Axe writes a hit piece and Palmer nails him in comments...sort of.

Thanks for the link Joe!

David Axe has been a long time critic of the F-35.  If you follow his writing then its damn near undeniable.  And although Sweetman has been missing in action of late (I hope he's ok, I miss jabbing at him) he's definitely an acolyte of the dark lord.

But back on track.

Axe wrote up his latest hit piece on the F-35 and to be honest I'm a bit confused.  Check this out...

All four student pilots commented on the out-of-cockpit visibility of the F-35, an issue
which not only adversely affects training, but safety and survivability as well.8
 One rated the
degree to which the visibility deficiencies impeded or degraded training effectiveness as
“Moderate;” the other three rated it as “High” or “Very High.” 

That my friends is a training issue.  I can tell you and I'm not a fly guy that fighting an F-35 will be markedly different than fighting a F-16 or A-10.  If this was a real article then this part of the report would have been the real issue.

F-35 pilots are fitted with and required to wear a jacket on every flight as part of their
flight equipment, which works with the escape system and personal flotation devices. Three of
the four student pilots and one instructor pilot commented on thermal burden created by the
jacket in their survey comments. The discomfort to the pilots due to excessively hot pilot’s flight
equipment (PFE) did not significantly hamper the execution of the OUE, but the outdoor
temperatures during the evaluation were nowhere near the maximums experienced during the
summer months at Eglin AFB or at other training sites, such as Marine Corps Air Station
(MCAS) Yuma, Arizona, where the first operational F-35B unit is located. While the thermal
loading of the PFE was tolerable during the OUE time period, it may very well turn out to more
significantly hamper training at hotter times of the year.

I can see armored vehicle cooling jackets coming to the air wing real soon...at least while the planes are on the ground.

But to the part where Palmer smashes Axe.  Its in the comments.  Check this out and consider it an accidental jab that lands with a pound of truth.

If only DAS and the helmet actually worked reliably.

What he's saying is that rearward vision will be a non-issue once DAS and the helmet works.

I mean seriously!  The plane is designed so that the pilot can see through the planes floor and engage airplanes below it!  Look and shoot will be a reality once the planes hit the fleet!

This article was a cheap shot at a plane still in development, being assessed by pilots that weren't able to take full advantage of its capability (not fully installed), who were assessing it against airplanes that don't have the same capabilities!

Let's be honest.  An F-16 doesn't have the rearward visibility that a WW1 biplane has.  But which would you want to take into combat?