A New, "Super" F-35 to Rule the U.S. Military?

National Interest ^ | December 19, 2014 | David Majumdar

[C19fan]

Advanced derivatives of the tri-service Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could replace the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, Boeing F-15C Eagle and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, multiple sources told the National Interest. However, they added that the idea of replacing the high flying and fast Raptor with the slower and less agile F-35 was not well received by many within the Air Force.

“No doubt that the F-35 will be doing air dominance missions in the future,” one industry official said. “Especially with more internal air-to-air, and maybe a new engine.”

[MasterGunner01]

Well, it remains to be seen whether either the F-22 or F-35 are the best fighters ever to fly.

The F-22 has had its share of problems — most notably its OBOGS — the system that provides breathing oxygen to the pilot at altitude. I don't know if the USAF has ever tried to dogfight an F-22 yet.

The F-35s have been too few to even try such things as they have yet to enter service in any numbers. No dogfighting has been done with the F-35 either.

The net take away is we will have to see what these new super fighters can do — and hope that our current F-18s, F-16s, and F-15s will get the job done.

[Tallguy]

Yep. And if done properly they use a cheap, networkable, mass-produced design and let it rapidly evolve along with the tactical environment, rather than imagining a do-everything super-weapon.

[SJSAMPLE]

I love that movie.
Belushi was OK, but Ned Beatty, his family and the seacoast guys really carried it. Especially Slim Pickens in one of his best roles.

All in all, the movie had three or four really great subplots.

[mcshot]

David Axe’s War is Boring has completed a study on the F-35. In short it is the “0” of fighters. It falls short is all respects and is classed as “junk”. Worth the read and scary as hell. Damn multi-role fighters/bombers always seem to fall short.

[mcshot]

Looks like the USMC version to me. Their needs should have been addressed separately rather then incorporated in the other versions. The expanded fuselage for VTOL really limits capabilities. Damn we soon will be subservient to all third world countries and most goat herders.

[miliantnutcase]

The airforce would likely pit the air dominance fighter version of the F-35 against the F-22 and I don’t see the raptor losing that fight...ever.

[PLMerite]

"why not just build the F-21 follow-on of the F-14?"

I thought the F-21 was the Israeli IAI Kfir:

[ExNewsExSpook]

Depends on who you talk to, and how they calculated it...Democrats kept talking about $300 million a unit, but that included fixed costs, training, etc.

The real total, excluding the fixed costs was somewhere around $110-$130 million a jet. Not cheap, but considering the capabilities you get with the F-22, we could have ensured air dominance for decades to come. And of course, the higher the production run, the lower the per-unit cost.

We should have built a minimum of 300 F-22s for the USAF and sold 20-50 to both Japan and Australia. That sort of output would have pushed the cost per jet to $100 million or even a bit below. Again, that’s a lot more than we’re paying for the Super Hornet, but you get a quantum leap in capabilities. The irony, of course, is that cost overruns and decreasing “buys” are pushing the price of the F-35 to what we would have paid for the F-22, based on the production totals listed above.

[C19fan]

I remember all the talk about the F-35 would play the same role as the F-16; cheaper multipurpose single engine fighter. Look at how that worked out.

[TalonDJ]

So three of the best combat aircraft to ever grace the skies is going to be replaced by one aircraft that has yet to prove it can fly, let alone successfully function.

You they are operational right? Flying all the time? Because they are. Working just fine.

[EQAndyBuzz]

The planes are on active duty in every branch?

[jagusafr]

Anybody really think the ChiComs haven’t already hacked into the flight-control systems of the F-35? I think we should keep some F-16s around just because they’re NOT as chipped up.

[C19fan]

Sounds like the nightmare beginning of the revamped Battlestar Galactica.

[GreyFriar]

I guess I’m thinking of the Grumman working name of “Super Tomcat 21.” It was a revolutionary upgrade of the existing F-14D model.

See — http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-history-f14x.htm

For the Kafir F-21 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Kfir

[mcshot]

is=in