Well, the 35 is light years behind an F-15. That’s just a fact. The 35 is heavier on that ramp by 5000 lbs. WIng loading of 107 lbs per sq/ft vs 73 in the F-15.
And 28,000 lbs of thrust vs 47,000 in the F-15.
The 36 carries an embarrassing 180 rounds vs 940 in the F-15, yet the 35 is touted as a -CAS- platform too.
The 35 is less stealthy than an F-117. It’s ok, but not much more. And we will be flying them for 25 or 30 years. But radars are merely a function of processing power and speed which doubles every 18 months.
A stealth airframe vs increases in SAM technology? The airframe fixed in time is bound to lose in a few short years. Even Ben Rich admitted this.
When that time comes, we will wish we had way more F-15s instead of the slowest least maneuverable fighter we have deployed since the early 60s.
“But radars are merely a function of processing power and speed which doubles every 18 months.”
It’s more than that.
It’s the physics of reflectivity too. And frequency has a lot to do with that. And materials. And shapes.
A stealth airframe vs increases in SAM technology? The airframe fixed in time is bound to lose in a few short years. Even Ben Rich admitted this.
When that time comes, we will wish we had way more F-15s instead of the slowest least maneuverable fighter we have deployed since the early 60s.
You expressed my concern perfectly, DesertRhino. I also believe the next war might be fought largely without GPS. Excellent thread, Mariner.
Very interesting with the addition of actual stats for comparison.
The weak link in missile AA systems is... missiles. If you can goad sites into expending their load outs on a variety of $200-$20,000 RC aircraft the rest of it will be easy because you can always release payloads outside of the range of conventional cannon AA, and onto them to make the area accessible to ground support aircraft.
The final arbiter of AA is going to end up being kinetic or energy based systems that can reach out to missile ranges without costing 5 million dollars every time you pull the trigger.