Dogfight : F35 vs F16

[PJ_Godzilla]

[GScholz]

You don't have to read this thread PJ. It is entirely voluntary.

[PJ_Godzilla]

I know. I'm just railing against the darkness.

My thinking on this is that we've seen the arguments pro and con. You've neatly summarized the doctrine that drove the design brief. We understand the risks.

Beyond that, we will not know the outcome of the design experiment until and unless it is tested in combat. Vrac has registered his skepticism. It is noted. My own take: I'd like stealth and more load out and EM capability... and recognize this might've been too much to ask.

The rest is flogging the figurative.

[nrshida]

Was getting boring anyway 

[GScholz]

I'm not going to read that.

[Vraciu]

See Rule #4

[GScholz]

You could have made the font size readable instead...

[Vraciu]

You could have made the font size readable instead...

Click on your browser: VIEW, ZOOM or VIEW, TEXT SIZE.

[Vraciu]

Was getting boring anyway 

Yeah, you don't want to expose a fanboi any more than you have to.

Good post.  Glad I got to read it before you took it down.   

[GScholz]

The F-35's ability to guide missiles from other platforms has been put to the test:

"An F-35B just carried out a remarkable test where its sensors spotted an airborne target, sent the data to an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense site, and had the land-based outpost fire a missile to defeat the target — thereby destroying an airborne adversary without firing a single shot of its own.

This development simultaneously vindicates two of the US military's most important developments: The F-35 and the Naval Integrated Fire Control Counterair Network (NIFC-CA)."

More here: http://www.businessinsider.com/f-35-aegis-integration-2016-9?r=US&IR=T&IR=T

[Vraciu]

See Rule #4

[Vraciu]

So much for the theory that our joint Strike Failure end users are guaranteed to be honest in their pronouncements.

----

Stripes

http://okinawa.stripes.com/news/lying-military-common-army-war-college-study-says#sthash.UO7cqjFi.dpbs

Lying in the military is common, Army War College study says

The new study found that many Army officers have become “ethically numb” in the face of overwhelming demands and the need to put their reputations on the line to verify that all required standards and training requirements have been met.


-----

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1250


Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession


Untruthfulness is surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it. Further, much of the deception and dishonesty that occurs in the profession of arms is actually encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution. . . It takes remarkable courage and candor for leaders to admit the gritty shortcomings and embarrassing frailties of the military as an organization in order to better the military as a profession. Such a discussion, however, is both essential and necessary for the health of the military profession.

[Vraciu]

Lastly, Don Bacon sums this up nicely:

This will be the program that kills the US Air Force more effectively than any enemy could have ever hoped to.   Where have all the useless F-35 prototypes gone?


-- Some rough figures --


number of useless F-35 prototype aircraft delivered - approximately 180 aircraft (per Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson, Aug 10, 2016

number of F-35s in "combat capable" (not) squadrons (22)

USMC - 10
USAF - 12
USN - 0

test fleet - 12

training fleets (113)

USMC - 24
USAF - 88 (72 at Luke, 16 at Eglin)
USN - 21

foreign sales - 15
-----------
total 182


So the USAF has clogged up their bodily arteries, their vital squadrons, with approximately 90 useless "training" aircraft. This is for an aircraft that is easy to fly, they say. “I can take off, type in an altitude, type in a heading and just let the jet go out and fly.” (Edit in: So can I.  It's called an FMS with an Autopilot and Flight Guidance Panel.  Gee whiz! - Vraciu)

Thus the AF is rendering those squadrons non-deployable. And they've just begun, as they plan to DOUBLE the number of aircraft in "training" squadrons. But hey, these squadrons are in the training command not the combat command, so they don't count against unit readiness?And with fifteen billion dollars worth of idle metal sitting on the tarmac they complain about a lack of funds. The budget cuts are killing us, they say.

[GScholz]

Video of the live-fire test. Unfortunately no F-35 footage, but still...

[GScholz]

That's a wrap for the third and final shipboard developmental test phase (DT-III) for the F-35C:



Guys seem satisfied