discuss below, right now the F-35 simply can’t do that.)<\/p>\n

Well, it seems that there\u2019s another little minor issue with the platform that\u2019s been made public.<\/p>\n

Jonn\u2019s written previously about how the F-35 is less maneuverable in a dogfight than one of the aircraft it will replace, the F-16<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 Others have written elsewhere about the fact that the F-35 will be far less effective at the Close Air Support (CAS) role than the A-10 \u2013 if for no other reason than the F-35 is only designed to carry between 15.5% (USAF model, 182 rounds) and 18.7% (USN\/USMC model, 220 rounds) as much cannon ammunition as the A-10 can carry (1,174 rounds).<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

But it will certainly be better air-to-air against the current aircraft it might face from Russia or China, right?\u00a0 Well, in a word \u2013 no.<\/p>\n

Turns out that the F-35 will also likely be less maneuverable than the current aircraft from Russia and China it\u2019s expected to face<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 So it will likely be worse than those aircraft in an air-to-air role, too.<\/p>\n

Yeah, the analysis was done by a progressive think tank.\u00a0 So?\u00a0\u00a0 Remember:\u00a0 they are<\/em> capable of telling the truth on occasion, too.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

Gee, what a surprise. I mean, the program has been an unmitigated success so far, right?<\/p>\n

So, to recap: the F-35 is hugely expensive \u2013 several times more expensive than the aircraft it replaces.\u00a0 It\u2019s worse as a CAS platform \u2013 and, by the way, it won\u2019t even be available for that role for at least 4 years, as performing that role isn\u2019t possible until gun control software which is projected to be available in 2019 is delivered (and only then if that gun control software works correctly).\u00a0 It is less maneuverable than the F16 it replaces in a dogfight.\u00a0 And it\u2019s also less maneuverable than the foreign aircraft it may have to face in air-to-air combat.<\/p>\n

So . . . what\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n

Folks, we\u2019ve seen this “movie” once before.\u00a0 Specifically, we saw it early in Vietnam \u2013 when US aircraft, designed not for maneuverability and depending solely on air-to-air missiles to take out enemy aircraft \u2013 got absolutely savaged by more maneuverable Soviet designs.\u00a0 (The air-to-air loss ratio early during the Vietnam War was about 1-to-1.)\u00a0 Plus, those aircraft kinda stunk when performing a CAS role, too.<\/p>\n

The “movie” absolutely sucked then.\u00a0 There\u2019s a damn good chance we’ll see a modern-day sequel if we continue down this path – and it will suck just as badly as the original.<\/p>\n

We learned from that earlier fiasco, though.\u00a0 The result was a new generation of US military aircraft that took those lessons to heart.\u00a0 Those aircraft were the F-15, F-16, F\/A-18, and the A-10.<\/p>\n

The F-35 is a turkey.\u00a0 We need to admit that fact, pull the plug on it, and go back to the drawing board.\u00a0 Yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most TAH readers have heard about that new F-35 \u201cLightning II\u201d that DoD insists will be … More F-35 “Good News”<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[209,220,187,184,84,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teh-stoopid","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-air-force","category-marine-corps","category-military-issues","category-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}