“180 rounds of 25mm is probably enough to shoot down five enemy planes, if push comes to shove, given that the software assisted aiming should be extremely accurate”
Huh? The gun is for ground support me thinks. In which case it is about 1000 thousand rounds short of an A-10. Of course in theory the F35 can take out missle defenses to allow it to go in for low altitude ground support whereas the Warthog needs to wait to go in while other assets do that.
“Huh? The gun is for ground support me thinks.”
The F-35 won’t be using its gun in the CAS role, except possibly in the case of the Marines, which is a gun pod not the internal cannon.
I believe the AF doctrine on CAS these days revolves around precision weapons. The troops provide GPS coordinates for the target, which are uploaded to overhead aircraft. Shortly thereafter, munitions arrive on target.
“In which case it is about 1000 thousand rounds short of an A-10.”
The Apache is a much better gun CAS platform than either - it’s low and slow. The A-10 has a pretty bad story on friendly fire incidents.
“Of course in theory the F35 can take out missle defenses to allow it to go in for low altitude ground support whereas the Warthog needs to wait to go in while other assets do that.”
Neither the F-35 or the A-10 can take out shoulder-launched missiles before the fact. The F-35 is fairly vulnerable to them, as stealth against IR is only minimally effective. The best defense is to remain at higher altitudes and use precision weapons.