F-35: What The Pilots Say

Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by zip1234 on Thursday March 28, 2019 @07:50AM (#19511243)

As far as points 1 and 2, the F-22 was designed to shoot down other planes. The F-35 was designed for a large variety of roles. As far as point 3, that's a tough one. Nobody truly knows what detection technology will be like in 20 years. You may be right and the tech is obsolete quickly.

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by eecc on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:15AM (#19511846)

That the F-35bis a compromise designed for several sorts of missions it itself a criticism: it might not succeed at any.

(and let me be clear; I’m a pacifist... putting all the money spent on weapons into increasing interdependence is a much more effective strategy. You don’t want to level your debtors/creditors.

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by philwelch on Thursday March 28, 2019 @02:57PM (#19515361)

> and let me be clear; I’m a pacifist... putting all the money spent on weapons into increasing interdependence is a much more effective strategy. You don’t want to level your debtors/creditors

Lots of people want to level their creditors. Economic interdependence didn't prevent the World Wars--to some degree, it exacerbated them because some countries (e.g. Germany and Japan) had strategic reasons to secure their supply of natural resources.

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by detritus on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:21AM (#19511881)

Some clever/lucky Serbian back in the Kosovan conflict days realised that even then-old low frequency radar was able to pinpoint the F117s making nightly passes over their country, helping bring one down.

Given that was nearly twenty years ago and we've since had massive advances in passive and synthetic aperture radar otherwise, I've long wondered about the worth of the massive extra cost stealth brings to Fifth Generation warplanes.

Given the Russians don't appear to be in a great rush to make all their wares stealthy, one wonders whether they've preëmpted its limited use in future?

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by nradov on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:30AM (#19511960)

The Russians aren't in a great rush to acquire anything new because they're simply short of cash. People seem to forget that Russia's GDP is about the same size as Italy. After they pay for their strategic nuclear forces there's not much room in the budget for anything else.

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by detritus on Thursday March 28, 2019 @09:43AM (#19512089)

Sure, but they do have a healthy export market for their armaments...

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by nradov on Friday March 29, 2019 @12:33AM (#19519178)

Russia's remaining arms customers are mostly poor and desperate. They can't afford 5G aircraft. India used to be a major customer but now that they have more money they're shifting purchases to better alternatives.

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Re:F-35: What The Pilots Say by philwelch on Thursday March 28, 2019 @03:19PM (#19515584)

The F117 was 70's tech. It looked like a weird polyhedron because we didn't have good enough computers to do the math on how the shape of a plane reflects radar. And it was only shot down because the bomb bay doors weren't stealthy.

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