F-35 Situational Awareness

[OSU]

Agreed on the engine thing, highly.

But these f-35 engines are way good, awesome power to weight ratio, the f-35 can fly longer faster and futher than any jet made yet "without Dt's" even the f-22 gulps fuel like a mad monster.


I think the f-35 will be a stepping stone to better,faster more capable unmanned scram jet stealth space craft or high high altitude crafts.



Think ufos, lasers & stealth missiles and that kinda bizzare stuff.

Next thing you know, we'll be hearing about twin ion engines and fighters named after letters and with folding wings.  

[trigger2]

Willing to bet in the future we will see multiple unmanned scram jet aircraft,with the ability to launch advanced missiles at targets no humans will lay eyes on,with the exceptions of a camera or two or three.

Now the day we have a missile that is stealth, no one will see it coming,and if its anything like the aim-9x..it will not matter.

Although I agree that there will be unmanned SCRAM jets, I doubt they will be for combat purposes. I understand spy/recon/bomber planes being unmanned, but fighters not as much, as then it's all money. It doesn't really matter if you shoot down a plane, a countries out a few million, yay, scoot over a monitor and they're up again... I don't really get a tactical purpose for it...

And although yes, a stealth missile would be pretty awesome, one day, stealth technology will be broken. A "new" way to detect only god-knows-what will come out, and stealth technology will be gone. Now, seems to me like if we rely on "stealth" unmanned aircraft who's main purpose is to deliver a missile here-or-there, we're screwed. But, anywho, that's my $.02

Towards the OP:

The F-35 is a beast, but it doesn't seem like it's made to operate alone. Put up a group of F-22s with some F-35s and something's gonna get blown up...

~Trig

[firbal]

yeah man, the f-35 is a nice little rig for sure.

Altho i hear reports that most export version's (aswell as some of our versions) will not have internal guns,but a "gun pod" under the belly,kinda blows the stealth aspect away eh?

What also bothers me is the limited weapon load it can carry inside, they mostly packed it with fuel and sensors, leaving little for weapons, and if they sling weapons off the wings "like it can" then that blows away the stealth ability, what we need now,are stealth missiles.

heh, 1.2billion dollar missile, ill take uhm..6


-shrugs-

What most will order is the A model. The A is the only model that will have an internal gun. The other 2 will not have an internal gun. There will be some countries that will order the B, which is the Harrier replacement, but the majority will be buying the A.

[33Vortex]

I'm sure it will quickly take the place of its predecessors as the #1 mishap aircraft in the U.S. military since it only has a single engine.  The Navy has lost its mind or been given the BGW on this aircraft.  2 engines should have been the first design requirement.

My thoughts exactly.

[Replicant]

I had a go on one of the Lockheed F35 simulators about 6 years ago and with the amount of information being received by the pilot it kind of dawned on me that the same info could be relayed to a pilot sitting somewhere safe controling a UAV.