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2021-04-01 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Look Out, Mad Mullahs! Here Comes the F-35!

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Posted by Bobby 2021-04-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Iran

#1 I'd give this little credibility, but with one proviso: if anyone can polish that turd "Fat Amy" (USAF unofficial nickname for F-35A -- given by F-16 and F-22 pilots) into a highly combat effective deep strike aircraft, it is the Israeli Air Force.

Posted by These Forkbeard7574 2021-04-01 01:49|| 2021-04-01 01:49|| Front Page Top

#2 ...I think this backs up something I've said for a long time about the -35: it's NOT an F-series fighter, it's a light bomber with a really robust air-to-air capability. Trouble is that for political reasons (especially with the Allies) it couldn't be given a B-series number, and the USAF leadership would have committed hari-kiri before giving it an A-series number.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2021-04-01 04:36|| 2021-04-01 04:36|| Front Page Top

#3 Mike Kozlowski it was the same with the F-117. It was not a fighter. I know an Air Force pilot who has flown both the F-22 and F-35. Told me the F-22 is better.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2021-04-01 07:57|| 2021-04-01 07:57|| Front Page Top

#4 Put it in a real world troops on the ground needing cover NOW and see how it does when bad guys are shooting at it. Then have it land, reload and do it again. Then toss in an A-10 and then query the troops. My money's on the Warthog

Posted by USN, Ret. 2021-04-01 09:59|| 2021-04-01 09:59|| Front Page Top

#5 ^ Yeah Baby!

Posted by Warthog 2021-04-01 10:15|| 2021-04-01 10:15|| Front Page Top

#6 Tell me again the cost-benefit analysis of the worlds best CAS aircraft (A-10), and the F-35:
a quantitative analysis comparing the Warthog’s performance and costs with those of its intended replacement, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, shows that retiring the Warthog would be operationally unsound and fiscally imprudent. The rationale for the replacement is that it would increase airpower capability while controlling costs. That rationale does not withstand scrutiny."

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-benefit-cost-analysis/article/abs/thunder-versus-lightning-a-performance-and-cost-analysis-of-the-a10-warthog-versus-the-f35-joint-strike-fighter/55538E18C047A3F69DAE6BA6E17B904B

Posted by NoMoreBS 2021-04-01 13:01|| 2021-04-01 13:01|| Front Page Top

#7 Clearly, any successful military campaign against Iran would of course rely almost entirely upon an ability to quickly achieve air superiority, something which would require the destruction of Russian-built S-300 and S-400 air defenses.

I'm no expert but IIRC the IAF has gone against these systems several times with older planes and every time they do the Arabs get burned.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2021-04-01 13:03|| 2021-04-01 13:03|| Front Page Top

#8 every time they do the Arabs get burned.

A couple times a week for a while. I suspect the thing in Damascus the other day that the Israeli papers didn’t even bother to report was another one. I have to imagine that a war against Iran will involve destroying most of their air force on the ground, followed by their infantry on the roads as we did in Iraq. Meanwhile Israel can go after Hezbollah and Gaza missile stores, also on the ground/underground.

Posted by trailing wife 2021-04-01 13:44|| 2021-04-01 13:44|| Front Page Top

#9 /\ "#6 Tell me again the cost-benefit analysis of the worlds best CAS aircraft (A-10), and the F-35..."
The bean counters are considering the cost-effectiveness of the "strike package" not just the aircraft. With The Magic of Stealth™ the F-35 doesn't (supposedly) need EF-11a/EA-6B for ECM/SEAD, F-16/F-15 for fighter "top cover", E3 AWACs for coordination, and KC-135 to keep fuelling them so they don't fall out of the sky. "Supposedly". Then the bean counters decide we can do The Mission™ with fewer airframes on inventory until we reach the fallacy of "nine pregnant women can give birth to a baby in one month" type of statistical idiocy.

The F-35 has some valid points as an *cough* "A"-35 light bomber *cough*. The madness comes when they decide it has enough multi-role magic to replace everything in the inventory at the same time.

Posted by magpie 2021-04-01 15:47|| 2021-04-01 15:47|| Front Page Top

#10 /\ EF-111A Raven, that was a pretty plane.

Posted by magpie 2021-04-01 15:48|| 2021-04-01 15:48|| Front Page Top

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