I don’t think there is any question it is a step… no, a leap forward over the Harrier.

However, comparing F-35C to, say, the Rafale. Is the F-35… which will enter service some 15 years later… really a big step forward? Is it even a step forward?

In some areas, yes, it is much better than Rafale, in others, it would appear to be a significant regression.

I have become convinced that it is a big step forward. The combination of “stealth”, a large number of excellent sensor and sensor fusion seems to create something unique.

The USMC sent a pilot to train on the F-22:

The USMC, having anticipated that the transition to the fifth-generation F-35B could be difficult, asked the USAF to allow one of its aviators to experience the Raptor’s transition training, operational testing and tactics development pipelines. The USAF agreed to the USMC’s request, and Berke spent four years flying with many of the best fighter pilots the air force has to offer.

“The Marine Corps sent Lt Col “Chip” Berke to an F-22 exchange tour with the air force three years ago with a very specific purpose in mind,” says former USMC deputy commandant for aviation Lt Gen George Trautman. “Because fifth-generation essentially changes everything, we wanted to expose one of our best aviators to the clear operational edge the F-22 has over all legacy strike fighters.”

Trautman adds that “Marine aviation is going to reap major dividends because of his personal understanding of the unique characteristics of fifth-generation air warfare.”

Berke says that the USMC stands to gain enormously from the leveraging the USAF’s experience with the Raptor.

“That is a challenging experience and the air force had a lot of lessons learned,” Berke says. “The design was to take what I had learned and help the Marine Corps stand up its initial training squadron and de facto prepare for the initial operations and tactics development down the road.”

Berke, who is one flight away from becoming qualified as an F-35B pilot, says that the F-22 and F-35, while not designed for the same mission, share a number of common characteristics. The focus for the USMC is on what is similar between the two aircraft.

“The processes to prepare a pilot to perform in that aircraft are very similar,” Berke says. “While there are some unique characteristic that the two aircraft don’t share, the preponderance of those things in terms of how the pilot interfaces with this fifth-gen platform are very similar.”

The most obvious similarities are that both aircraft incorporate sensor fusion, where data from multiple different systems such as the radar, electronic warfare systems, infrared cameras and data-link are correlated and displayed to the pilot as a single, easy to understand picture. By contrast, in fourth-generation fighters like the Lockheed F-16 or Boeing F/A-18, both of which Berke has previously flown, sensor data must be fused inside the pilot’s brain. “That concept was pioneered by the F-22,” Berke says. “The concept of how that fusion-information is presented to the pilot is very similar between the two aircraft.”

Perhaps the biggest change from the fourth to the fifth-generation fighters is the change in mentality that accompanies the transition. Pilots have to think in an entirely different way in the two fifth-generation machines. “The concept of becoming a fifth-gen aviator applies to both the F-22 and F-35 equally,” Berke says. “That’s a difficult transition. It takes a little bit of time to get used to that.“

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usmc-hopes-to-leverage-usafs-f-22-experience-when-deploying-f-35b-374565/

OK the above highlighted stuff sounds like an LM commercial, but still… it seems to me that both F-22 and F-35 have some characteristics that make them unique. One may argue that Rafale also got sensor fusion and some other hefty stuff, but still I think there will be a huge gap between the Rafale and the F-35. However I agree the Rafale is probably the a/c that will come closest to matching the F-35 (perhaps in competition with SU-35).

I thought the SH had some sensor fusion but:

In 2007, I was able to fly a full-motion simulator for the Lockheed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in both air-to-air and air-to-ground roles. The F-35’s helmet-mounted display and large forward panel-mounted 19.6in x 8in display offered a wonderful palette to display truly fused tactical information.

Engine and aircraft system information – readily available and automatically presented when needed – does not clutter the cockpit. The F-35’s level of integration and sensor fusion was a generation ahead of what I experienced in the Block II Super Hornet and Block 60 F-16 simulator sessions.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/testing-the-next-generation-super-hornet-359262/

The F-35 may be late, it may be over budget, and it may even turn like a pig but I am quite convinced that it will be a much more capable multirole fighter than even the Rafale. I have yet to hear a pilot say that he thinks otherwise… and so far, the F-35 has won all the competitions it participated in, including in Norway, Japan, the US, and other places.

Brazil looks at Gripen NG during the Farnbourough show, and with a larger delegation than last year.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) Brazil’s Air Force chief, Brigadier General Juniti Saito, inspected a prototype of the Gripen E / F at year Farnboroughmässa a week and seemed impressed with the new AESA radar system of type (active electronic scanning array).
It says Eddy de la Motte, director of Gripen export at Saab, told news agency Direkt after being held out to the fighter aircraft for the Brazilian Air Force Commander, who was there at the head of a large 22-man delegation – bigger than before.
“We exhibited the development of aircraft such as NG that we have to test the avionics (aviation electronics), with AESA radar are in focus. He was impressed and thought it was good that the program is moving forward,” says Eddy de la Motte with a view to radar development program that Saab is conducting jointly with the Scottish company Selex but finance themselves.
An AESA radar was, according to Eddy de la Motte is one of the requirements that Brazil has set for its future purchasing decisions of combat aircraft. The radar is different from traditional radar including the antenna moves electronically rather than mechanically.
According to Eddy de la Motte offer competitors for Gripen on Brazil’s order also AESA radar systems.
“But there are many elements of the contract: Brazil is interested in technology transfers, that is, transferring both the product and the technology around it. We are very willing to at Saab, and experience are the U.S. and France are not as willing to” says Eddy de la Motte.
According to export manager is the Brazilian Air Force chief well versed on the Gripen fighter plane and probably self-test flown it.
“I think he has done that. His evaluation team has anyway been flying both C/D- and NG-plane, it’s part of their evaluation, and it is based on these flights that we have been chosen as one of three candidates, “says Eddy de la Motte.
By Brigadier inspected Gripen were not AESA radar are in place, said Eddy de la Motte, who will not say anything about any changes in attitude to the Gripen in the key figure during the fair.
“We had a constructive and interesting dialogue, but it would be wrong to speak on his behalf,” says Eddy de la Motte, reiterating instead the Saab is often said to have a competitive bid for the ability of the product, its price, and any industrial cooperation.

Google translated from http://www.di.se/#!/finansiell-information/telegram-details-page/?NewsId=d26acb81-8252-493b-8997-0ce0e6c473a5

I did not know Brazilian pilots have already flown the NG Demo? Interesting.

A US Admiral talks about the future value of stealth:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/10/navy-admiral-hints-at-jettisoning-f-35-fighter/

Saab is to invest in an advanced training centre for experienced fighter pilots initially from Gripen countries and its user air forces, at Air Force Base Overberg in South Africa.

The Gripen Fighter Weapon School is an initiative from Saab in co-operation with the Gripen Air Forces user group. The Gripen Fighter Weapon School will hone the fighting skills of experienced Gripen pilots from all over the world. The custom built facilities on the southern tip of Africa will provide exceptional training with extensive airspace over mountain ranges, desserts and the Indian andAtlantic Ocean. The course will be run during the South African summer which offers favourable metrological conditions. The training will focus on different multirole aspects every year and the advanced airborne exercises will be mixed with academia and survival training in an African context.

“Gripen is now operative and in service in five countries world wide, and the system is continually under development. Saab now believes there is a need to establish an advanced training centre for experienced Gripen pilots with the aim to increase their operational capabilities, provide an opportunity to operate in an environment different from their own and a chance to train in a region that mirrors a realistic future potential deployment scenario,” says Magnus Lewis-Olsson, President Saab in South Africa, and adds:

“The Gripen Fighter Weapon School will increase our understanding between different Gripen operators and our own efforts to create a common software baseline as the pilots will cross reference their experience of Gripen.”

Supporting Gripen customers in Sweden,South Africa, Hungarian, Czech and Thailand, the first course is scheduled to take place late 2013.

New threat scenarios and new requirements will drive the course syllabus at the school and the need for more in depth training on the Gripen aircraft and its systems. It will also increase the students’ operational capabilities by providing a possibility to experience a tactical behavior that differs from their national SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and thereby broaden their skill.

http://www.saabgroup.com/en/About-Saab/Newsroom/Press-releases–News/2012—7/Saab-to-invest-in-Gripen-Fighter-Weapon-School-in-South-Africa/

Gripen have the lowest costs of all Western fighters according to Jane’s:

http://www.stratpost.com/gripen-operational-cost-lowest-of-all-western-fighters-janes/

E.g. Netherlands – will go for from 85 F-16 to 42 F-16 then F-35.

Or perhaps they will ditch it:

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/07/parliament_reaches_a_majority.php

Finnish airspace is routinely violated by Russian, Swedish and NATO aircraft, often military aircraft, no biggie. We haven’t shot anyone down (yet). I understand that back in the day NATO aircraft used to rather deliberately violate Austrian airspace.

To my knowledge Norwegian airspace is never routinely violated by Russian a/c, not even during the cold war.

Perhaps that happened in Finland?

Spy missions etc. happen, but that’s not what I would call “routine violation”.

Provocations did happen during the cold war, but that was part of the cold war.