Four are part of the JOTT fleet at Edwards currently. Whether some of those are reassigned for training in U.S. or not, they will need more than four training airframes.

The 2018 beddown plan shows only one staying at Edwards and one at Luke. So they may be on the move soon.

It isn’t a matter of wanting more toys, rather meeting the minimum of defense needs. 68 aircraft would be bare minimum to fill three active squadrons (RNLAF F-16 squadrons have ~15-16 aircraft). 37 aircraft wouldn’t even fill two squadrons considering training and support airframes (four aren’t even going to leave US…. or I should say the OT aircraft aren’t going to be based outside of US as they were recently in Netherlands)

TooCool has a point, considering the expense of India’s contract for 36 Rafale, perhaps they should have considered the operational capability of a handful of airframes for 8.8 billion…. beyond rational thinking.

F-35 Unreliability Risks Strain on Pentagon Budget, Tester Says

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/f-35-unreliability-risks-strain-on-pentagon-budget-tester-says-j4gpnpbg

Always good to reach out to POGO for a negative comment when Pierre Spray is too busy on RT to respond.

Just like the F-22 RAMMP modifications, it would be instructive to comment exactly how much of the fleet is undergoing upgrades to 3i which impacts overall availability.

µYes Mig 31 . struggle, even in your short “demo”. Imprecise, need high AoA to turn, pityful time to bank etc.

Btw, very nice demo showing F-35 strengths. (seen it 4 times…)

Needs high AoA to turn? Well, Hallow, the harder the turn the higher the AoA. Pretty dumb statement there.

Also, it was a limited flight display of a 3i aircraft. Roll rate? Let’s see, one, how are you sure the roll rate is poor? Because the display didn’t place emphasis on it? CLAWS only allows roll rate within the NzW limits. At higher G and AoA the FCS is going to limit roll rate (just like any other g-demand DFCS). Considering the G limit of 3i that’s also going to impact roll rates allowed. And the F-35’s roll rate during much of that display is good considering the display is showing off High AoA and yawing maneuvers. What is the Rafale’s roll rate above 30 degrees AoA :)?

If the U.K. wanted to switch to some “A” variants, they could fund the probe and drogue integration. There is space and apparently some feasibility studies were done so theoretically the RAF could use the F-35A with existing tankers.