Fair point Lm. So applying a little basic thought as you have done, it could be said that the LM comment only serves to highlight the marketing that they are spewing out on the F35. :diablo:

Yes. And so they should. Its their job to sell planes and make money.

It doesn’t matter a jot how many of us armchair fanboiz take it as read or think this is LM it must be bol er nonsense either.

But it is blinking annoying that Aviation Leak seem to have reported verbatim and not done some journalism.

I will emark upon a personal crusade today to find it!

Good man! Have a week off from purgatory for your troubles

I find that the least helpful and most insulting thing to do in situations like this is stumble upon an ongoing discussion and tell everyone what to think (ideally in unambiguous and not-prepared-to-argue language) so here we go.

The ‘Great Man’ model of history is nice and simplistic and lets everyone off the hook so blaming Adolf ‘Well at least I wasn’t as big a **** as Stalin‘ Hitler for Nazism is a nice get out. That way we can ignore the other figures and historical pressures which allowed/enabled/supported his rise to power. It also means we can ignore how many ordinary German civillians were murdered by the Nazis and so claim credit for civilising occupied Europe against ‘the Germans’. And of course it means that anyone who actually made money from the conflict can be allowed to keep it because now they’re really useful and now that the nasty man has gone away they can’t be bad can they.

Religion has certainly been used as an excuse to kill and generally **** on a lot of people. Seems a bit of a stretch to claim that any religion actually led to that behaviour though. It might be worth remembering that more than one totalitarian bunch of murdering *******s were avowed atheists. Of course some say atheism is a religion.

Any luck with that site plan?

No. There isn’t any market.

Are you sure?

IFF F35b folds then USMC, Spain, Italy, Australia, India, Brazil, Argentina, S Korea (united Korea? One can but hope that the poor *******s avoid starvation/thermonuclear annihilation), Japan would all be candidates for the RIGHT carrier-capable light attacker. Also the things which would make such a STOVL warplane suitable for light carrier ops make it suitable for other nations wanting to get in or get back in to strike*

One of the problems with such a diverse range of (except for USMC) small customers is getting the right mix of bells and whistles with austerity and affordability

* in the general rather than historic RN defintion

Ooo you orrible cynics. Does no one else remember the Soviet submersible aircraft carrier in the ‘F18 interceptor‘ game?

The Generations thing is self-evidently marketing spiel. But can be revealing nontheless. (Much the same as accusing someone of being a fanboy* on an enthusiasts’ aviation forum is both pointless and enlightening)

I would suggest that each ‘generation‘ is an attempt by purchaser and supplier to rectify apparent or actual flaws in the previous kit inducted into service.

examples
F15 enhanced kinematics and ability to detect and engage targets using EM over F4, but using the same weapons .

F14 enhanced EO ability to detect and identify targets over F4. And (in theory at least) ability to engage simultaneously at longer range.

There is therefore unlikely to be any common agreement on generation as there will not be common agreement on what the current kit lacks.

The US, Indians, Russians, Chinese, French and (possibly) UK may** feel that having all fastjets marinised and able to operate from flat tops is useful. Swedish and Germans probably less so.

France (appears to) think that ACTIVE Stealth is the way forward. US favouring shaping and the possibility of using EW emissions at a later date to complement this. The Russians are either having us all on with the Plasma sheath theory or have already mastered it and are having us all on with the inherent difficulties.

*sorry, I cannot bring myself to spell it with an ‘i’ like the hip young people of today do. You can’t hear the words, etc etc

**I made that up as I think its self-evidently required for all FJs, midsize truboprops and helos but either due to inherent political infighting or me being plain wrong I cannot see any of those nations making such a definitive statement

Like I said the Japanese have little choice but the F-35.

🙂

Thankyou you mod

Apologies if I’ve strayed into such (note to EELighting: I love EVERYONE me)

What are the options?

F/A 22 – seems very unlikely, there’s no public sign of congress budging, would look great in JASDF colours

F/A 35* – a bit boring and possibly expensive but would look good in JASDF colours and if it matches the hype offers that which others don’t

EF – unlikely given historical pattern of aquisition but JMSDF have used RR engines you know, this might be taken to be a chance to show US that JASDF is not limited to one supplier, it offers a chance to be Far Eastern supplier of EF (which might not be that great a business opportunity) and it offers a chance to sell Japanses expertise to a large market (if Japan decides to change policy rather than law and export such)

F/A15SE** – looks quite manga with its hidden AAMs, offers a chance to collaborate with Seoul on maintenance and upgrades which is a powerful political opportunity. Existing (at least) partial production line

F/A18EF – commonality with Australia good, excess mass for carrier ops bad. Existing good links with Boeing good.

Own fifth Gen – is there time? Could F2 line be re-opened as a stop gap or is this a non-starter

* yes I’ve made up my own nomenclature for it but makes sense to me
** and again