Posted on 02/05/2019 5:10:40 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Why would a 5th gen aircraft that is stealth have external armament? Or is that what “Beast Mode” is?
Not if you own stock in Lockheed-Martin.
8,000 fleet hours seems low to me. Are we really building aircraft with a lifespan of 7 years?
The article states that this is more they would use AFTER stealth is no longer an issue. I guess on day 3 of a war they will probably know we are coming.
And how many cruise missiles and drones could be had for the price of one F-35?
How many schools? Eisenhower made a great speech about the cost of schools compared to the price of a single B52.
8000 hours was the projected life. Testing is showing in fact the service life may be around 2000h! For comparison, the F15 has a service life of 20,000 hours. Roughly 10 times the F35. Wow. That’s a bombshell report.
America spends on schools more thab any other nation for absolute sht results. Money for schools is not the issue. NYC is at $ 22,000 per students...
Beast Mode is when they’re all dirtied up with ungainly, heavy stuff (which would negate stealth) mounted on the external pylons.
“They buried that little nugget. Wow, that is criminally bad.”
PilotDave, I caught that, too. Interesting statement in a sentence edited oddly by Bloomberg. Would love to see that information in context. I wonder if the service life applies only to the first batch? Is it degraded by short-take off and landing operations? Does “Beast Mode” affect it? Is it airframe fatigue? Systems problems? Jet blast problems from operations?
Importantly, can short service life scenarios be rectified and service life extended as in almost every other airframe in our military’s inventory?
Are these VTOL craft gonna burn a hole in the landing zone of the flight deck like the Russian YAK-38? Hovering over the deck is just as stressful on the equipment as flying at Mach.
The F-35, in all three of its guises, was designed to have "first day of war" stealth attack capabilities, followed by unstealthy "bomb truck" capabilities further into the campaign.
The F-35 was designed to either carry a small internal stealthy payload, or large, unstealthy external payload.
This is demonstrating the external payload capabilities of the F-35B.
Oh for Chists Sake, it was an analogy. The MIC is sucking every dollar out of our economy. I am no leftest, but these days I would rather see us wean off of $35 billion dollar airplanes, and pay down some of our debt.
All this whiz bang shit hadnt won us much in the last 18 years.
Or by then we can expect their anti-air capabilities will be so degraded due to destroyed sensors (RADAR), expended assets (missiles), and degraded airborne warning, that it will not matter.
..we had M-188 750lb LGB's back in 1969...
Beast Mode? The F-35 will never be a beast. It is a least visible, early entry, stealth weapon.
The B-52 and the B-1B and the B-2 are Beast aircraft.
And as far as ground troops are concerned the lowly AC-130H is a Beast. And to the troops on the ground cheer the A-10 Warthog when they arrive.
Beast? Heavy metal attack.
Third day of war configuration means air-to-air and Surface-to-air nonvisual weaponrybof the enemy is substantially downgraded or eliminated.
Why would a 5th gen aircraft that is stealth have external armament? Or is that what Beast Mode is?
Sometimes articles do contain information.
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.