Yes, I don’t want to hear a non-US active duty pilot undergoing training at Nellis and PR-filtered media agenda resulting from that. I will gladly wait three more years and speak with him personally on Le Bourget, Fairford, Farn or ILA. I have done that with mirage, Gripen, Viper, Fulcrum or Eagle pilots an will continue to do so. Any problem with that? :confused:

Well, would’nt you like to hear them give interviews in your own newspapers and tv?

However, you are welcome to ignore their interviews for the 3 year period starting in 2012 if you like. 😉

Send up some 4.gen fighters with good supercruise capabilities, perhaps together with lots of UAVs simulating fighters.

Define ‘good supercruise’ and who has it at 4th gen?

Who has those kinds of UAVs?

Count the number of shots from the each F-35… Once they have fired their 4 (or 6, depending on the block number) AMRAAMs, use supercruise to chase the fleeing F-35s… then you treat them like baby seals… :diablo:

The F-35 will use a combo of LPI AESA and EOTS to discern the UAVs from the fighter and send the AMRAAMs to the fighters.

Besides, how did the enemy see the F-35s coming?

the whole F35 thing, revolves around the hpothesis, that the F35 won’t be detected….. The F35 is stealth. Yes. But the best RCS is head on frontally and in X band. It’s not invisible.

No credible source said ‘undetectable’. A much reduced RCS means that you can get very close to your target before detection does happen. The key is to execute the mission before the enemy does eventually detect you. Also, the RCS reduction for the F-35 is in more than just X band.

The point is, the F35 in WVR, needs HOBS or is dead meat even against a F16 with JHMCS. In order to carry HOBS, as things are today, it needs to mount the AIM-9X externally. This cancels the stealth… The F35 have HOBS… in external stores.

When the F-35 flies, it will be with AIM-120D missiles that have HOBS. The F-35 DOES NOT NEED the 9x or ASRAAM to do WVR.

The LPI isn’t panacea, nowdays ESM can catch even link comms between aircrafts. How much LPI is against modern EW suites is something we don’t know (i have my doubts). The problem as i said, is that others now have IRSTs too (today), which can track completely passively, AWACS and they can use links too. One sees you, everyone sees you. And some also have better kinematic performances. As for F35s kinematics, we will have to wait for the real thing to come out, it’s not TW ratio. At each speed and altitude the characteristics of an aircraft change.

The EW suite of the F-35 has logged the most lab hours of any of the sub-components. They are paying a lot of attention to EW and communications in the F-35. This is one of the reasons that they will can use the AESA radar as a directional comm unit.

The DAS, is nice to have, but its real gain in WVR combat i don’t know how much it can change the issue of needing a HOB missile in the first place (going with guns won’t help you much, DAS or no DAS) and good kinematics. Because, even an F16 Block 30 (which is the most agile F16 version for dogfight), if it arrives at WVR against the F35 with stealth configuration, will most probably shoot the F35 down, even without JHMCS (the HUD alone and plain AIM9M/L will give advantage). Needless to say, that should the F35 “strike dedicated” versions, that have not even the internal gun, find themselves forced to enter WVR engagement range and are in their “stealth configuration” (no AIM-9X onboard), they can only eject and nothing else, even if the pilot is world class ace that could succeed in gun killing the enemy.

This continues your misconception that the AIM-120D is not HOBS and that the AIM-9x or ASRAAM will never be carried internally.

I add about DAS, that until the EOTS comes in (the first blocks don’t have it, correct?), it’s hardly comparable to a real IRST (range wise).

Block 5 JSF will get IRST functions added to the EOTS. Dev on Blk5 will start in 2015 and be IOC in late 2017. What source gives you the idea that the EOTS will not be a “real IRST”?

Besides the IRST of Blk 5, some of the other items it is planned to get is a Full FOV DIRCM, Cooperative EW, and 6x AIM-120D+ internally.

Let’s take a look at two of those..

Full FOV DIRCM. It will be able blind incoming IIR missiles no matter what angle they come in from. This is the first time this will be done on a production fighter. Another likely use is to blind an enemy IRST.

AIM-120D+ will be at least a Block 2 upgrade to the AIM-210D that is going IOC soon. The Blk 1 D has increased range, HOBS, cooperative targeting, double battery life, and a GPS INS. Add improvements to that for Blk 2 and the final missile will be a very good HOBS missile. Currently the AIM-120 has a minimum range of around 2km, not the 5 miles I have seen floating around. You also get 6+ internally.

Why can’t an UCAV be used as 1st day strike aircraft??? It would also cost much cheaper

You said it yourself… in the future (and now to a lesser extent) comms jamming is going to be a problem. Having a human in the craft ensures the best chance of a successful mission.

Will UCAVs have a future with us, YES, but not now. The software and secure comms is not mature enough to go that way.

A while back a US Naval rep stated that the F-35 will be able to complete 75+ hours of naval ops without any reduction in RCS.

I am looking for the original quoting source.

Nonsense. The top-speed is no issue for the F-35, known from the simulations it will fulfill the specification. Related to the atmospheric conditions it will differ around +/- 0,1 Mach at all. The F-35 is designed to operate at the high subsonic.

I did not mean to say they need to do a Top Speed run, just that to have the best PR blurb they will want a weight-optimized production airframe to do the run with.

I am sure that in the list of flights within the next 12-24 months is a Top Speed run, and surprise….. a supercruise (m1.2 – 1.3+) run.

Why not only one high speed run with the F-35 as yet after 2 years flight test?

Likely reason is that to determine the TRUE top speed, you need a production version airframe with all the equipment onboard. That will not be until later this year.

Sure. Agree that AIM-132 would be a good weapon for the F-35. Mica also.

But once LO config is dropped in favour of external carriage the whole equation changes. The side-by-side arrangement of the pylons will cost dearly in drag. An then they might need a classic strike package to get a non-LO F-35 through defended airspace.

There is no reason to take a F-35 into well-defended airspace with external stores. That’s what the internal ones are for.

The only reason to have external stores on a F-35 in well defended territory is that they are too large for internal carriage. They could be a large 5k penetrator, cruise missile, etc.

The first waves, or an escorting wave, of F-35’s will clear a corridor well enough for the F-35’s with external stores.

Throw into mix the advent of JDRADM and you make the escort ability of the F-35 even better.

Funny, I get the same symptoms when I read the name Beesley.. A coincidence, perhaps?

Let’s see… people who have been out of the loop for over 20 years or a respected test pilot on the only two LO fighter ever to be produced???

No contest.