F16 can ditch all the ballast and cope with the threat to survive to fight another day.
F35 can’t and will more likely be shot down, so it’s theoretical range is of no used to it, is it??

Read my lips… a F-35 with internal weapons will fly as good, or better than, a F-16 that is flying clean.

This means that if the F-16 is not clean, it will never be as good as a F-35.

Throw in the benefits of superior situational awareness and the F-35 is at an even better advantage.

I see 4 GBUs on the Falcon, and 2 AAMs.

That’s 33% more than the internal capability of the F-35.

So what’s the standard load? 6 weapons? or 4? Make up your minds already.

I said 2 A2G STATIONS, not 2 A2G weapons.

If the F-16 had chosen 1k or 2k class weapons, they would have 1 per pylon, not two like the 500 lb LGBs in the photo.

The F-35 has a choice of what to fly, 4th gen do not.

Fyi, the standard A2G for F-16s is 2x A2G stations, Fuel bags, and A2A weapons. If the F-16 tries to load up on A2G, then it looses all the external fuel and is very short ranged.

The F-35 does not have this problem. It can carry up to 18k (internal and external) without the loosing significant range. Even with external stores, the F-35 will have a much lower RCS than any 4th gen fighter even flying clean.

No one claimed double the range for aim120d. The only official claim was “50% longer range over aim120C” Thing is, we dont know which model of aim120c is the reference there. That statement has been around for several years, before model C7 entered service. C7, in itself, has the same rocket motor as C5/C6, and somewhat increased range due to a better choice of flight profiles. It may very well be 50% more is refering to C5/C6. In any case, if i had to pull a number out of my rear, i’d put 120d in the 140-160 km range, a good bit of which is achieved due to a ballistic profile, meaning there would be no motor running for a good part of that distance, and a no escape zone would be significantly smaller, around 80 to 90km. Naturally, that is still huge compared to the no escape zone of previous amraams.

ATK was recently awarded a R&D contract to develop teh next generation of AMRAAM rocket motors.
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=95402

One of the key technologies they are working on is a Dual Pulse motor. This will allow the AMRAAM to follow a very long, arching flight profile and reignite the motor in the endgame engagement to ensure max maneuverability. This will extend the NEZ considerably.

Do you have a link to where it says that the F-35 can carry 7 tons for 2500 km? It is indeed very impressive!

Sorry, I was not clear enough….

This aint going to happen.

The best that the F-35 will likely do is 2500km on internals only (2 tons A2G) and MAYBE 4 tons with 2x 2k JDAMS and external bags.

Maybe JackJack is just playing devil’s advocate.

When the F-16 is loaded with the same amount of fuel, weapons, and sensors as the F-35, the F-35 wins hands down.

By what metric are you measuring “maneuverable”?