F-35 Versus European Competition

The F-35 (recently named the Lightning II) is due to enter service soon. While the F-22 is widely seen as the ultimate air-to-air machine, the F-35 is described as a multi-role aircraft. How does the F-35 compare in the air-to-air mission against likely competitors like the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen, and the multi-national Eurofighter?

The Rafale, Gripen, and Eurofighter are all in service or expected to enter service in 2006. All of them boast some of the best electronics suites ever to appear in combat aircraft. All have top speeds approaching 2,000 kilometers an hour. All three aircraft carry excellent beyond-visual-range missiles (like the Mica, AMRAAM, and Meteor). All are highly maneuverable. But will they be better than the F-35 in a fight?

The answer, surprisingly, is probably not. The F-35 has one big advantage over these three fighters from Europe. Its radar signature is very small – as is the case with the F-117 and F-22. Given that its speed is comparable to the European jets, and its AESA radar is at least as good as the European systems, this "invisibility" is a decisive advantage. The best weapons in the world are useless if they cannot see their targets.

The F-35 will be able to see the Rafale, Gripen, and Eurofighter long before it can be seen itself. The first rule of air combat may be "speed is life", but the second rule is "lose the sight, lose the fight". In the 21st century, sight includes radar. It is very likely that the only warning the F-35 may give of its presence will be when its radar has locked on to one of the European fighters. By that point, the F-35 is already close to launching its AMRAAMs.

This is probably the major reason for the United States Air Force's future dominance of the air. Even its second-best fighter will probably be able to best the front-line designs of other western nations in a "paper" fight based on specifications and capabilities. When the level of training American pilots get is added to the mix, the F-35's advantage becomes staggering. One other factor to consider is that the United States Air Force plans to have 1,763 F-35s on inventory (the Marine Corps and Navy variants would add another 780 F-35s to the mix). If the Rafale is built to a planned force level of 292, and the Saudi order for the Eurofighter goes through, the combined Gripen, Rafale, and Eurofighter production runs will total 1,262, meaning there will be two F-35s for every one of the advanced European fighters. – Harold C. Hutchison (haroldc.hutchison@gmail.com)

Oh, don't mistake me. I understand all too well the variables involved.

Perhaps you mistunderstood my previous post and took it out of context with the ones before it. I was having a disagreement with someone who said that manned flight was obsolete NOW.

I was simply taking the most extreme stand that I could take to make the point to this other fellow. I do not think it will be until 2020 and beyond before sensors and other types of computer, hardware and software advances will enable someone to field a unmanned craft that will be able to wax the tail of a manned aircraft.

That is 14 years from now. Keep in mind how fast technology can advance. (Notice I said "can"...not "will")

Think about where computers were just 14 years ago. That would be 1992. I would have been using a Quadra 950 (Being a life long Mac user) costing over $7000 with at 33 mHz processor, max 256 MB RAM and max 400 MB hard drive, which in that config would have put it over $10,000 I'm sure. And that was a top of the line computer for a graphics geek in those days, when most people were still running DOS or Windows 3.1 at best. What was the World Wide Web back then?

But I digress. Bottom line, I was arguing your exact point against someone else...:)

The French still have not figured out that the rest of the world exists.

They are extremely self flattering. You should read about DeGaul and WWII from a French perspective, small little history books on him are available at every local gas station there. One would think he single handedly pushed the Germans out of France. They are pompous as a nation, their language, their architecture and more is indicative of their culture, and the word "poodle" is accurately descriptive. They consider themselves in very high regard, more than they actually are. They see themselves as a world power even today, as the Grande Nation, a super power (As Chirac himself even proclaimed France to be). They still see themselves as a colonial power.

The problem with the French is that when push comes to shove, how they view themselves never quite matches up with how they perform. Even the evacuation of French nationals in Lebanon recently was a mess on their behalf. From WWI, to WWII, to Vietnam, or Algeria, the French really see themselves as great and above the rest even when they fail. Nothing can demonstrate this better than the comments of a French prisoner of war taken by US troops in North Africa who "advised us" on what we could have done better and how we were doing things wrong. You have to put this in perspective. The French get rolled over in six weeks; some collaborate and join up to fight for the nation that plowed over them. This officer then gets captured in North Africa and advises us on what we are doing wrong (This really happened).

The Chirac super power France needs to be examined closely. Go to MOST of the little towns outside of Paris and you will be amazed at the poverty and backwardness of this country. I'm not over exaggerating when I state that Mississippi and Alabama in some run down town looks similar to what France as a whole does once you leave Paris. Again, I am not over exaggerating when I say that MOST of France looks like the poor houses of the US. Although their federal highways are very nice, at last in 2005 when I last visited, the nation has a whole is near backward. France does have nice highways though; better than the famed German Autobahn which have fallen into disrepair, and have not been expanded to keep up with growing demand, another consequence of the German Greens, ecological thinking, and siphoning of funds for infrastructure to other social services.

France has a hard time accepting that there is a world outside of France. They think extremely nationalistic and elitist as witnessed by even their ‘non’ to an EU Constitution, their behavior within NATO, their comments to other EU states…... The French see themselves as the center of the universe. They of course also think they freed themselves from German occupation in WWII. Minor details like US troops stopping in France to put DeGaul out front and march through his little arches is casually over looked. Bottom line: Of course the French think they have the number one ace! They are after all, the “Grande nation.”

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