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| F-35A AF-2 flies over the sea test range off the coast of California on 22 February 2011 on its ninetieth flight. USAF Maj. Scott McLaren is the pilot. |
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| F-35A AF-1 aerial refuels over the Pacific Ocean on a flight from Edwards AFB, California. |
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| AF-1 has logged 178 total flight hours in its first 100 flights. |
You get all the good stuff!
ReplyDeletethanks to guys like you....thanks for stopping by and getting people straight on the F-35's capabilities.
ReplyDeletei get so tired of banging my head against the wall of the idiots that have a monetary reason for wanting the program to fail (or anyother reason)....
beautiful birds, the only thing that worries me is the military is going so far towards beyond visual range combat (which is good) hoping we dont lose the skills in our pilots to dog fight. Our rules of engagement now would dictate you dont fire on someone until fired upon if not in an open state of war, so countries if wanting a surprise attack will wait til they are close enough to fire, and will be alot closer than we can hit them, our military is like the bad ass version of AT&T, reach out and touch someone :). Of course i dont doubt the ability of the 35 to dogfight, with its compact size, great engine and thrust vectoring it will be a match for anything in the skies for generations, just making a general statement.
ReplyDeletei don't think it has thrust vectoring but the thing on WVR is that the missiles today are hyper agile...once you get close enough to use them then its a mutual kill....i don't think we'll see dogfighting like we used to, unless the AF or NAVY can come up with a way for fighters to jam or kill missiles.
ReplyDeleteLike Solomon said, no TV. Btw, ROEs are not that cut and dry.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the EOTS & RwR will allow for a positive ID of a threat long before it's picked up on radar itself.
The F-35 will not be surprised.
well i am not saying they will be suprised, we will know they are there, but if its a neutral yet unfriendly country when can a pilot use its missiles in anger. i mean if we are patrolling near the border with iran, N Korea or whatever and we are in international airspace and they come to intercept we dont know until they launch. remember how close that Iranian plane came to our fleet carrier a while back, they didn't fire, most likely a recon mission but still shows we wont fire unless provoked.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jBwTSdWAj9gkKrR_J9geQIv99TPA
this was a patrol aircraft but what if that patrol aircraft had launched anti-ship missiles when it was only a few thousand yards away, or as close as it came only 1000 yards. would be devastating if enough hit their targets.
@joe: And? It doesn't matter how could your plane/ship/etc. is, you can always "what if" a scenario (however unlikely) to defeat it. Do you think any other aircraft would do any better if it were escorting a "neutral yet unfriendly" and the other guy popped off a HOBS missile without warning?
ReplyDelete"how good your plane" that is.
ReplyDeletewell i know this ferrin, i was just trying to make a point that we should make sure our pilots keep skills like WVR combat to ensure they can meet any potential threat, while training for other forms of combat as well, such as BVR
ReplyDelete