SABR and RACR weigh LESS than the MSA in the F-16

Yes, BF-06 is from LRIP2.

How is Japan only getting a 20% offset (spread over less than 10 years) better than partner nations getting upwards of 75% or more (spread over the life of the program)?

How is the F-35 a bad choice for Air-defense/Air-interception? It goes above m1.6 with 4 internal AMRAAMs (the F-18 cannot do that), it has an IRST, has stealthy data links, EODAS, and its radar and RwR are linked to act as a single unit, and has a radar that even the APA says is second to only the F-22’s APG-77.

What about the F-35C makes it a better choice than the F-35 for this mission? It only has a range benefit of less than 100nm but gives up 1.5g of maneuverability, costs about $20 million more than the F-35A, has no internal gun, and does not carry any more AAMs than the F-35A.

—edit–

The only way to realistically lighten the C is to change the landing gear which will not give you much of a benefit. If you try and lighten the structure you will lose more g loading ability and have to retest the airframe (basically making a F-35D).

The proportion of F-35s body lift vs. total lift is more than that of most other fighters, even twin engine ones like the Eurofighter, Rafale, F-18, etc and is much greater than skinny single engine fighters like the F-16, Gripen, etc.

Obviously large spaced twin engined fighters like the SU series and the F-15 have a great amount of body lift that was proven quite convincingly when the Israeli F-15 landed with most of it’s right wing missing (remember that this was without the benefit of fbw).

I was a little off, it’s slightly under m1.6 at a very small altitude margin.

Claims backed up by actual test data, as in turn rate, max speed, etc. For example, the max speed of the F-35 is given at M1.6 (with weapons). If you look at the performance charts of the F-18E, it can only do ~m1.4 when loaded with 4 missiles.

Here is a graphic from the above Nikkei article (thanks Slowman for providing).

The first category is “Operability/Maneuverability”, the second category is “Industrial Participation”, the third category is “Relations with the US”.

Biggest surprise for F-35 haters is that it placed the F-35 above the F-18 and Typhoon in “Operability/Maneuverability”