Many services and nations in the Western world are looking at unfortunate options.
The F-35’s teething problems may be mild compared to possibly flawed fundamental assumptions: I worry about the total reliance on stealth.
First of all, to get the airplane in a mode to go anywhere or destroy anything you have to hang fuel tanks and ordnance from the wings, which throws stealth out the window. So what do you have then? Is the F-35 a great fighter aircraft that can hold its own with the possible adversaries?
There seems to be some debate on the subject.
Furthermore, I am seeing reports, which may or may not be wrong, that sensor technology currently in development could start to peel back the stealth cloak in as soon as 5-8 years. If that is true, this total emphasis on stealth over traditional performance could prove deadly for our aviators.
That brings us to the SuperHornet. By all accounts it is a dog in terms of performance compared to the F-15, Su-30 series and the Typhoon and Rafale. Hell, the F-14D could fly rings around it years ago. The main thing the Super Bug has going for it is its avionics package. But you can put those avionics in other airframes.
More and more allies are going to realize the combat radius and outright performance limitations of the F/A-18E/F and look elsewhere.
It was a horrible development when the SuperBug was forced upon the US Navy by default and it has implications across continents.
The F-35 doesn't totally rely on stealth technology.
to get the airplane in a mode to go anywhere or destroy anything you have to hang fuel tanks and ordnance from the wings, which throws stealth out the window.
The internal weapons bays and tanks tell a different story. Once air superiority is achieved then one can start hanging pylons and by that time the SEAD mission is largely already over rendering any advantage gained from stealth moot.
that sensor technology currently in development could start to peel back the stealth cloak in as soon as 5-8 years.
The "stealth cloak" never really existed outside of the zoomie punchbowl. Stealth platforms have always been detectable using low band RADAR; datalinking it to a high frequency fire control platform is the trick. However, if one arrogantly refuses to alter ones tactics, that exercise becomes for all intents and purposes unnecessary, re the F-117 shootdown over Kosovo on 27 March 1999.
the SuperBug was forced upon the US Navy by default
Revisionist history. NAVAIR had a fetish for the Super Hornet from the get go. They gleefully lied to Congress that there would only be minor differences between it and the Hornet and they sat on their thumbs and let Cheney kill the Tomcat.