Haven’t seen the weapon bay open in any of the demos (though the low show would include this according to the avweek article)

See here at 8:15:

Russia and Iran have formal Treaties with the Syrian Arab Republic that secure their position as formal allies.
Russia has several bases in Syria.

What business does the US and other coalition forces have in Syria now that the threat of ISIS is being handled by the Russia-Iran-Turkey-Syria mechanism?

Under what Authority does the US Air Force shoot and down a Syrian Arab Republic fighter jet operating within Sovereign Syria?

Why is the US providing air-cover for a non-State actor in Syria? This is a blatant invasion using proxies.

Lets see how quickly you can do a 180.

Iraq’s Abadi calls for Turkish forces’ withdrawal. State TV quotes Iraqi PM as renewing his demand that Turkish forces leave Bashiqa camp near Mosul.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/abadi-iraq-turkey-relations-move-170110180125210.html

A planned U.S.-backed operation to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul could cause “blood and fire” in the region if not carefully handled, Turkey warned on Wednesday, saying it would keep troops nearby despite Baghdad’s opposition.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-turkey-idUSKCN12C0KF?il=0

More than 30 U.S.-backed Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish fighters were killed in a series of airstrikes carried out by Turkish jets on Monday, two American defense officials confirmed to Fox News.

Dozens of fighters were also wounded in the strikes. Both officials said there were no U.S. troops among the fighters who were hit. The closest U.S. soldiers were about six miles from the site of the strikes.

“This is very serious,” said one outraged U.S. official.

U.S. and Russian troops in the areas of the attacks were warned about an hour before 24 Turkish jets and two Turkish drones bombed locations in northern Iraq and northeast Syria. Senior Russian officials contacted U.S. counterparts to try to get Turkey to back off the strikes, but those pleas were ignored by the Turks, officials said.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/25/turkish-jets-bomb-us-backed-forces-in-iraq-syria-us-officials-say.html

:rolleyes:

The flight demonstration is carefully scripted to highlight the kinematic capabilities of the F-35A, particularly its slow-speed handling qualities, said Flynn. He will start with an afterburner takeoff, almost immediately pointing his nose to the sky and letting the aircraft climb away essentially vertically. This impressive move is unique to the F-22 and the F-35, he said.

Next, Flynn will reverse back in front of the crowd, and perform a “square loop” to show the aircraft’s instantaneous pitch capability and high angle-of-attack (AOA) maneuverability. Then he will turn around, reverse back in front of the crowd, and perform a slow-speed, high-AOA pass. Afterward, he will light the afterburner and fly straight up into the sky once again.

From there, Flynn will pull up vertically in front of the crowd and execute a maximum AOA “power loop,” where the aircraft flips on its back—another signature Raptor move. Then he will initiate a spiral at 50 degrees AOA, called a “pedal turn,” which he says will be the most impressive part of the entire routine.

After reversing again in front of the crowd, the last move is a maximum-G, 360-deg. turn, which highlights the maximum-rate, minimum-radius-turn capability of the aircraft, Flynn said. The F-35 in its current 3i configuration is limited to 7g; when the fighter gets its full war-fighting capability with the final 3F software, it will be able to pull 9gs.

“This aircraft down low in this environment is an absolute monster,” said Flynn. ”It is more powerful, it is more aggressive than any of us, including those of us that fly the F-35, would have imagined before we began this flight-demo process.”

http://aviationweek.com/paris-air-show-2017/f-35-demo-pilot-paris-performance-will-crush-years-misinformation

Ok, so some obvious hyperbole here… “an afterburner takeoff, almost immediately pointing his nose to the sky and letting the aircraft climb away essentially vertically” is a move unique to the F-22 and F-35? Unless there is some fine distinction that didn’t make it into the article I don’t see why that would be.

Nonetheless, it looks like they have put some real effort into this show. The 50 degree AoA demo is nifty. It will be interesting to see what they can do once they are free to go all the way to 9Gs.

Belgium, Canada and Finland: chances are 0 (Belgium/Canada) or very close to 0 (Finland) in those competitions. I don’t understand why Saab bothers to stay in them. F-35 is too strong and the price keeps dropping.

I find the Canada effort particularly puzzling. Outside of a few goofballs with blogs nobody thinks the Gripen would be anything but an absolutely nutty choice for Canada.

There is also some unconfirmed news reports that Turkey is also transferring MANPADS and Roketsan fire and forget anti-tank missiles to the Free Syria Army.

It looks like someone is upset Turkey + Russia + Iran removed the pretext under which the US & Coalition entered Syria.

The de jure pretext was “fighting ISIS”. The de facto reason is for the creation of a US-allied marxist-lenninist Kurdish State on Syrian territory which cuts off Turkey from the Arab and Islamic worlds thereby killing any dreams of a pax neo-Ottomana in the region.

I usually try to ignore some of the more bonkers conspiracy theory stuff that shows up in this thread but this might take the cake.

The US is trying to establish a “marxist-lenninist Kurdish State which cuts off Turkey from the Arab and Islamic worlds?” :very_drunk:

That reads like someone grabbed a handful of words at random from a bag and arranged them into a sentence.

More detail in this version of the article:

The memorandum of understanding being negotiated between Lockheed and the customers aims to procure 135 or more jets in fiscal year 2018 for delivery in 2020 for about $88 million per jet, the people said. In the subsequent fiscal years, 2019 and 2020, procurement would ramp up to 150 or more jets per year. The average price in 2019 could be $85 million for the F-35 “A” variant and could drop below $80 million in 2020, the people said. That would mark the lowest price ever paid for an F-35, making this deal an important step in reducing the overall cost of each jet.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airshow-paris-f-idUSKBN1990S8

If this is accurate it essentially marks the end of the era of 4th generation fighters. Sure some will be produced post 2020, but none of them are going to be remotely competitive with an F-35 at <$80 million.

It wasn’t long ago that some felt the death spiral was imminent…

The Dec 2011 SAR is now out. Watch for cost numbers to break loose pretty soon.

IOT&E does not complete until April 2019 (“threshold” is October).

Op cost per hour is 42 per cent more than the F-16C/D, in USAF service in 2011.

The death spiral beckons.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?109870-Hot-Dog-s-Ketchup-Filled-F-35-News-Thread/page36

I thought the US were invading again but I realized it was the salon du Bourget.

Yeah, we are just bringing some jets and their associated support, no De Gaulle this time around.