Not quite.. There is a certain pressure from the US side, especially US defense secretary Ashton Carter. who has initially rejected the Israeli request for F-15SEs and bunker buster bombs and instead insisted on using the military aid to purchase more F-35s (among other stuff)..

Me think it was a politic motivated move, giving for free F-15SE and bunker bombs would have otherwise interpreted as a green light for a strike in Iran.

In his defense, that is a pretty accurate description MSphere’s posts in general…

MSphere posts are in general excellent, just some time he is led by his own character to be excessively polemical or focused on a single aspect but this is quite a common feature there as in all discussion threads.

Well, 5gen on Su-35 is a little bit too much, let’s say 4,99.:eagerness:

I think that the Italian manufactured F35 did a good job crossing the Atlantic, I am not sure that this added very much to the discussion except to prove that the onboard systems, set up for a second, not third, generation helmet worked for the duration and that the tanking tests that had been done earlier with US produced planes were valid for the Italian produced plane.

What does surprise me is that after the failure to have an F35 at RIAT and the launch of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2014, with so many customers / partners in Europe that the LM did not put pressure on the USAF to take an 3i F35 to Europe in 2015 after the engine problems were resolved.

The F35 was reported as comfortable during the crossing and systems integration worked ok, there was no report of what systems were running during the flight, so it is difficult to make an informed value judgement as to how mature and stable the 3i software is when all systems are functioning.

Probably it was just because it was the one ready at the right time but the fact the only F-35 factory outside the USA is in Italy make it quite an extraordinary coincidence, nation that will use it the least is the first one to do it for real.

We have an update:

T-50-3 – Completion of work on the engine control unit.
T-50-4 – Completion of work on the airconditioning unit and the information-control system.

The decision has been made to cancel the T-50-12 static unit and instead make two T-50-11 type planes in 2017.

Heard of, one for Russia, other for India –

The graphics shows 200+ F-35s sold yearly and “4th gen” effectively ceasing production by 2018 or so.
What is there to debunk? it’s complete nonsense..

Well, the big IF about the whole F-35 thing lie precisely in this.

It will be practically the only viable option almost for next fifteen year for all the western airforces.
How good it would turn to be in the end of its development come well after.
Excellent or mediocre it will sell about the same.

To put things in perspective US bombings in normandy killed 20 000 civilians before & around D-Day. They destroyed 96% of Tilly-la Campagne, 95% of Vire, 88% of Villers-Bocage, 82% of The Havre, 77% of St-Lô, 76% of Falaise, 75% of Caen & Lisieux, 100% of Aynay sur Odon, & Evrecy lost 1/3 of all its inhabitants while 86% of it was flattened.

With friends like these who need enemies?

Now those NATO fanboys are crying a river for a bombing of two hospitals which is most probably fake?

Come on be serious.

Nic

Is that why the French renamed a street in Paris to “Avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt” in 1945?

Other times, other technologies, other sensibility and a LOT of politically motivated memory remotion explain a lot of things…
There was however a joke betwee: allied soldier during WWII: RAF bombing:Jerry run for cover. Lufwaffe bombing: we run for cover. USAAF bombing: EVERYONE run for cover.

So not make of it a fanboy thing: this war is an enormous, total tragedy even with or without this last one happened.