Of course it was rubbish. If there was any validity to it the presenter, NATO nation, and simulation scenario details would have been given.

Considering that the “news” article author’s blog posts mostly sole-source the APA, I think that we can chalk this up to BS.

On which NATO member, I found this:

“The Luxembourg Army Marching Band is still puzzled why they were given an unsolicited brief on the JSF at their seminar.”

Sorry to burst your bubble, but your wrong. A very simple law of logistics is called “Economies of Scale“. If you have three different fighters (as such they would likely be manufactured by at least two different companies). That means different avionics, engines, radars, etc. All those different parts will cost more because they are produced in smaller batches in different timelines.

btw, your argument that the F-35 will have higher lifetime cost due to it’s multi-role nature fails on it’s face due to the fact that the F/A-18, F-16, etc that it is replacing are already multi-role fighters. The F-35 is not inventing a new role, it’s just better at it that what it is replacing.

Um, no. The 120D is nowhere near a SARH. The 120D can receive it’s updates not only from the firing F-35, but any F-35 within sensor range. Besides radar, those sensors could be the RwR, IRST, or EODAS.

So no, you don’t have to fly directly towards the target.

FUBAR, really?? What KPP has it not met. Before you say range, they still have a 5% SDD buffer that was not included that will put it over the top.

Again, stopping production every time something comes up would have cost MORE to fix in the long run then to simply refurb the part later.

So it seems the simpler, straightforward way to beating the F-22/F-35/other stealth fighters is jamming the AIM-120x/AAM variants into useless flying metal rods at close range.

That applies to any AAM, at least the older generations. Newer versions, especially the 120D, are not so easy to fool. Besides their improvements in the ECCM field and HOJ functions, they sport a two-way datalink and GPS based INS.

This allows the F-22/35/etc to guild the 120D until it is very close to the target before the 120D goes active. Without the active seeker of the 120D, the target has nothing to jam until the last moments before impact. Even if the target starts effective jamming, the 120D will still have it’s datalink and INS that can continue to prosecute the mission till it’s seeker can burn through the jamming.

This type of defense against an AAM will get even tougher once the NGM (aka JDRADM) comes online with it’s tri-mode seeker (EM, IR, & HARM).

DR = Dual Role (ie A2G and A2A)

Don’t forget the balloons 😉