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After seeing what happened in Armenia & Azerbaijan, I'm wondering if the US's customers are pushing for these cheaper drone options instead of the F35. The F35 has been in development so long, that it's seeing its own combat role supplanted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpX8d8zRIA
Perfect for the era development started in, but useless for the era when it was finally shippable.
I feel like there's an orchestrated PR campaign around making these F-35s sound like a success. I wonder what exists for objective reporting & analysis in this space.
Which China claimed could detect the F-22: https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a23846/chi...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you didn't know, you've been hell-banned (silently hidden from the HN that almost everyone else sees) for two years. That's why you get so few replies to your comments.
I see their comments like normal, is there something that controls this?
Can someone more knowledgeable than me in this matter explain why fighter jets still require human pilots? Why aren't they completely replaced by drones?
Weird theory of mine: The DoD ultimately picks these winning planes based on which one “looks cooler” or basically has better aesthetics. I think the F-35 has better aesthetics than the Boeing X-32, just like the F-22 has better aesthetics than the YF-23. You could say I’m used to seeing the winning designs as “normal”, but I distinctly remember having this reaction before the JSF competition was over.
After seeing what happened in Armenia & Azerbaijan, I'm wondering if the US's customers are pushing for these cheaper drone options instead of the F35. The F35 has been in development so long, that it's seeing its own combat role supplanted
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which plane, exactly, is superior to the F-35?
I think the cost is one of the deciding factors...
The B-52's are still in service after 60+ years, with pretty much everything upgraded several times over.
Yet for some weird reason this plane is still one of the 4 plains in the running to replace the old FA-18 in the Swiss air force.
Which plane, exactly, is superior to the F-35?
Realistically for Switzerland these aircraft are basically 9/11 prevention and national penis-enlargers, so any modern jet would do the trick (subject to politics i.e. no Sukhois).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not good. Like it or not, this is the only alternative NATO has for the forceable future. The British Tempest and the French/German stealth fighter won’t be operational until 2035-2040 The only alternative are modernizes 4gen fighters which are very vulnerable to modern air defenses. A ‘buggy’ F-35 might still be a better alternative. Also the British are counting for the F-35 to equip its carriers.
Buggy? It barely works. Short flight time. Crap wing loading. Not good at any of it's multi-roles. We could build 5-10 F-16s for each F-35, and many more A-10s, and they'd be better despite being ancient designs. They're so expensive we can't even do proper flight training in them, it'd cost too much if we break one.
It's really baffling that the US isn't looking more heavily at cheaper, easier to field aircraft like the A-29 Super Tucano for counter-insurgency operations like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The A-29 isn't that cheap compared to an F-35 (i.e. 1:4), especially when you consider that if you buy an F-35 (at the expense of maintenance costs) you avoid having to buy an F-35 anyway because you have a modern BVR platform