Posted on 06/28/2016 5:54:10 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
“0 losses in 8 dogfights against F-15E Red Air” The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe.
Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.”
Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests which involved local-based 4th Generation F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the 366th Fighter Wing.
In a Q&A posted on the USAF website, Col. David Chace, the F-35 systems management office chief and lead for F-35 operational requirements at ACC, provided some insights about the activities carried out during the second simulated deployment to Mountain Home (the first was in February this year):
“The F-35 recently deployed from Hill to Mountain Home where crews, maintenance and support personnel conducted a number of missions. During that deployment, crews attained a 100 percent sortie generation rate with 88 of 88 planned sorties and a 94 percent hit rate with 15 of 16 bombs on target. These numbers provide a positive indication of where we are when it comes to stability and component performance.”
“Feedback from the events at Mountain Home will feed into the overall evaluation of F-35 capabilities. The second evaluation will take place in the operational test environment with F-35 mission sets the Air Force intends to execute after IOC. All reports will be delivered in July and feed into the overall F-35 capabilities report. The ultimate goal is to provide a needed capability to the warfighter to execute the mission. It is not calendar-based or event-based.”
“The feedback from unit operators in place today has been very positive for the F-35, not just concerning performance but the ability the aircraft has with other platforms. In particular at Hill, integration with the F-15E (Strike Eagle) has gone very well. We’ve also been demonstrating the ability to put bombs on target. All of that information will be provided to us in the formal IOC readiness assessments.”
The following interesting chart accompanies the Q&A.
It shows some stats about the deployment.
The fourth column shows something interesting: during the exercise, the F-35s were challenged by some F-15Es and suffered no losses.
Even though the graphic does not say whether the F-35s did shoot back at the F-15Es some analysts (noticing also the “pew pew pew” in the chart….) have suggested the JSFs achieved stunning 8:0 kill rate against the Strike Eagle.
However, the “zero losses” may simply mean that the F-35s were able to complete their assigned strikes without being shot down by the aggressors of the Red Air: considered that the F-15Es were probably equipped with the AN/APG-82 AESA radar and the Sniper ATP (Advanced Targeting Pod), the fact that the Strike Eagles performing DCA (Defensive Counter Air) were not able to “find” and/or “engage” the almost-IOC F-35s can be considered a huge achievement for the pricey, troubled 5th generation multirole combat plane.
Actually, this is not the first time the F-35 proves itself able to fly unscathed through a fighter-defended area: not a single Lightning II was shot down during Green Flag 15-08, the first major exercise conducted, more or less one year ago, on the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, during which the F-35 flew as main CAS (Close Air Support) provider.
At that time, several analysts claimed the participation of two test aircraft in the exercise was just a PR stunt, since the aircraft was still quite far from achieving a combat readiness required to really support the troops at war.
Let’s see what happens this time…
I don't know where you got the impression that the F-15E can't take care of itself air-to-air.
An F-15E in capable hands is the third most lethal platform in A-A combat right behind the F-22 and F-15C. All the bad guys in the world know they will get their clocks cleaned in an engagement with a cleaned up F-15E.
What you said. I suspect the F-15E pilots were under orders to lose the competition to the F-35 so the USAF brass would look good.
You can’t shoot it down if can’t take off.
don’t know where you got the impression that the F-15E can’t take care of itself air-to-air.
your words even speak to that ...You say it can “take care of itself”....correct ...it can defend itself ... that’s its mission get in attack ground targets and get out without being shot down... in air to air ...it’s always a defensive mission for it...it’s not an aggressor in aerial combat
F35 need to be able to defend itself against fighter out to shoot them down.... The F35 not going to be defending itself against other ground attack aircraft that can defend itself ..like an F15e
The difference is between an aircraft assigned to be on the offense against other aircraft in the air versus aircraft on defense in the air...
The F15e is carrying a lot of things that are virtually no use in the offensive air-to-air combat mission... it’s not an air superiority aircraft... it’s a ground attack aircraft that can defend itself and you don’t use it to attack other ground-attack aircraft.. and you sure as hell wouldn’t use an F15e to attack air superiority fighters...
FOX 1!
You’re right. the F-35 may be the best fighter available but that doesn’t mean that it can do the close ground air support and kill tanks like the A-10 can.
In fact, a Clean F-15E is lighter, has more powerful engines and can sustain a higher turning G load than an F-15C. It carries the same A-A armament as an F-15C. The only real difference besides the second seat, is that the F-15E has permanently attached conformal fuel tanks and can carry more external ordnance.
Arguably, that second set of eyeballs is a great asset in A-A combat. I would sure as hell consider using it as an air superiority fighter if the mission demanded that.
I may be prejudice, but the F-15E is a much better air-to-air fighter than the F-15C until it gets slow and tight.
My guess is that the “E” models got out “sticked”. The F-35s could get a radar lock and fire well before the F-15Es got their radar lock. There are tactics to compensate for the stealth aspect, but we don’t know whether these pilots were familiar with them or they were limited to 4th generation tactics. It is not a knock on the pilots/wso’s, the tactics are not widely known. We had some growing pains with the F-15Es and those had a proven aircraft to work from. So I understand the F-35 growing pains. If I were running the show, I would buy at least 50% F-35Cs. 35% more wing area is nothing to sneeze about (plus another 1,000 lbs of fuel).
Good info. Thanks.
Where do you get your figures? We have spent way too much, but nowhere near 1.05 trillion Dollars on the F-35 program.
That figure north of 1 trillion Dollars is the estimated lifetime cost of operating and supporting a fleet of 2,500 F-35s for 50 years.
There are so many variables and assumptions in that 50 years to make the number meaningless. Inflation rates, fuel costs, service life extension program costs, all of it just WAGs.
The F-35 isn't cheap, it's very late and way over budget, and what sort of airplane we get in the end is unknown, but they aren't costing us 8 billion Dollars each.
Unit cost is more like $110 million, which makes plenty of money for Lockheed-Martin.
The F-22 is the star of the airwar over Syria? What airwar, and if there is one wouldn’t it be such a low intensity affair that even a warmed-over F-104 Starfighter from the late 50s/early 60s would also be a ‘star?’
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.