Never let em get that close!
Any idiot can look at the Pug and see it is not a maneuverable platform.
A trillion dollar hangar queen. F-22 has it beat hands down.
Did they switch pilots and repeat the test?
It is possible the F16 jockey is just a better pilot.
“at a total program cost of more than a trillion dollars”
This is it in a nutshell. The program inertia is too great to pull the plug on this thing. Also, too many clients/builders involved.
A trillion dollars. For an airplane. Just absorb that figure for a moment. And tell me again why the Pentagon needs even MORE of our money to waste?
Duck. Sitting...........................
Another expensive boondoggle.
Ouch, this article is very telling. The F-35 program is probably making Boyd spin violently inside his grave. Any fighter/attack aircraft in today’s military must be able to dogfight. And, dog fighting is all about energy and maneuverability. The F-16 is designed specifically to optimize these characteristics, and the F-35 does not appear to be. The only way ahead is better stand-off weapons for the F-35 (and that is a bleak hope for this $$$ weapon system). Hope UCAVs can replace this deficiency.
I've never thought of the F-35 as a fighter, but rather a fighter/bomber, with the emphasis on the bomber part.
When I look at that picture, I see the technology driven evolution of the F-105 to become the F-35, and the F-86 to become the F-16.
In that pic, you see the difference between a modern, purpose-built "Strike" fighter and a lightweight dog fighter.
Another cherry-picked hit piece from the War is Boring crowd.
Some of the scenarios described in after-action report are completely unrealistic. Gun track? I don’t think there has been an air-to-air kill using a gun since the Vietnam War; in that conflict, we discovered that a gun was still useful because the reliability of air-to-air missiles (particularly the AIM-7) was poor. On several occasions, F-4 pilots had to transition to a maneuvering, WVR engagement because their AIM-7s failed to guide on the target.
Since then, the reliability of our AAMs (particularly AMRAAM variants and the AIM-9X) have improved dramatically. So, the vast majority of future engagements will be fought in the beyond visual range (BVR) arena, and that’s where the F-35 should have an advantage.
The key is situational awareness—preventing the other guy from jumping you and establishing a turning, within-visual-range (WVR) fight from the onset. And once again, the War is Boring gang cherry picks their info.
Flying in a many-v-many exercise like Red Flag (or actual combat), the F-35 is going to be networked into a vast array of sensors, like the F-22. The data gives them a “God’s-eye view” of the fight, with various tracks color-coded as friendly, hostile or unknown. By comparison, the JTIDS data link (and AWACS/Rivet Joint radio calls) used by the F-15 and F-16 are helpful, but they don’t have the big picture view you get in F-35 cockpit. That information helps the pilot assess the tactical environment and make the right decisions.
To be fair, the F-35 has its deficiencies; many of the planned upgrades that will further improve combat capabilities won’t occur until later production blocks, early in the next decade. And it’s very obvious that we made a huge mistake in limiting F-22 production to 187 aircraft. You’ll recall that critics said the Raptor was too expensive and didn’t deliver enough bang for the buck.
Now, it’s hard to find someone who won’t sing its praises, loud and long. As one USAF aggressor pilot told The Atlantic a few years ago, “I saw a Raptor just the other day; it was passing overhead, just after it called me dead.”
I’m waiting for War is Boring to post the results of the F-35 versus F-16, with the Lightning II in full stealth mode, and both carrying AIM-120s and AIM-9Xs. Then, let’s see what the kill ratio is...
More here: The F-35 Can’t Beat The Plane It’s Replacing In A Dogfight: Report
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-f-35-cant-beat-the-plane-its-replacing-in-a-dogfigh-1714712248
Also another link at the sight:
Major Obvious: F-35 Pilot Says A-10 Will Always Be Better At Air Support
F-35 pilot Major John Wilson said the obvious in an interview with Danish aviation reporters
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How many Toyota pickups can it take out per minute?
omg
Can it raise Muslims self-esteem, though?