Siddar – Most people doubt there will ever be a program like F35 ever again.

I should ****ing well hope not!

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Lamesauce

I am well aware of Mr Sweetman’s existence, as it happens. I don’t think he has ever said or written that the JSF exhaust would melt decks, which is why I asked for a direct quote and citation and why I am not surprised that your only response is bluster.

As for you, Jackster, learn to read. I did not say that JSF critics had not advocated cancellation, but that they had not predicted it (which is what your original snark hinged on). Clearly some of the realists have called for the project to be scrapped, and indeed if the real story had been told in 2008-09 it should have been.

Bill Sweetman and Shadow Defence minister Kevan Jones

I know Jones said that, but he’s a pol. and a shadow pol at that, who was running with what he read in the newspaper. As for the other one, why don’t you provide a direct source and citation or an immediate retraction?

Jackster – If someone had ever predicted that the F-35B and V-22 would be cancelled by now you’d have a point, but of course nobody did, so you don’t.

Fedaykin doth protest too much, because he explicitly links the B&F sketch to the JSF realists (a better term than “naysayers” since they’ve generally been right):

Neither of which have actually happened in real trials of the aircraft but that idea still floats around the internet like a disease.

And he knows that the “melting deck” thing has indeed been a popular strawman argument from the all-blue-skies-ahead side. And he should have read that 24 page PDF because it’s really quite important.

No doom and gloom out of the sea trial reports, however…

An interesting factoid, one of the USMC test pilots mentioned this little tidbit—they have to use a modified Rutowski profile in order to get the F-35B and C up to Mach 1.6. Basically, you do one push over, unload the jet and accelerate, get up to 1.2, turn and repeat until you hit 1.4 Mach, turn and repeat till you hit Mach 1.6. It just barely gets there and barely has any gas left over afterwards. The kinematics are basically F/A-18C-like, though that was apparently exactly what was expected.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2013/08/f-35b-sea-trials-aboard-the-uss-wasp/

If Canada had a valid military need that could only be met by the F-35 they would have been able to write a “survivable” statement of requirements that only the F-35 could meet. As it was, they wrote one that was so clumsily rigged that it was easily shot down.

Canada only needs a stealth aircraft if it’s doing stealth-dependent ops – deep strike or ISR or (if indeed an F-35 can do this) hunting mobiles and relocs in heavily defended airspace. That would only be as a frontline member of a US-led coalition against a high-tech adversary, and the idea is that such coalition will already have tons of F-35As. On the other hand, one might argue that such a coalition might benefit from diversity, fielding some high performance air dominance fighters with Meteors, or cruise-missile shooters.

Operationally, Typhoon/Rafale would both be good choices. The improved Super Hornet would be close, possibly cheaper and immeasurably better from an industrial/political angle. If single engine really isn’t an issue, then JAS 39E shound be considered.

BiO – No formal delay has been announced, but DOT&E went into great detail in June about how software development for all Blocks was already behind the late-2011 schedule. That places all IOCs at risk.

Five AESAs, not counting anything they put in the tail.

In the Su-35, too, the Russians have not accepted the field-of-regard limitations of a fixed ESA. That was acceptable for the MiG-31, with a different mission.

What they need to do, to build confidence, is to be at the point along the critical path (to completing IOT&E of a KPP-compliant aircraft) at the time that was predicted one or two years earlier. That is, you may be late but at least you can point to your prediction and say “we’re not getting later”.