US air power scares the Russian bear

American Thinker ^ | 02/27/2019 | Ed Timperlake

[SeekAndFind]

USAF chief of staff General David Goldfein, reflecting on the success of the F-35 at a recent USAF "Red Flag" exercise, gave both the People's Liberation Air Force and the Russians what we fighter pilots call a "face shot."

Red Flag is a brilliant exercise in which many combat aircraft flying from Nellis AFB engage to simulate real combat scenarios within a well designed and instrumented extremely stressful air combat environment.  A "face shot" is slamming a missile right into the face, head on, of your enemy.

The U.S. Air Force put the F-35 up against "the most advanced weapons systems out there" during the recent Red Flag air combat exercise, and the fight-generation stealth fighters apparently dominated — so much so that even the rookie pilots were crushing it.

The F-35A is "exceeding our expectations when it comes to not only being able to survive, but to prosecute targets," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein said Tuesday, according to Air Force Times.

A lasting phrase used by President Obama is actually appropriate in this situation: the Russian are getting all "wee-weed up."

The Russian Embassy in the US took aim at America's F-35 stealth fighters on Friday in a threatening message apparently tweeted in response to an earlier speech by the chief of staff of the US Air Force.

"If a Russia... ever was to see an F-35 inside its airspace', we would love to send Chief of Staff of the [US Air Force] Gen. David L. Goldfein 'message with two words' — 'remember Vietnam," the tweet read, adding, "An F-35 will never be alone."

Okay, "Ivan" — let's remember Vietnam...and now the fights is on!

[PIF]

This piece from a different source appeared earlier and was rightly judged q puff piece of F-35 propaganda. There are still major systems that do not work and are maybe even not fixable without a complete redesign.

“If a Russia... ever was to see an F-35 inside its airspace’,

And that’s the problem - to be effective the F-35 has to strap on so much stuff that it is highly visible, unlike the F-22 which the Russian won’t see.