US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet

Re:US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet by LegitShady on Monday September 18, 2023 @07:56PM (#37563891)

The A-10 would be shot out of the sky at impressive rates with today's proliferation of MANPADs, the same way the ukrainians are shooting down russion KA-52s in ukraine whenever they get too close to the line of contact. The F-35 could require 100x more maintenance than the A-10 but it will accomplish the mission and come home afterwards. The A-10 is useful for shooting someone who can't shoot missiles back at your planes.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet by hajile on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @08:50AM (#37569209)

Look at actual kills of SU-25 and KA-52 vs the damage they have done. I've seen a single KA-52 mission take down around a half-dozen vehicles and completely halt an advance. That helicopter more than paid for itself in just that one interaction.

There have been no doubt thousands to tens of thousands of missions flown over the past year and a half by Russia, but only around 28 SU-25 losses and 36 KA-52 losses[0]. At 19 months into the war, that's 1-2 per month which would be more than acceptable losses. Even looking at total aircraft losses per side per month, the worst case is Ukraine with 307 losses over 19 months or 16.2 per month.

Perspective is important. We lost 2,714 planes in the Korean War[1] over 37 months. That is 73.4 aircraft per month or a little more than 4.5x as many each month and it was considered acceptable losses.

I don't care to add up all the things, but even in far less heated wars with basically zero anti-air capability, there are still a ton of aircraft losses[2].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_during...

[1] https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebInKoreanAirBat...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_accidents_and...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet by _kbh_ on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:29AM (#37569693)

> Even looking at total aircraft losses per side per month, the worst case is Ukraine with 307 losses over 19 months or 16.2 per month.

Unless this includes UAV's (which would be a bit strange) I don't see how this is even possible Ukraines airforce doesn't even have 300 combat aircraft.

[ Parent | on HN ]