Come on Meg, you’re getting slow. I guess it takes more time for the electrons to make it up to northern Wyoming (which by the way, that’s where I’m originally from). Since you want to act like a college freshman trolling the message boards of the Boston Globe, whaddaya got? And don’t send me your garbage links from AboveTopSecret.com.
We’re on horrifically slow DSL and so is our next door neighbor who is a current USAF brigadier who likes to talk to my husband, a retired USMC ‘light bird’ of 25 years service. I listen and I would think the man knows what he’s talking about.
Say what you want. The 35 is slower, can’t out accelerate, out turn, or out range, or outgun anything it is likely to encounter. Russian designs exceed it in all those. It can’t stay in the sky with a 16 either. Yeah, it’s dogmeat for a 70s design.
The 35 supposedly will prevail because of stealth and software. But those only work in BVR encounters which we nearly always refuse to allow. If it does anything nutty like get within visual range, (fighters never do that, huh?) it simply cannot refuse a fight. It cannot escape.
The 35 is a national embarrassment, a monument to a corrupt procurement system. Grunts know about warthog magic. You need to get your mouth away from the government nipple and get your head straight on the 35.