Boeing: Here's Why the F-35 Australia Is Buying Is Flawed and Needs Our Help

Business Insider Australia ^ | April 29, 2014

[latina4dubya]

whhhaaaa?????

[US Navy Vet]

BOTH “Airplanes” are First Class Pieces of SH!T!

[Scrambler Bob]

Why does it look like they are attacking the CA coast?

Maybe that would be a great idea.

[Resolute Conservative]

The F-18?

[G Larry]

Boeing: “Here’s why placing a patch on our 30 year old air frame is better than buying a brand new one.....”

Pulleeze!!!

[Tallguy]

Real world: even “stealth aircraft” operate with jammer support, the the Growler. A prudent mission-planner would take advantage of every tool to ensure the success of the mission & the survivability of the aircraft & crew. That means if you have jammers, you use them.

[Seruzawa]

Single engine design might not be so good for Navy requirements.

[ryan71]

“patch”

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you but I wouldn’t consider the ALQ-99 a “patch”.

[battlecry]

Gotta admit, mission planners must love the “equipped with a range of surface-to-air and surface-to-ground missiles” capability. Hell of a plane.

[PLMerite]

Look at the rainbow colors. Does that mean the plane has Gaydar, too?

[Mr Rogers]

What they really need are some EF-111s. Ours are all in the Boneyard...think we could sell them?

[puppypusher]

I think Boeing is still p.o’d after their stealth turkey was totally rejected by the Air Force.What a turkey it was.

[Blood of Tyrants]

When the 30-year old design costs a tenth of the F-35, a prudent person would listen.

[NormsRevenge]

Ah come on.. $500 million for a lifetime of thrills spills and air pockets

Gimme the F22 any day, flaws and all.

[NormsRevenge]

Gimme a Phantom 4B any day ;-)

[Tallguy]

The Australians were the last to retire the F-111’s. There was a lot of debate about that since the plane had the kind of range that they needed. Their F-18 replacements don’t have nearly those kind of legs.

[Tallguy]

... oh and the EF-111 went into retirement before the EA-6 Prowler, so they’re probably not even a possibility. I recall that toward the end Navy Prowlers were considered a “strategic asset” and they were flying jamming missions for the USAF in the Balkans.

[G Larry]

Performance and Reliability count for something.

[spetznaz]

You did not have to respond to anyone who would call the ALQ-99 a patch. A patch so effective that even the Australians, trusted allies, were not given the same specifications/capabilities as the USN.

Calling it a patch is akin to calling the space shuttle a paper plane.