Posted on 08/05/2016 7:20:20 PM PDT by Mariner
The celebration of the Air Force variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter reaching initial operational capability continued Friday with a ceremony replete with dignitaries at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, where 15 F-35s were declared combat-ready this week.
The crowd in attendance included Utah Gov. Gary Herbert; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James; Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein; the head of Air Combat Command, Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle; and other top Air Force brass.
The commander of Hill’s 388th Fighter Wing, Brad Lyons, touted the accomplishments of the F-35A variant, saying the aircraft had performed even better than hoped in recent testing.
The now-operational F-35As will be assigned to Hill’s 34th Fighter Squadron, out of the 388th Fighter Wing, and maintained with support from the 419th Fighter Wing.
Lyons noted that the F-35A had completed 88 out of 88 successful sorties at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, in June and dropped 15 out of 16 bombs on target. In the F-35 spinup program, he said, the aircraft had achieved 39 direct hits out of 40 munitions deployed.
(Excerpt) Read more at dodbuzz.com ...
Unlike the F-16 it's nearly impervious to any and every air defense and SAM system.
It may be the best strike aircraft in history.
And that's before it gets its drone swarm.
twice the range - is that comparing internal fuel tanks?
1.5 the payload - if its external, stealth goes way down.
They are certainly cool looking.
I can’t really have an opinion n them that is more technical than that
For the price of one F35 - you could buy 3 F16s and a refueler...
Bookmark
The question is, could an F-35 eat three F-16’s and the refuler?
Trump needs to get our moneys worth from these contractors. I hope we can get better pricing on these after they start rolling off the line at a higher rate.
“And that’s before it gets its drone swarm.”
You could have a swarm of f16s for the cost of each F35.
I would have gone with the
YF-23 myself. A truly
Advanced design. But what do I
Know, I’m just an old zoomie
Metalbender.
Tet68
All Internal.
Active Duty ping.
I’d like to wait for the judgment of the F-35A pilots at an upcoming Red Flag.
The F-35B just participated in the most recent Red Flag. No word out on the street as to the performance of the F-35B, as far as I can tell.
And those F-16s would not be able to penetrate sophisticated A2/AD defenses, returning to the dust from which they came.
Anti Access/Area Denial
Yes. But an F22 could eat three F35s and its refueler.
cool. do you know the speed comparsons? operational ceilings?
It mostly eats money.
Easily.
Their pieces would be on the ground before they knew the 35 was even there.
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