it used a radar blocker to mask the engine front, so, not such a big deal…

and for RCS measurements, nobody here can speak about it with real knowledge about the values, either because nobody knows or because some who do know can’t speak about it publicly anyway

why not use arrested landings and STOBAR launch and you got a very short deck?
no 400m are needed…
Just look at the standard requirement for SU-35 for 450m runway, and it can still jump of a ship.

for the sukhoi, the jump is done with a few A2A missiles and a light fuel load. To operate with the Marines, the aircraft will have to be able to carry lots of ground ordnance with good persistency over the battlefield -> fly very heavy. there’s no way that a single engine fighter takes off with today’s technology in a couple of hundreds of meters without external help (catapult)…

and if it´s to fly with a bomb or two over a couple of hundreds of km, they can keep the harriers 😉

thing is, any fighter can come close to any SAM as long as it stays below radar horizon. Flying @ 100ft at high subsonic speed brings you way within the range of the AASM enabling you to hit the SAM battery by a pop-up maneuver… before ducking back to ground level to try to get out of radar coverage again. the major problem (besides the SAM you’re after and which will be after you quite rapidly once you pop-up, requiring a very rapid retreat back to deck level) on such a sortie would be the manpads which, unless you fly over a completely flat country will have limited range anyway.

Another thing is that no fighter would operate alone, except something like a Rafale on a nuclear strike mission, which is still quite unlikely to happen (and won’t be a SEAD mission anyway 😉 )

J24, why do you think you can see french videos from Tchad where they fly really very very low? Do you think the french defense ministry sends fighters to Africa just to give their pilots some fun?

@djcross

What you describe would be like a “F-22 bis bomber” which would be incompatible with many other requirements (affordability, among others)

One can dislike the aesthetics of the F-32, but the big delta formula allowed for great amount of fuel while retaining space in the fuselage for weapons, etc… personally, I preferred it over the F-35 from the beginning, but, well, there’s little chance (none actually) that things get back, so… 😉

Edit: mack8 was a bit faster 😀

in your image the flir looker at the B-2 , F-22 from lower altitude , the aircraft against very cold sky
but when a f-35 try to retreat , pilot may decide to dive down to lower altitude than enemy and fly a ways 😀 , so trying to find a cold aircraft in a clutter back ground would not be that easy

if it tries to escape, not only it won’t be cold but it will be glowing from the rear (there’s a tiny little thingy at the rear end called the engine that produces A LOT of heat 😉 )

besides, while the engagements start at higher subsonic speeds, once you start pulling G’s your speed will inevitably drop fast. All in all, there are too many parameters to just make a short answer, but basically:

– before the fight starts the faster fighter can dictate whether and when to fight,

– once the fight started (chances are there are the missiles will be spent before the merge as none will voluntarily start a dogfight unless he doesn’t have another option), it can turn into a gunfight in which a faster fighter again has the edge (it can disengage and reengage at will while the slowest one can only hope to survive long enough to either kill the other guy or until the other guy is out of fuel).

Now if you have the slower fighter AND your fighter can’t turn as well as the other one, you’re in deep trouble (to stay polite) if you have only your gun left to fight your way out of there. Some may add “it’s a whole system that fights, not just on fighter or one group of fighters”, but the answer is the same, you either fight an opponent that is no significant threat to you in any way (like most (if not all) wars in the last two decades) and the F*35 is just a overpriced toy that could have been replaced easily by current fighters for much less cash spent, or you fight a really potent opponent and in such case, the F-35 better have some good fighters covering it while it goes to drop its load on target.

hardly…

AFAIK they have very little, if any, compatible equipments, which would pose the problem of interoperability with the rest of brasilian forces

yes weight has nothing to do with drag

moon_light, by that simple phrase you just showed that you have no idea about basic aerodynamics of an aircraft…

have you ever heard about things like lift? induced drag? why an aircraft that pulls Gs looses speed?

what he meant, I think, is to underline the fact that a MinDef is a politician, not a defense expert, and when defense experts tell him what needs to be done and what means have to be put into place to have it done, he should be humble enough to realize that it’s beyond his competence to question their claims, listen to them and try his best to have it done in the best possible way, rather than just playing politics in order to be reelected