F-35 Beats Every Other Fighter Jet In Scandinavian Air Force Evaluations

Foxtrot Alpha ^ | 5/13/16 | Andrew P Collins

[Yo-Yo]

After evaluating the Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35 as Denmark’s next primary fighter jet, the country’s government is recommending the F-35 “unequivocally” as superior in “strategic, military, economic, and industrial aspects.” Is this a needed win for this troubled jet?

That’s the exact language from the Danish government, which has posted an entire website explaining how they decided that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is far and away the best possible plane to replace the country’s current fighting fleet of F-16s.

Those jets have been flying for about 35 years, and are approaching the end of their usable lifespan according to an executive summary about picking Denmark’s next top jet fighter.

The Danish testing methods did not involve sending all three jets into the sky and seeing which could take the other two down or blow more stuff up first (a shame, I know.) The comparison was conducted hypothetically– with expert panels comparing the three jets’ functional abilities and economic models developed to tabulate lifecycle costs. Saab’s Gripen NG was initially on the short list as well, but retracted by Swedish authorities.

[Yo-Yo]

Danish Ministry of Defense website:

http://www.fmn.dk/eng/allabout/new-fighter/Pages/new-fighter.aspx

Executive summary from the Danish Ministry of Defense:

http://www.fmn.dk/temaer/kampfly/Documents/type-selection-denmarks-new-fighter-aircrafts-english-summary5.pdf

[Secret Agent Man]

Why was the Gripen taken off the consideration list?

I have a hard time believing this was not contrived and manipulated.

[poinq]

Thats because it comes with free trips for the Brass. And several conferences in nice areas with all expenses paid. Yep, its a good plane too.

[rockinqsranch]

“Contrived, and manipulated”

Agree.

Curious if the SAAB hadn’t been pulled would the F-35 have been the winner?

[PAR35]

For what it’s worth:

“It could be more complicated than that, however. Recent success in Brazil, combined with disappointment in Switzerland may have encouraged Saab to be more selective in its prospective client base. Denmark would be a smaller order (around 30 aircraft), and it just might not be worth the effort to compete against industry giants like Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, and the Eurofighter consortium. Both Boeing and Eurofighter are desperate to keep their assembly lines running, while Lockheed-Martin is adamant on keeping JSF orders up in order to keep costs down. Fresh off its victory in Brazil, it would seem Saab has the luxury of sitting this one out.”
http://gripen4canada.blogspot.com/2014/07/saab-bails-out-of-denmark.html

The Swedes themselves don’t seem to be offering much as to why they weren’t interested in chasing a sale.

[Secret Agent Man]

I just wonder if someone told them in a roundabout way, to sit this one out.

[poinq]

Its like picking your horse because you like the name.

[Secret Agent Man]

Or because you like,their colors/markings.

[Red Badger]

The competition................

[HandyDandy]

Spad?

[UCANSEE2]

It’s not going to make a very interesting war if everyone has the same jet fighters.

[Red Badger]

Sopwith Camel!............................

[alfa6]

Sopwith F.1 Camel

all that is missing is Snoopy:-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[HandyDandy]

I knew that.

(A long long long time ago)

[Sirius Lee]

Mind that right rudder.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Good news for Britain. We make 15% of every plane, so even if we miss out on the Eurofighter sale, our aerospace industry benefits. I don’t know how it is for the US, but I reckon that having commited to buy less than 5% of the total aircraft built for a 15% workshare, we’ve come out of this with a net profit.

[Nip]

I have a simple question..

What are the odds that the US will have to fight any Scandinavian country within the next decade or so?

Why are we testing our next generation fighter against aircraft that it will never face in combat? Is its total performance package that bad?

[grobdriver]

the country’s government is recommending

Now go talk to the pilots... and the maintenance chief.

[pacific_waters]

“The comparison was conducted hypothetically– with expert panels comparing the three jets’ functional abilities and economic models developed to tabulate lifecycle costs.” meaningless bs.

[pacific_waters]

It didn’t need to be contrived It wasn’t a real world face, just a bunch of blowhards spouting their opinions based on paper stats.