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F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

thedrive.com

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Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#521

Post by sethhochberg »

httpz wrote: post #509

Wait.. does this mean an enemy fighter jet with F-35 level of stealth capabilities can penetrate the US mainland without being detected? I thought US had the air defense system that can defend against some level stealth aircrafts. Is that not the case?

If I'd lost an aircraft with a bunch of classified stealth features, and I perhaps also had air defense systems with a bunch of classified stealth countermeasures, I might be inclined to ask the locals if they've seen the thing in the swamp out back before I did anything that might reveal anything about the limitations of that stealth tech or abilities of the system that could track it.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#522

Post by iancmceachern »

tehf0x wrote: post #265

So a similar thing happened near some friends' in France. A military jet crashed into the forest near their house, but the air force couldn't figure out where it had gone. Eventually a farmer noticed that a new pond had appeared on his land. The jet made enough of a crater when crashing that drained the nearby swamp and created a new pond deep enough to conceal the full fuselage, thus completely hiding the airplane.…

Just like Luke's X-Wing on Dagobah!

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#525

Post by gl-prod »

btgeekboy wrote: post #331
chankstein38 wrote: post #321

It may be naive to ask this but... can I get a tail number? I'm not 100% sure these would have one I could look up on flightradar but a national post asking people to help find their plane would be way more useful with a little more info about the actual aircraft. We know it was "Sunday afternoon" over South Carolina somewhere but if we had some "last known location" info or something this might be solvable with some…

With all due respect, I would hope that anything you could do with ADSB-out data is something that the US military has already tried.

US military: Yeah, right, we definitely tried that

(Goes to check ADSB-out data)

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#526

Post by histriosum »

XorNot wrote: post #450
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The F-35 is for deleting (or helping others delete) air defenses and other fighter aircraft. Once those are gone you can use whatever you want for CAS. I can't imagine troops being so far forward that the air above is still contested.

Also this cannot be stressed enough: you can't fly under radar anymore . Modern radar can detect and track low flying aircraft just fine.

Genuinely interested in how modern radar would get around the line of sight issues? Doesn't line of sight mean that yes, you absolutely can still fly under radar?

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#527

Post by azalemeth »

httpz wrote: post #509

Wait.. does this mean an enemy fighter jet with F-35 level of stealth capabilities can penetrate the US mainland without being detected? I thought US had the air defense system that can defend against some level stealth aircrafts. Is that not the case?

In addition to the other comments, it's worth pointing out that (a) stealth aircraft deliberately use radar corner reflectors and other methods to increase their radar signature, reserving "stealthing up" for missions that require it; (b) almost all forms of identifying and locating an aircraft in flight besides radar require it to be transmitting RF (eg ads!) yet the conditions likely to lead to ejection likely lead to a reduction in the ability to do this; and (c) search and rescue in deep water is really really hard as water strongly absorbs and scatters most forms of radiation likely to be used .

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#528

Post by dfadsadsf »

ianburrell wrote: post #399
dogman144 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an… unorthodox take from the ground commander/fires perspective or conversely the orthodox take from the USAF perspective. Hard lessons from the GWOT have firmly put the A10 as the most capable CAS platform, and it’s taught as such in all joint fires classes to forward observers and also via unit history/anecdotes fires units (“A10 saved my butt in ‘12”). A10 pilots and units also have a much better rep for C…

The most capable CAS platform, and one of the most widely used, was the B-1 bomber. Flying in circles for hours and dropping scores of guided bombs. The best CAS in GWOT would have been the Super Tucano if the program hadn't taken so long. It would have done the same job as A-10 but much cheaper. The CAS mission is obsolete outside of counterinsurgency. MANPADs mean that going low and slow is a death trap. Getting lo…

In neer peer conflict air supremacy is probably pipe dream because of combination of ground based anti aircraft systems and inability to take out airports for more than 1-2 hours without using tactical nukes. Tor/S300/S400 and western/Chinese alternatives are highly effective, mobile and hard to detect - you can never take out all of them. AWACS are big, expensive and slow targets so they will have limited utility in a conflict - so limited visibility on what's in the air.

Go low - you will get MANPAD. Go medium - Pantsir will get you. High - S300. Not everytime but often enough that all sorties will have to be very quick with no loitering and unpredictable flight paths (so no CAS).

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#530

Post by 1attice »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #394
ciscoriordan wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/russian-su-34-fullback... “The statement went on to add that the crash was caused by an issue with one of the engines during takeoff, but the jet's two crewmembers are said to have ejected safely and survived. The extent of the injuries to the apartment building's tenants as well as civilians in the surrounding area is unknown at present.”

"To the last I struggled to lift the plane, [but] copilot Yuriy Yegorov hit the catapult [triggering ejection] and we two ejected with our seats."

What I love about HN is that you can get from 'a plane went missing' to a thread that cites every plane loss since 1999 followed by a counterargument citing a downed MIG.

Like, how the heck do you all know so much? The demographics of this site are unreal

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