January 31, 201411 yr But the so-called “Distributed Aperture System” doesn’t work. “The DAS has displayed a high false alarm rate for missile detections during ownship and formation flare testing,” the testing report reveals. Basically, the system cannot tell the difference between an enemy missile and one of the F-35’s own hot flares. So let me get this straight, if your wingman breaks off and pops flares due to an incoming missile, it's a bad thing if your system starts kicking them out as well? Sounds like a feature to me. Imagine the feedback loop that could result. An F-35’s DAS detects an incoming missile and pops flares. DAS then mistakes those flares for another missile and pops more flares, then still more flares to spoof them. So on and so on until the F-35 runs out of countermeasures … and is defenseless. Even funnier when you're in a stack of 12 aircraft and that helo at coord starts the chain. But seriously...why are these F-35 specific problems.
January 31, 201411 yr They're not. The Eagle has auto CMD settings too. No one uses it because it would waste all your chaff/flare, sounds like the F-35 will be the same. Once again, overly complex and expensive systems designed by engineers who do not understand air combat.
January 31, 201411 yr How is it that multiple fighter MWS' have this issue but it's not an issue in heavies (specifically 130's)? We def never experience this issue... You guys carry a shit ton more flares than we do?
January 31, 201411 yr How is it that multiple fighter MWS' have this issue but it's not an issue in heavies (specifically 130's)? We def never experience this issue... Easy boys, this is teetering on OPSEC. Don't talk about what our CMDS can or can't do here. Edited January 31, 201411 yr by Toasty
January 31, 201411 yr You guys carry a shit ton more flares than we do? I was trying to get more at the "why" not the "how", but no need to go further down this path Easy boys, this is teetering on OPSEC. Don't talk about what our CMDS can or can't do here. Good point Toasty, and my bad guys...sry for the derail
February 5, 201411 yr Hostage in AFTimes: -JSF is not an air superiority fighter -JSF is irrelevant without F-22 -A-10 is useless in the future and there's no way to save it
February 17, 201411 yr 60 minutes is doing a report on the F-35 tonight. Saw it. Bottom line: the acquisition process failed, but we're gonna buy this jet no matter what. Kinda defeats the purpose of talking tough to Lockheed. "Fix this shit or else." "Or else what?" "Well, nothing really. But we'll talk bad about you on a tv show only old people watch. "
February 17, 201411 yr 60 minutes is doing a report on the F-35 tonight. For those who missed it:https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/is-the-f-35-worth-it/
February 18, 201411 yr For those who missed it:https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/is-the-f-35-worth-it/ Thanks for the post - just watched it. Nothing new learned but interesting none the less, doesn't change my opinion (worth approx. $0.02) that it is too expensive, too many compromises and too far gone to completely stop. Even all that said, if we just stop the bleeding at some point, i.e. buy only 700 or so and learn a lesson to give up when you are 7 years behind schedule and 160+ billion over-budget, perhaps it won't pull AF, Navy, and USMC down the drain but I'm an optimist. Buy enough so that when inevitable shit storm comes up when the program is curtailed, whatever hapless leader (mil or civ) who is forced to go on 60 Minutes to explain what things didn't go as planned has some small amount of maneuvering room by being able to say we achieved some of our objectives, just not all and it just cost too much. Somebody put the screws to the F-22 and we only bought 187 of planned 650 buy, somebody can do the same thing here.
February 18, 201411 yr too many compromises This is the heart of the problem with the JSF. It's not really a Joint Strike Fighter anymore, it's supposed to be a Joint Everything Fighter. The logic that we only have enough money to develop one fighter amongst the services breaks down when you're asking a company to build a machine so complex that it meets the requirements across every service for completely different modes of operation. I would wager that had they had separate developments for a 85% common AF/Navy variant and separate Marine variant, it would have cost less for two aircraft programs than for one JSF program. Edited February 18, 201411 yr by SurelySerious
February 18, 201411 yr I would wager that had they had separate developments for a 85% common AF/Navy variant and separate Marine variant, it would have cost less for two aircraft programs than for one JSF program. You're right, but the budget realities of the early '90s/post Cold War drawdown meant that the Marines wouldn't have gotten a fighter in that scenario. ASTOVL/SSF/CALF was a non-starter as a standalone program, but there was no way in hell the Marines weren't getting a Harrier replacement (too many friends on Capitol Hill). Thus the JSF program was born.
March 17, 201411 yr Hey guys, looks like the hiccups in the F-35 program were so bad that Hill is transitioning back to F-16s: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/16/hill-to-begin-transition-from-f-35-to-f-16/ You'd think they'd get their headline right.
March 27, 201411 yr Latest from AF Times - More delays & $$$ https://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140326/NEWS05/303260057/Further-delays-predicted-F-35-program My personal fav quotes - Software development is, as Bogdan put it, “really hard stuff,” and will force new delays. Still, Bogdan said the program more recently — meaning under his watch — has made “slow and steady progress...Bogdan admitted mistakes have been made, but pinned much of that blame on his predecessors and the program’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin.
April 27, 201411 yr One step forward... Australia to Buy 58 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters Maybe two steps back... F-35 Stealth Questions Bring Back B-2 Memories Boeing Builds the Navy an F-35C Exit Strategy Edited April 27, 201411 yr by Clark Griswold
June 25, 201411 yr F-35 catches fire on runway https://www.nwfdailynews.com/military/top-story/f-35-catches-fire-on-runway-1.336917 Edit, unless I missed an earlier post or if this just expected, can’t believe it took 24 hour to be posted. Edited June 25, 201411 yr by Combat Platypus
October 13, 201411 yr Interesting take on the situation, the F-22 finally proved its worth in Syria (a little bit anyway), I'll give Lockheed that. What are your thoughts: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-f-35-was-built-to-fight-isis-2014-10
October 13, 201411 yr Interesting take on the situation, the F-22 finally proved its worth in Syria (a little bit anyway), I'll give Lockheed that. What are your thoughts: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-f-35-was-built-to-fight-isis-2014-10 my thoughts are that the majority of the heavy lifting has been done by the strike eagles, that the f35 would be severely range limited, and that manpads and other ir systems will still be a HUGE threat to a single jet engine that operates close to the edge of its envelope
October 14, 201411 yr An article written by a grad student with a pilot slot. "Jonathan Miller recently completed an MA Strategic Studies at Aberystwyth Universitys Department of International Politics. Soon embarking on a career in military aviation, his primary interests are airpower strategy, information warfare, air/sea battle doctrine, and the concept of "officership" as a profession."
October 14, 201411 yr Russia says the F-35 is Flanker bait... https://in.rbth.com/blogs/2014/10/12/why_the_f-35_is_a_sitting_duck_for_the_flankers_38959.html
October 14, 201411 yr Russia says the F-35 is Flanker bait... https://in.rbth.com/blogs/2014/10/12/why_the_f-35_is_a_sitting_duck_for_the_flankers_38959.html that russian article is interesting when it talks about the F-4 and the gun pod and over reliance on BVR. I also remember during Vietnam the Navy having bad kill ratios till implementing top gun. if memory serves the navy had a kill ratio on the order 13:1 after top gun, where the USAF hovered around 4:1. granted i wasnt alive at the time
October 14, 201411 yr Despite all its problems, it is developing some friends. The US jet fighter that can do it all—maybe
October 14, 201411 yr I feel like when I first joined the air force 6 years ago we were having the same discussions about the F-22. Now we aren't. Even flown with one at a Red Flag? The bros at Edwards, Nellis, and Eglin will make the F-35 a great airplane. We will develop tactics to exploit its advantages and avoid its weaknesses as best we can. Maybe I'm mainlining koolaid but the US has gone all in on this airplane and I can't imagine we will accept a POS. In 3 or 4 years, I'm confident we'll have an impressive jet starting to show up in reasonable numbers.
October 24, 201411 yr Good news if you've got some shares in Lockheed: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-lockheed-pentagon-reach-4-billion-deal-more-220002916--finance.html
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