If you DON’T detect the F-35’s radar, then he’ll spot you at 100+nm in a non-VLO aircraft, whereas the adversary won’t detect the F-35 till it’s in the 20-30nm(if that). That means that the adversary will always be within the NEZ of the F-35’s weapons before it detects the F-35. If by luck, the foe sees the F-35 on it’s IRST before its radar can detect it, it’ll still be within the NEZ(and the F-35 will still know about its presence). Even with a Meteor/R-27ER/R-77M1/etc… all that extra range isn’t going to help much if there is no radar lock.
That’s true on a 1vs1 basis, but not quite likely in an operational scenario. For instance, when the F35 is detected by UHF radars, then they can send a team of fighters with mids to intercept it. One flying below the F35 could scan the target area to pick the F35 from background cold with its IRST and feed the target data to another plane flying way above for maximum effective range.
As for the supercruise on the EF/Rafale/Gripen- what is their supercruise range? The F-22 can’t supercruise for its entire mission, and neither can they, which means that if the F-35 can only cruise at M.95, there won’t be a .4 mach advantage at all times. It also means that if it can supercruise, then it comes down to who can do it the furthest, for there to be any tangible advantage.
Say a typhoon cruises at M1.3 with AA load or a Rafale at M1.2. If it wants any chance to catch them, the F35 will need to light it’s pc, making it much much more detectable via IRST, and burning much more fuel in the process.
Nic
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