"Without going all Hearst" on ya, I've got to tell you how "Perplexed" I am at the decisions that our Congressional leaders have made when it comes to the F-35 program.
They have taken lies, damn lies and APA lies and used it to justify a slow down in the development of the B model.
The model that has the potential to be the glue of the international effort to get our allies to purchase this airplane.
I'm not talking about those that are already in the program...I'm talking about those that have or are making purchases that would make the F-35B the ideal airframe to operate from them.
Japan...it'll be looking to rebuild its industrial base...it had an entire F-2 squadron wiped out...Typhoon lovers are smoking crack if they really believe that it can win an order here. Its twin engined but comparatively short legged and lacks capabilities. Its barely ground attack capable. Anti-shipping is definitely beyond its abilities. Japan should be a no brainer for the F-35.
S. Korea...same as above without the industrial damage of the tsunami.
Singapore...with the proliferation of big deck LHD's in the Pacific, this island kingdom will not remain on the sidelines. Its a natural.
Australia...talk about capability without ability! Buy two LHD's without a fast jet to operate from them? I don't see that lasting. Besides, with the Air Force buying additional F/A-18's, it'll allow them to be more flexible in their purchasing decisions.
US...the big deck carriers are already on the accountants chopping blocks. The need for 10 carriers is about to vanish. This isn't exactly a bad thing. What it will mean is that aircraft carriers will get back to 80+ aircraft on their decks again. This might allow Marine Air to focus on the neck down strategy ....
Long story short...the whispering campaign by the APA, Sweetman and the rest of this cabal has obviously caught the ear of Congressional Staffers.
Conventional wisdom is wrong...but in this case its fashionable. I can't wait until they're all crushed like grapes.
It is only a rumour that Australia is buying more Super Hornets. Personally I suspect the "source" for the rumour was a wishful Boeing employee, but maybe I'm just too cynical...
ReplyDeleteOne thing we won't be buying any time soon are F-35B's to operate off the LHD ampibious ships. We might do a bit of "cross decking" with other F-35B operators at some point during training exercises etc. But Australia won't be buying them in the forseeable future. Multiple Governments, Chiefs of defence force and multiple Chiefs of RAAF have continually ruled them out. Part of the reason is that the ships we have ordered just aren't being designed to cater for them for any period of time.
They have a ski-jump only because it was too expensive to remove it from the design and may be useful for a UAV design someday.
They simply don't have the fuel bunkerage, weapons magazines etc or overall capacity (they'll be full of tanks and vehicles) to carry F-35b's for any duration because they were never intended for that purpose.
The problem is politicians are stupid when it comes to this kind of stuff. Bill & Co. are feeding the pols a carefully constructed narrative and the pols need to see past that and look at things with their own eyes rather than falling for it.
ReplyDeleteSolomon, I agree the guys over at APA are slightly off their collective rockers but,I believe Sweetman makes a valid point when he takes aim at the F-35B.
ReplyDelete1. Out of all the F-35 variants the F-35B has the shortest range of all three variants, only about 900nm.
2. All F-35 variants are, relative to other 4th & 5th generation aircraft, very slow, max speed around Mach 1.2.
3. Of the three F-35 variants the F-35B has the lowest max takeoff weight which translates into smaller amounts of fuel and weapons.
Finally, the other day you had a photo of an F-35 using it's external pylons on the top of your blog, seeing that SAM systems are becoming cheaper as time goes by and that any of our future enemies (China, Venezuela, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, North Korea etc.) generally speaking have excellent air defense systems. And as any observer of military events knows using the external pylons on a stealth aircraft ruins the stealth characteristics of the aircraft.
"All F-35 variants are, relative to other 4th & 5th generation aircraft, very slow, max speed around Mach 1.2."
ReplyDeletePass some of that reefer my way would ya?
BTW you should be comparing the B to the Harrier since that's what it's to replace. Also, I trust you're smart enough to know that the pylons are meant for *after* meaningful air defenses have been taken down.
just a few corrections USSHelm.
ReplyDeletethe F-35B's range is shorter than the other variants but longer than the F/A-18C/D and Harrier its to replace.
the F-35B's speed is Mach 1.6...no slower than the others and as fast as the F/A-18's and much faster than the Harrier its to replace.
it has the lowest max takeoff weight in STOVL flight. in every other enviro its the same as the others.
thats what i mean by conventional wisdom that's wrong becoming believed as being right. the F-35 only gives up some capabilities when operating off an LHD...and even then its light years ahead of the airplane its replacing!
good point sferrin...
ReplyDeletei left that one off. the F-35B will use pylons only when the anti-air threat has been neutralized.
no one is going to give up stealth when the threat is still around...but once its gone then max weapons carriage will be used to support the guys on the ground.
a win win for the grunts.
I don't disagree with the reduced buy. We introduced the MV-22B to service and not the MV-22A. It wasn't cheap to mod the A's already built. I'm not sure we can afford to do that with the F-35. Things are better this year, but the planes are not there yet. The A and the C I think you can go ahead and buy all you want now. Even if Congress did it for the wrong reason, I think they did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteAs far as modern SAMs, we can't discount them, but the Russians are trying to move product. Of course everything they sell is going to be anti-stealth. If we put the lasers on our planes, all their stuff will magically have anti-laser technology too.
There are no 5th gen planes besides F-22 and F-35. I'm not sure what comparison USSHelm is making there.
i get ya Craig...and it won't stop the F-35 from entering Marine service because we can just move the C model to the front of the line and get the F-18C's out of service first instead of the Harriers. i just don't like the idea of slowing down development of the B model and thats what this will do.
ReplyDeleteand we both know that critics are looking for reasons to cancel the whole project and barring that the B model.
USS Helm, an F-35b has already demonstrated M1.3 in it's flight test phase. Not sure where that M1.2 figure comes from. All F-35 variants are to be cleared up to M1.6.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people carry on about how "slow" this aircraft is. It must be blissful to have the degree of ignorance of course. I'd wish people would explain when discussing these issues, exactly what limits (speed wise) external stores places on aircraft.
Anyone have many complaints about the speed and performance of the F-16? Well guess what it's top speed is when "loaded for bear"?
M1.6...
Personally I'd be surprised to see an F-16 hit Mach 1.6 for any meaningful length of time with a pair of Aim-9s on the wingtips and pylons for AIM-120s because it'd have to be with no external tanks.
ReplyDelete