Posted on 12/27/2014 4:24:07 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Daily Beast not a credible source for military subjects.
Yeah, the way this is going the next generation will have 2 propellers and six 50 cal machine guns.
After the Navy adopted the flammable “little crappy ships”
it has become clear that there is a group which is
destroying America’s military power DELIBERATELY.
More importantly, is the F-35 eco-friendly?
Yea, the electronics are not really relevant at this point. The aerodynamics and maneuverability and stealthy ability are. You can fix and improve electronics but you can never make a brick fly with much effect.
Besides, I’m sure DB knows everything there is to know about military hardware and that wrong and disguised specifications aren’t ever leaked as disinformation. :/
Missions should be multi-task with various personnel instead of depending on 1 aircraft & a computer...maybe I'm old school...or have witnessed what joint forces can do to an enemy...
We can’t do this,We can’t do that.When the time comes our miltary technology is usually light years ahead of everyone else.
Why listen to these naysayers?
Should have kept the F22 in production.
The F15 is a great plane but lacks the stealth and is expensive to maintain.
I don’t think stealth is as important as joint force operations are....stealth, as my understanding, was for a Cold War going hot...even though Syria has top notch radar now from Russia...should those systems fall into even worst hands...that’s when joint strike forces are the best...maybe the F-22 or F-35 can handle it ...or even the F-117, which is more of a bomber than a fighter...
F-15’s might be expensive - but having 2 guys sitting there working the issue out - IMHO - is better than this F-35..but yes, F-22 should have stayed...
Is the F-35 going to be less expensive to maintain? All of our eggs are in one basket with this aircraft, it has had significant delays and cost over runs. I hope for our kids sake that the wizards of smart at DOD and Lockheed Martin got it right and did not blow billions of dollars and decades on this thing. I unfortunately do not have a great deal of confidence that they did.
The F117 isn’t active anymore is it? IMO its a combination of things but the F35 tries to be all things to all people, a sure recipe for failure.
I wonder if the copycat Chinese version that they stole has the same issues?
i found this article...http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/11/we-now-know-why-the-f-117-is-still-flying/
Kinda like moth balled - but maintained...that was a expensive piece of UFO history and op to be placed on the side burner...but then again....they would not have launched the F-22 or F-35 into operation...
Always been a fan of the F-15. It’s has proven itself on the battlefield so I agree. Modify those and you will have a killer fighting machine...
What a crapload of FUD in this article. The F-35 EOTS does include a laser designator, which can desginate and track ground targets.
The F-35 will have the ability to carry advanced targeting pods with built-in video downlinks if necessary, it will just lose most of its stealth. But the F-35 was designed for first day of war stealth, then conventional non-stealth bombloads afterwards.
The F-35, when it reaches initial operating capability, will not instantly replace all of those other aircraft on day one. F-16s and A-10s will still be around for decades.
We have a winner!!!!!!
An obvious counter to such incredibly advanced aircraft uses a very old military balance, between quality and quantity. If a military relies too heavily on one or the other, it becomes vulnerable to attack using the other.
While there certainly is a need for such an advanced system, there is also a pressing need for a low cost, low tech, expendable system that can be mass produced in huge numbers.
They do not have to be particularly fast, maneuverable or stealthy. Nor do they need a great deal of weaponry. But they need to exist in great numbers.
Imagine a “buzz bomb” type aircraft. A very simple system that has a common conventional engine, a fuel tank, some type of weapon, even just a bomb, internal wire guidance, and a shielded modular computer brain that can be inserted just before it is used, with an even simpler ‘auto pilot’ that works if its ‘brain’ is knocked out. Its skin is made of recycled beer cans. The aircraft comes in a box and can be assembled, fueled and programmed in just a few minutes prior to launch.
Per unit, optimally about $100,000 each. Maybe less.
The cheapest F-35A in full production is $85,000,000 each. The Pentagon plans to build 2,443 at $160m each. Around $390 billion dollars.
For the same amount of money as just one of these, you could make 850 of these cheap aircraft. An armada. A close to unstoppable armada. For $390 billion, you could make 3,900,000 of these small aircraft. Enough to invade another world.
“Quantity has a quality all its own”
You could make a case that we won WWII this way but we and the Russians has the quantity.
The only thing that saves us with “quality” is that the front line hardware of the militaries of the world are today built to fight, and win, very short wars. But what happens if you don’t win right away?
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