Thread: The F35, amazing weapons system

Nice! Thanks for the videos Bob (from an Ex-Birdie)

The strike eye helmet looks flash at the two and half minute mark narrator mentions he circles round to recon the direct hits on the convoy. I bet in reality sometime in the future some one would pop out with some archaic mobile missile battery and hit it without warning. There's always someone that gets lucky.

All that tech lulls people into a false sense of security. Thinking back to 1999 F117A shot down over Yugoslavia due to some luck and low tech radar use.

Ah yes, the good old F-35. Looks great from afar, but up close, for the foreseeable future, it's going to be a real under-performing stinker.The only service that will get mostly what they want (to the detriment of everybody else ~85-90% of users) is the US Marine Corp. Have a look at the following for an idea of the absolute debacle this program has somehow evolved into. I remember reading an article years ago comparing the F-35 & F-22 to the F-105 & F-4. Quite enlightening reading and a portent of what has NOT been learnt from the past. I have no doubt that eventually it will be a usable aircraft, but it won't be all things to all people. For the time being, just don't try and fire the gun or fly within 50km of a stormcloud - seriously!


The F-35 Can't Beat The Plane It's Replacing In A Dogfight: Report
The Official Response To The F-35's Dismal Dogfight Report Is Misleading
F-35 Pilot Seems Unimpressed With Jet's X-Ray-Like Vision
The Pentagon's 'Concurrency Myth' Is Now Available In Supercarrier Size
F-35 Joint Strike Fighters Fail in US simulation with F-16
The designer of the F-16 explains why the F-35 is such a crappy plane
The $1 trillion F-35 tries to be all things, but succeeds at few, say critics. But is Australia’s new weapon now too big to fail?
No Cookies | The Advertiser
This Map Shows Why The F-35 Has Turned Into A Trillion-Dollar Fiasco | Business Insider
F-35 stealth fighter reports identify safety risks

Originally Posted by cripesamighty

Ah yes, the good old F-35. Looks great from afar, but up close, for the foreseeable future, it's going to be a real under-performing stinker.The only service that will get mostly what they want (to the detriment of everybody else ~85-90% of users) is the US Marine Corp. Have a look at the following for an idea of the absolute debacle this program has somehow evolved into. I remember reading an article years ago comparing the F-35 & F-22 to the F-105 & F-4. Quite enlightening reading and a portent of what has NOT been learnt from the past. I have no doubt that eventually it will be a usable aircraft, but it won't be all things to all people. For the time being, just don't try and fire the gun or fly within 50km of a stormcloud - seriously!


The F-35 Can't Beat The Plane It's Replacing In A Dogfight: Report
The Official Response To The F-35's Dismal Dogfight Report Is Misleading
F-35 Pilot Seems Unimpressed With Jet's X-Ray-Like Vision
The Pentagon's 'Concurrency Myth' Is Now Available In Supercarrier Size
F-35 Joint Strike Fighters Fail in US simulation with F-16
The designer of the F-16 explains why the F-35 is such a crappy plane
The $1 trillion F-35 tries to be all things, but succeeds at few, say critics. But is Australia's new weapon now too big to fail?
No Cookies | The Advertiser
This Map Shows Why The F-35 Has Turned Into A Trillion-Dollar Fiasco | Business Insider
F-35 stealth fighter reports identify safety risks

The same was said about the F111. And the F4 Phantom was not such a successful dogfighter over North Vietnam until it was equipped with a gun system. They will get it right, before we get it. Bob

Originally Posted by mekon76

The strike eye helmet looks flash at the two and half minute mark narrator mentions he circles round to recon the direct hits on the convoy. I bet in reality sometime in the future some one would pop out with some archaic mobile missile battery and hit it without warning. There's always someone that gets lucky.

All that tech lulls people into a false sense of security. Thinking back to 1999 F117A shot down over Yugoslavia due to some luck and low tech radar use.

No system is infallible. I don't think a pilot in a hot war zone would be complacent. I remember reading where Australian soldiers on exercise in the USA, managed to shoot down [ for exercise] a couple of the latest attack helicopters by laying on their backs, and directing small arms fire at the helicopters. No one had done that before, apparently. Bob

Thanks Bob,
From another ex birdie.

Maybe the yank pilots might have attempted to land on the Melbourne with the F 35!

Pete.

I was speaking to a Texan in Greece about four years ago. He said he worked for McD D. " We're making the greatest plane ever. It will make all other combat aircraft obsolete. You Ausies are buying some too." Perhaps we signed up too soon.
I'm told by semi-reliable sauces that our patched up F111s were still out performing a lot of 'state of the art aircraft' when they were de commissioned.
Is this true? Is Combat Aircraft design going backwards?

Bob, totally agree with you about the 'multi-role' F-111 and F-4, but don't forget they totally scrapped the US Navy's F-111 fighter version as it was totally unsuitable in that role and used the F-4 and eventually F-14 instead. Also like the F-111, the F-4 had enough extra growth in capability built in (plus, 2x powerful engines, 2nd crewman, large payload, fuel fraction, etc) to fulfill most other roles thrown at it without compromising performance too much. It wasn't great at everything but it was a good all-rounder, even if it did take a while to get there.

The JSF programme is trying to shoehorn too much into a smaller airframe without allowing for future growth in capability built in. Unfortunately, the Marine Corp STOVL version, because of it's very nature, has FUNDAMENTALLY compromised the design too much for the majority of users, all in the name of commonality (AirForce, Navy and Marine Corp versions). Also, the 'concurrency' issue (producing aircraft off the production line, while you are still barely into prototype testing) is turning into a real PITA, which is causing huge delays.

I'm not saying it won't be a good aircraft eventually, just that the majority of airframes coming off the line won't be the best they should have been (even when they do eventually iron out all the bugs), because of these major design compromises and screwups. Basically, it's business as usual......