“The selling point was the F-35 would be LO.
It will not in most configurations, especially USMC configurations.”
I kept up to date on F22 and F35 capabilities early in the process. I haven’t kept ujp with every update on the aircraft, but all I recall is that the designation for the F35 went from VLO to LO...Very Low Observable to Low Observable.
I have read nothing that the Marine F35B variant is not LO.
Perhaps there is new info out there and I haven’t read it.
If you have and links to this, I’d love to see it.
No worries.
External load-outs for CAS mission is part of its major LO failing.
The F-35 can’t carry a munition load for CAS solely internally, not for a loitering multiple-pass CAS mission, and this means it loses any sort of “LO” capability.
(”LO” meaning 5th Generation.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouT1qtgY9qQ
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2012/february/120220ae_f-35a-conducts-external-weapons-test.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pictures-f-35-bulks-up-with-external-weapons-load-368548/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/joint-strike-fighter-13-flaws/ (”Most ominously, the report mentions — but does not describe — a “classified” deficiency. “Dollars to doughnuts it has something to do with stealth,” aviation guru Bill Sweetman wrote. In other words, the F-35 might not be as invisible to radar as prime contractor Lockheed Martin said it would be.”)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-35-design.htm: “”But the F-35. . .and it is not as stealthy as the F-22.”
Many more links out there, but the fact is, it must carry on external hard-points, JASSM and JDAMs or SDBs to have a CAS weapons load. . .and that means external carry and that means loss of LO.