Posted on 04/08/2016 7:54:27 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
So...is the F-35 a good plane, or is it a dud?
I have spoken with many pilots who have been involved in the bed down of initial wings and like all pilots, the like a fun toy and new stuff.
They want to modify it even before they get it, that should answer your question. It is a way overpriced turkey.
dud
And it is a violation of the LOA to modify the software. Didn’t stop the Israli’s with previous buys.
“Conformal tanks” is Hebrew for “We are going to bomb Iran”
That was my immediate thought as well.
Israel doesn’t worry about the rules when they click on the EULA.
They worry about Israel...which is as it should be.
My take is there are too many compromises between the Air Force version, Navy version, and the VTOL version.
It’s like taking a Corvette and giving it a Pickup Truck option. It will never do either right.
It hasn’t stopped Israel previously, and in the past Israel has shared performance data with the United States, including modifications.
I think it's likely a great plane, even a phenomenal airplane that will be around for a long time.
It's not the "big motor in a little body" hot rod pony car that the F-16 is, at least, not as far as we know.
It's more like a mid-size hot rod. Think big block GTO, Regal/Cutlass or Charger instead of a Camaro or Mustang.
It's a stealthy air frame tightly wrapped around a very BIG and powerful motor, but also with lots of interior room for the biggest, baddest computer brain and sensors available now and well into the future, plus the interior room for lots of special delivery gifts for the enemy,too!
The F-16 is a P-51 meets F-86 fully evolved in the 20th century.
The F-35 seems more like the 21st century love child of the P-47 and the F-105, with a little Harrier DNA thrown in just to make it interesting.
Personally, I think the F-35 will make its pilots, its maintainers and mission planners everywhere very happy.
The USA would not give the Israelis the choice of buying the F22. And Israel was not allowed to build the Lavi, which the Chinese stole the plans for and produced calling it something else.
So the F35 is a lemon that can’t stay with the Russian and maybe not even the French planes.
Of course they will modify. They have their own IFF system and they will install this before they fly.
As to the F 35 viability, If they wanted the Boeing plane, they could have selected it.
Not exactly.
Their mods required cracking source code and that cracking had nothing to do with assisting the US. Their enhancements were done to by-pass FMS security deletions.
That modification is approved in the LOA and does not involve cracking the source code.
An END policy is necessary. They did not petition for that.
The LOA is a contract.
Source code is under no conditions to be modified or changed in any way without permission.
If they want a change to code it can happen, but we own that code, the manufacture owns that code, they are stealing when they change the code.
That is wrong.
That was my first thought.
The manufacturer may own the code but where’s the legal basis for saying that Israel can’t use their own code?
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