One thing I wonder about is if foreign pilots (not American) have been issued orders the same as US pilots regarding public slagging of the F35 - all F35 pilots in the US have received orders via a memo "not for public release" to only speak well of it and spin only positive PR. Why was no such orders necessary for the F22? I've brought this point up before, why was none of this incredibly negative stuff about the F35, similarly out there during the F22s development cycles? Even when the F22 had major problems, even a CRASH, nobody ever came out and said "this thing is going to lose vs current and near future threats, and badly" as they have with the F35. Why is that?
You have Dolby who has written a couple articles, and not mentioned a single negative in either. Then you have the US governments own internal analysis and think tank which has concluded several times that vs peer nation opponents the F35 is going to lose (right now) in many types of engagements air to air. Serenity is an up and coming fighter pilot in the USN fighter stream - he's heard nothing good about it from ANYONE he's spoken to, which is a lot more people involved in the area of air combat than any of us likely have. Eagl, a long time fighter veteran, flying one of if not the best fighter ever made for a long time. Mace here as well has said some important things, an instructor at the most known fighter weapons school in the world and a long time F14 pilot.
I don't doubt Dolby's experience or ability either, but he's just one pilot, and again, seeing absolutely NO mention of any problems or solutions for him in his quoted articles - how could anyone claim that it's all wine and roses right now when the list of problems from Lockheed/Government sources itself is so incredibly long, and some of them being pretty serious and without current solutions, after all these years still. It certainly IS possible, even likely, that Norway, UK, Israel, everyone else getting F35s have been issued similar orders regarding PR as American pilots, which if true means at best means the public is only getting one side of the story.
I'm still reserving judgement until at least a 4 ship of F35s is used at Red Flag or some other similar exercise/war game where it's put up against enemy red air simulating peer nation threats from China/Russia etc. Or even actual threats as when the Indians brought their SU30MKI over, or vs Malaysian or other operators of such fighters. Then the rubber is going to meet the road, and we'll see just how accurate both sides of this argument are, but IMO if several companies paid by the USAF/USN to war game out the F35 vs SU/Chinese fighters right now or in the near future have said the F35 is losing, and then the main internal analysis/think tank unit is saying the same...
Combine that with current F35 pilots being issued orders regarding PR, in addition to huge swaths of current fighter pilots in other types or retired/new/etc voicing major concerns about the F35...I think everyone should at the very least have some red flags going up over that.
I do hope it works well, and in those first exercises it's used it wallops all opponents and silences all critics, considering the cost and cost to other programs, it better. I do think everyone needs to be prepared for that NOT happening though too, considering the massive delays and criticisms out there now. Then what?
