Posted on 07/03/2013 2:05:52 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
The Pentagon's pursuit of the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter jet has been a heartbreaking one. If you're a tax payer, the program's estimated $1 trillion price tag probably breaks your heart a little bit. If you're an aviation enthusiast, the constant whittling away of the do-it-all aircraft's features, which in many cases actually amounts to adding weight and taking away maneuverability, must hurt a little bit, too.
If you're just an everyday American, though, you should be downright shattered that after a decade and a fortune spent, the F-35 will actually be more vulnerable than the aircraft it's replacing. At this point, the Pentagon is literally rewriting its rulebook so that the dumbed-down super jet will pass muster.
The Defense Department's annual weapons testing report reveals that the military actually adjusted the performance specifications for the consistently-underperforming line of F-35 fighter jets. In other words, they couldn't get the jets to do what they were supposed to do, so they just changed what they were supposed to do.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherboard.vice.com ...
There was a delta wing version built over 20 years ago. IIRC, it performed superbly but for unknown reasons (probably part politics and part the generals not wanting it) the military never bought it.
The Chinese and who knows who else likely has all the engineering, either from buying it from Clinton/Gore or having it given to them by obama, if they haven't just taken it by any open door they might have found.
Given the fleet of F-16s around the world today and the retrofit/upgrade market potential well into the future, not to mention a few home grown look a likes, I bet the XL will fly again, one way or another.
Because we keep electing liberals -- for whom, history is a useless abstraction.
Nope-that’s the F-16U concept which was pitched to the UAE in the mid-90s.
The only chance an American F-16XL or any F-16 derivative will fly is if the JSF gets cancelled. Lockheed is unlikely to do anything that will remotely eat into the F-35’s market.
Anyway, the article you note seems to point to the fact I am not crazy, it might have been one kick @$$ machine.
Somewhere down the road a few years, all those aging F-16s...who knows? I see market potential and that's a sexy upgrade to the standard retrofit package that market will be offering.
Just a day dream. But then, I still live to see the F-23 fully developed and in service. *sigh* What a great F-14 replacement it would make, not to mention revive the "who has the better fighter argument?" between the Navy and AF.
The Mig-21/Mirage-III/F-5 upgrades have been popular for one reason- Cost. Such aircraft are not a threat to their vendors hawking newer platforms. The 21 or Mirage-3 don’t come anywhere close to anything to a Mig-29 or Mirage-2000.
That’s not the same case with a souped up F-16 like the F16U. Barring all aspects stealth, it can match or even better the F-35 in some parameters. Which is precisely the reason why LM happily peddles barebones upgrades like the F-16V variant.
I remember the way the Osprey was treated by many on FR.
Otoh, something could come along and change everything, maybe drone, sensor or weapon tech, that could be as much of a game changer as jet engines were to pistons. Then they're all scrap for the boneyard and smelters.
Yes, the cranked arrow, It still is an excellent design.
One interesting thing that happened to keep the A-10 in business was their strong interaction with ground tactics. When the A-10 became vulnerable to all aspect heat seeking missiles, ground tactics changed: NATO antitank units were trained to preferentially target antiaircraft assets. They were perhaps 4 out of 30 of armored vehicles, and after taking them out, a Soviet armored penetration would be permitted into the NATO rear areas, and A-10s would chop them up, fast if they were using roads, more slowly if they went cross country. The A-10 remained survivable in the more sanitized environment of NATO battle areas behind the Forward Edge of the Battle Area.
As George Patton Jr. said, when enemy tanks move on the roads, the P-47 was their worst enemy. If they got off the roads, the US tank-infantry-tank destroyer-artillery team could concentrate against them faster than the German armored forces could penetrate.
The A-10 needs a somehow friendly airspace. Any Soviet fighter aircraft would have sufficient for that. But slow and low flying aircraft are hard to detect. The German anti tank helicopter was an unprotected BO 105. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNCZlQcvGw
The problem for both would be modern infrared TV-guided missiles like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIS-T. Don’t miss to see the video of seeker head. This missile doesn’t follows the greatest heat source it follows the shape. Computer power is sufficient today to do that.
Back to the topic. F-35 will have the same problems with such missiles. Another problem for “stealth” aircraft like F-35 is radar like used on German frigates: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART-L
According to antenna dimension the wave length is longer. Far longer than official data.
Since the beginning of the two programs, it has been very clear to ALL aviation professionals that the F-22 was the better and more versatile a/c.
And the Boeing variant had 2 engines when the USAF clearly wanted only 1.
LMCO has a dog in the F35 IMO and its starting to look like the F111 of our time.
Incorrect. The X-32 was single engine just like the X-35 per the RFP.
Evidence? Wonder how much time those "experts" at Motherboard and the discredited David Axe have logged in tactical fighters.
When you have to lower the specs to meet the requirements, you have NOT lived up to the promise.
Excuse me if I take any report of lowering specs prior to achieving IOC with a heavy dose of salt. In addition, having personally dealt with David Axe in the past, if he tells you what time it is, get a second opinion.
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