Another issues is what will the marines do with there new ships with no well decks? Are we talking about getting rid of JUST the F-35B, or getting rid of all marine organic TACAIR? I bet the marines will tie both together.

Defense
Russia ready to sell Su-35 fighter jets to China

Russia’s state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Tuesday it was ready to hold talks with China on the delivery of advanced Su-35 fighter aircraft to the Chinese air force.

“We are ready to work with our Chinese partners to this end [Su-35 deliveries],” Deputy General Director of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev said at the Airshow China 2010, which is being held on November 16-21 in Zhuhai.

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20101116/161359301.html

Second squadron of F-35s is ‘an offer hard to refuse’
By YAAKOV KATZ
11/15/2010 02:06

Defense officials say arrival of joint strike fighters was of critical importance for the security of the State of Israel.
Talkbacks (44)

Top IDF officers and Defense Ministry officials claimed Sunday that the arrival of a second squadron of F-35 joint strike fighters was of critical importance for the security of the State of Israel.

In an effort to convince the Netanyahu government to impose a three-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, the Obama administration offered Israel last week a long list of security and diplomatic benefits, including 20 F-35s for free.

:eek::eek::eek: DID THEY SAY FREE!???111

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195342

Can you repeat that plz?

Not really, because a serious opponent is well aware about the own shortcomings. Just fools will assume that such opponents will allow the USA serveral month to figure out the own IADS as Saddam did f.e. Serbia gave just a small idea, about the difficulty to overcame a real network IADS in short notice.
Targeting works fine over a limited maneuver ground in the open country side with a limited number of system acting to rules and be right there, when the maneuver starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BL8Vomu0tM

None is shooting back, the B-1B in a strait line flight, when none of the ground targets moved and no own troops were close by. An optimum case to stay polite, but a typical one in war-time looks much different. 😉

These passive pop up threats still don’t not stop stand off weapons from shutting down air fields, power plants, C4 nodes, and weapons stores.
You can hide in the bushes all day but if your opponent is still smashing your military what good does it do? Tying to rely on only passive pop up systems wont stop your enemy from dominating the skies when the airfields are gone.

The F-35 is the net work! AWACS is nice but 5th generation platforms can act as sensor nodes.

Hey, I’m not dissing the ANG, and you are correct that the times have changed. The ANG and the USAFR play right along side the active duty force, mainly due to force structure (read: funding) reasons. But the overriding point is that the ANG does not need to be equipped with F-35’s to perform it’s domestic airspace security role – new build F-18’s are highly capable 4.5Gen aircraft that cost far less than the F-35 to buy and maintain. If an ANG unit is activated for active duty service, the F-18 will serve them well.

The ANG will not buy the F-18 for reason discussed in the ANG thread. That would make the ANg dependent on the navy for spares, and the AF doesn’t like that! There is a point to having as few types of aircraft as possible. when you start throwing in logistics trails for 5 or 6 different aircraft types Thinks get more expensive. Hence the Reason for the F-35. People seem to for get that if you had to build planes for the navy F-18, USA,A-10,F-16, F-117, F-15, and the marines you would spend a ton of money building 6 different aircraft with 6 programs and 6 logistics trails than you would 1 or 3