I wouldn't mind!
Posted on 04/14/2019 1:06:16 AM PDT by Spktyr
Found this video on YouTube. The 302nd Squadron, Japanese Air Self Defense Force retired their F-4EJ Kai Phantom IIs and converted to the F-35 Lightning II as of March 2019. The squadron decided to give the Phantoms sendoff flights and this is someone's video of the event.
Thanks so much! They are the coolest looking jet!
What a heck of an upgrade.
The Phantoms were awesome.
What a heck of an upgrade.
The same have been said about every new design. Phantom is absolete since late 1970s. Getting rid of it for a new plane is a good thing.
It is also worth noting that one of the new JASDF F-35s now resides 5,000 ft below the ocean, having killed its pilot, 41-year-old JASDF Major Akinori Hosomi.
So many memories of the Phantom and those that flew, maintained and secured them .......
It was from this same squadron - one of the newly-converted pilots.
They are also retiring half of their F15 fleet.
Our US F-15Cs are going to need to be retired soon too. They were supposed to have been all replaced by the F-22, but that didn’t happen. The last F-15C was made in 1985; they are quite old for fighter aircraft now and several of ours have been lost in recent years due to the airframes breaking up in flight.
The same have been said about every new design.
No. That is manifestly untrue and a canard. The plane is not ready for anything other than a complete redesign - it flies well, looks good, but most of its critical internal AI systems either do not work or only work once in a while - if they are even installed.
No other plane, declared combat ready, has had such a dismal combat readiness rate of only 5%, with no fixes for some of the critical systems ready, or even contemplated.
Think about it - with an air wing of 20 planes, for example, only 5 are mission capable, the rest are either hanger queens, spare parts or in lengthy maintenance.
The F-35 program ranks with the DDG-1000 LCS Class and the CVN Ford Class as the biggest waste of money for Perfumed Princes’ toys that do not work as advertised, but cost the lions share of the military’s budget.
“This is a dubious purchase costing billions. Why not use a less expensive plane?” Carl Levin (D-MI), 1982.
F-15,16 had teething problems too. The team behind Flanker design was nearly dismissed and prosecuted for sabotage after first tests in 1977 in USSR.
If the critics prevailed the World would still have to fly with Phantoms and Mig-23s.
I would disagree with the Ford class. The Fords so far haven’t had significantly more problematic at this point in their development than the Nimitz class were. We just hear way more about their problems than the Nimitz as the early Nimitz problems were heavily classified and the media of the day wouldn’t report problems even if word of them did leak out. We only very recently found out about *some* and by no means *all* of the early Nimitz problems as some of the documentation has been declassified due to age.
Levin was talking about Eagle, of course.
The F-35s problems go far beyond the phrase “teething problems”.
The same if not worse was said about legacy jets. That’s my point.
I wouldn't mind!
...having lived with them for a year (
Ubon,69) and getting used to them * smiles* they are loud,...I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the
Phantom.
The F-4 remains proof you can make a brick fly if you give it enough thrust.
Sniff. hate to see the coolest fighter/interceptor of my childhood retire. One way of thinking bout it is that they were so good they did not have to be called on in battle for Japan DF.
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