Only your dedicated tankers can fly across a hemisphere for a remote rendezvous to do the job, whereas if it had a strike package in tow its going to take several stepping stones of rendezvous points to move said strike package that distance. Each refueling takes from the kettle and you then need more assets to get the strike package moved. If you can fly the tankers across the ocean, meet up with the F-35B strike package, then send the strike package in from that point you’ve just cut the wear and tear on the land-based aircraft and reduced fuel costs dramatically. Refueling by tanker is certainly and option for F-35B.

Remember, there is a certain amount of opportunity cost that goes into planning. If you had assets already available to do the job you wouldn’t use F-35B in the first place. And because the STOVL-only carriers are notoriously stocked low with strike ordnance, you wouldn’t use them for regular strikes. So this is more or less a one-time opportunity strike that requires some sort of stealth strike package to accomplish. Apparently it requires a strike package armed for self defense or a strategic bomber would get the call. And this assumes you need eyeballs on the target, otherwise a cruise missile would do the job… why the hell do we need F-35B for a strike package again?

Not particularly stealthy, and not particularly better performing. Simpler. Cheaper.

pfcem,

Once again you ignore the blatantly obvious. You have no idea what the magnitude is in the charts. The left side of the chart may be zero. I might be a large leap from zero. Without numbers in the charts the bars mean nothing.

They can still dump fuel with them attached, so its not like they have to land fully laden.

I don’t believe they offered them up for export because they had sensitive electronics technology in them. Was it indigenous or was it from Israel? If it was imported in the time frame of development then it probably was breaking international law. I am pretty sure the Cheetah had bells & whistles the Kfir did not. Remember, the Kfir was meant to be economical. The Cheetah was meant to be a front line fighter.

Why are all the aircraft in the background mostly shades of yellow?

The war with Georgia would have been the perfect place to introduce the Su-34, but being its largely a paper tiger they used much older aircraft instead.

Paralay showed the hypersonic research project using a gutted Pheonix missile rebuilt fir research purposes. It’s an F-15B with a custom pylon attached. The F-15/Pheonix study was the F-15N-PHX which never made it past a mockup of the missile under an F-15A.