THE DISAFFECTED LIB has a post about the F-35 you must check out. It seems that the F-35 may be quite vulnerable to the latest Sukhois, plus it has to have systems tie-in to American AWACS and re-fueling to function adequately.
And Stevie would have saddled us with this turkey? Buyer beware . . .
Careful. The F-35 doesn't require an AWACS. It can act as an AWACS though. There is a community in the USAF that wants to ditch the highly vulnerable AWACS and increase the F-35 buy to replace them.
ReplyDeleteAh, I see your point, but it's probably at its operational best when the AWACs are there with their Godzilla-power-level phased-array systems and the F-35's remain in stealth. Only it seems that against some wavelengths, it's not stealthy. Oops.
ReplyDeleteI am very wary about making too many detailed armchair analyses of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the idealised or real F-35 and other planes. I think for us mostly lay audiences it is fair to say some general things about the relative merits/demerits of the platform and that there are planners building credible countermeasures. Detailed analyses require a thorough knowledge of the engineering of modern fighters and weapons meant to kill them, as well as a practitioner's knowledge of modern air combat, including those bits not meant for public knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember exactly where I read it, but it was a USAF Lt. Gen that wanted to ditch big AWACS and go with F-35 claiming the F-35 has a higher probability of surviving the first 10 minutes of a hostile air environment.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is information overload. The Int plane is still only one pilot. The Russians have looked at the problem and are configuring their equivalent with two.