Posted on 08/01/2016 5:27:12 PM PDT by Mariner
The F-35 has hit yet another snag. During a recent exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, US Air Force F-35A pilots set out to practice evading surface-to-air missiles, but they could not, because the SAM radars on the ground could not even find the ultra-stealthy planes.
"If they never saw us, they couldn't target us," said Lt. Col. George Watkins, commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, told the Air Force Times.
To participate in the exercise as planned, the F-35As had to turn on their transponders, essentially announcing their presence so the SAM sites could see and engage them.
"We basically told them where we were at and said, 'Hey, try to shoot at us,'" said Watkins.
Had Watkins and crew not turned on their transponders, "most likely we would not have suffered a single loss from any SAM threats while we were training at Mountain Home."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
So the plane is too good,,, or perhaps the radars used in the exercise were not so good...
Put it up against the latest Russian equipment in that exercise, like the S-400 SAM, and then lets see how things shake out.
Excellent point. No way we are able to mimic the S-300 and S-400 air defense systems. Maybe Putin would rent us one export version for a year or so.
Use F22s to clear the skies. A10s are tough, but use cruise missiles and other platforms to clear the SAMs. Then use A10s and B52s (yup, those old busses) to clear the ground.
This isn’t that complicated.
But in a real war against a high tech opponent, how long is that going to take? In the meantime, you have no CAS.
Lol. Of course we can.
“These aircraft work for their intended purpose and will be in the air for at least 40years.”
And that is the problem. CPU processing power expands at an exponential rate. A modern SAM radar already “sees” the 35, it just cannot sort it out processing-wise yet. In fact, the newest radars are so good that they basically see the “hole” in the sky where the stealth plane is.
Inside 5-8 years the radars will easily target the 35. Then you have a plane that has a dog rate of climb, turning radius, poor speed, crappy acceleration, etc.
You are stuck with this plane for 40 years.
Stealth is a battle of hardware vs software. The DOD has decided hardware replacement will trump speed of software.
Its an idiots position.
The 35 is a boondoggle, a failure, and will always suck except when used very carefully as a low capacity attack aircraft.
There is no way a 35 beats a 10 in CAS. The 25mm gun holds something like 180 rounds vs 1100+ of 30mm in the Hog.
It’s survivability will be nothing like in the class of the hog.
It has no loiter. It has very limited hardpoints.
A 35 will never be superior to a 10 or a 16 in CAS.
Horsecrap.
They all have their strong points.
In action at night against Isis armed with guns and rpgs, the C-130 Specre is the answer. Same opponent in the daytime and it is the A-10.
Modern equipped and trained with modern anti aircraft, the F-35, with the F-22 miles above looking for fighters.
After the F-35 unloads it’s ordinance it can go after the fighters too.
It’s a stealth aircraft! You can’t see it!.............
“These aircraft work for their intended purpose and will be in the air for at least 40years.”
Hasn’t it been in DEVELOPMENT for 40 years already? Will it EVER be ready for use or only after it’s overmatched by newly developed enemy a/c?
The platform was not designed for either of those roles principally.
But it can take on and defeat ANY Gen 4 air force and penetrate for attack missions that the Warthog would never attempt.
That has got to impose in-flight restrictions on airspeed. Bet they have to slow down before opening the doors. Slow and non-stealthy, great, just great.
Agreed!
It's a classic Attack platform with some air-to-air built in.
It's a replacement for the F-16 fer crisakes.
They will work out the problems.
I was reading abut the Lockheed P-38 last night. Designed by the great Kelly Johnson. It had all sorts of problems which had to be worked out.
Of course we were at war and the had to do it quickly.
Of course it will. But the US has more combat experience in the air than all the world's air forces combined. Russia is getting some limited experience too but mostly in the strike and air support areas.
They'd love to test their best against the Turks F-16s.
One of the surprises just might be that our 4th Gen aircraft (F-15c and F-16d) are STILL better than anything anyone else has.
I would contend the F-15c is the absolute BEST air superiority fighter in the world...except for the F-22.
Concur, WildBill. I recall coastal defense exercises in 1967 where I was a target intruder aircraft in my A-4 out of Cherry point. My brief was to fly 200 miles out to sea at 30,000 feet and turn in toward the coast and the defenses, squawking a certain mode/code plus “ident” every few minutes. I thought “Huh?” I would never do any of that in a real attack.
TC
All the rest is huff and smoke over minor problems blown out of proportion. All fixable and all in line with every new combat aircraft we have introduced.
It has no loiter. It has very limited hardpoints.
A 35 will never be superior to a 10 or a 16 in CAS.
Yeah, that's why the kick off of every major conflict we have been in for the last 25 years has been scheduled around a moonless night at zero dark thirty so every F-117 we get in the air can go do it's thing and take out all the upper echelon leaders, high value C3 assets, air fields, missile batteries, and air defense systems so our A-10s. F-16s, F-15s , Apache helos and M1 Tanks can go do their things and live to come home and tell stories about their adventure.
In a serious war against a first world adversary, the F-35 also will target nuclear missiles and theater air defense systems.
F35 is many, many times more capable and effective than an F-117 Stealth Fighter and I've never heard anyone disparage the F-117 Stealth Fighter's attack capabilites or rate it below that of an F-16. We certainly don't schedule the kick off of wars around the F-16.
Oh, and by the way - adjusted for inflation, the F-117 was far more expensive than the F-35 is today.
An F-35 can engage and defeat aircraft in a way roughly similar to that of the F-22. The F-22 has some capabilities that the F-35 lacks, but the F-35 has some capabilities the F-22 lacks.
An F-35 can successfully defeat both the F-15 and F-16 in visual range air combat.
The F-35 can operate without AWACS support.
The much maligned 25 mm cannon as integrated into the F-35 is a far more capable weapon than people give it credit .
The A-10 has ZERO survivability in a high intensity conflict and this has been the case since the 1980s. The life expectancy of an A-10 pilot and aircraft since the 1980s has been estimated at 3 days max in a major conflict.
Hog drivers are a special breed who have always been able to even up and beat the odds using guts, superior skill and training, aggressiveness and innovative tactics , but the recent advances in theater air defense are going to make it very hard for the A-10s to even make it to the fight.
They will bravely give it their all just like they have for the last 30 years, but then, so did Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade in Crimea and the sad fact is that on the first few days of an air war, the A-10s will fare worse than Lord Cardigan's charge of the Light Brigade did against Russian artillery forces during the Battle of Balaclava
about the time the enemy air defenses have been attrited and advanced weapons and MANPADS have been depleted, and the F-35s and F-22 are loading out external stores because air defense threats are destroyed then the Hogs and Apaches will come into their own - with air support from the F-22, F-15 and F-16 once they own the sky while the F-35 concentrates on deep interdiction and locating and neutralizing high value threats.
There is no either / or here or better / worse or chevy/fords or Cowboys VS Packers - it's different tools for different jobs and using the right tool for the right job at the right time. For better or worse, we are now 100% committed to the F-35 as the most vital component of our tactical air mix of aircraft.
High Frequency RADARS do not see the F-35. While LF radars can, they don't have sufficient locational precision to target the aircraft. One can know it's there, maybe even be able to see it with the naked eye, but one can't target it.
And ALL OTH AA missiles use HF Radar to close and hit.
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