F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected • Hacker News Board

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

#561

Post by ngneer » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:06 AM UTC

MarkMarine wrote: post #316

Scoundreller wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if some of the "autopilot" functionality for military aircraft is to swan-dive into water/forest if everyone has already ejected. If it's going to crash (and can't autoland, which it probably shouldn't attempt even if it could if something ejection-worthy happened), might as well obliterate the thing in a safe place.

The thing you’re thinking of is the pilot. If the plane is capable of control, the pilot will move it on a trajectory away from populated areas if possible. Protecting innocent people on the ground in the case of an emergency was always top of mind, you can see this in the crash reporting for multiple real world incidents (in airframes with, and without ejection seats, where the last actions of the aircrew were steer…

Near the Weizmann Institute, there is a monument for a pilot who refused to eject over the populated area, and rather kept control over his plane for long enough to divert it away. He died in the crash, as he no doubt would have anticipated.

https://honorisraelsfallen.com/fallen/holtzman-chaim/

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

#562

Post by DiggyJohnson » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:08 AM UTC

weard_beard wrote: post #554

dfadsadsf wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Drone loitering seems to work really well. We call army units on boats marines. What do we call army units that provide their own air cover? Aerials? The combat footage out of Ukraine is very enlightening. Communication, drone surveillance, full stomachs and no booze is apparently how you win a land war in Asia.

Does this perspective assume that Ukraine is “winning” the war at the moment?

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

#563

Post by dralley » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:19 AM UTC

kilolima wrote: post #557

dralley wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...Is this supposed to be a defence of the A-10?

Not really, but I think the A-10 drama is an example of what can happen when an organization that doesn't share your own goals is able to take over a task critical to you. Perhaps like outsourcing your engineering offshore. It may be more efficient to find cheap labor overseas, and push a button from 30,000 ft while going mach 2, but efficiency only makes a few people happy.

My point is that if you hold incinerating civilians (and friendly troops) to be a bad thing, then the A-10 is a strange platform to idealize.

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

#564

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:20 AM UTC

jmclnx wrote: post #362

johnklos wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How dumb could a person be, suggesting that something be installed in an expensive airplane that couldn't possibly ever be turned off! Sigh.

Turning it on would be very hard after a crash. Plus if you eject and you turn it on, the "other" people could trace it too. AFAIK, the purpose of F-35s are to be used in hostile areas, not only training. Also, ever hear of cracking" ? You think hackers in China could not crack that tracker given enough time ? Stealth usually means "unable to track" in case you are wondering :)

[deleted]

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

#565

Post by genmud » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:22 AM UTC

Hammershaft wrote: post #545

SonicScrub wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/01/f-35-cheaper-than-the-g... Specific figures will differ depending on how exactly one calculates acquisition costs. These numbers differ depending on the acquiring country, the block numbers, etc. But as rule of thumb the F-35 cost is roughly 10 million USD cheaper than the much less capable Gripen. This is notable as the Gripen is being marketed as the cheaper alternative. The F-3…

What makes stealth coating particularily expensive?

Probably made out of special radar absorbing shit and requires specialized to make sure it is uniform (or not) in its application.

I used a really thin ceramic based paint coating and it was really difficult to apply in a uniform manner. I can’t imagine how hard getting stealth coating onto a fighter jet is.

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

#566

Post by bitwize » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:24 AM UTC

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.…

Surprised they didn't get Yoda to Force-levitate it out.

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

#567

Post by dralley » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:25 AM UTC

mannerheim wrote: post #501

throwawaymaths wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a skill issue. Ukrainians are operating similar equipment with better success. Much like how India and China seem to have no problems operating the sister ships of the kuznetsov

Air defence was a weak point for Ukraine until Western countries provided some. As for the S-400, it's a post-Soviet design, and if the T-14 is vaporware and the Su-57 overhyped at best, perhaps one should not take claims on the S-400's capabilities at face value, especially given that there is visually confirmed evidence for two of them having been destroyed.

Not really. Ukraine had perhaps the most comprehensive ground based air defense network in Europe apart from Russia by virtue of the sheer quantity of S300 batteries.

The problem they faced last winter was that they were finally starting to run low on missiles and that using S300 on $20,000 drones was incredibly wasteful.

The only capability they were really missing as opposed to just running short on was the anti ballistic missile capabilities.

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

#568

Post by toyg » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 4:58 AM UTC

elfbargpt wrote: post #297

Seeing some (probably very fake) tweets that the unmanned jet landed in Cuba. No reason to believe that's true, but I do wonder whether it would be remotely possible for someone to take the jet over. I imagine it has a lot of proprietary software inside

Tbh my conspiracy mind went somewhere like that. An F35 costs hundreds of millions, I'm sure there are plenty of state (and non-state) actors willing to pay, say, 50m for access to its hardware. If you're an enterprising arms dealer, you find a pilot willing to cooperate for 5-10m, ask him to point the plane in a particular direction and eject, and then wait for it to come to you. A soft crash would probably still give you enough to turn a decent profit.

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

#569

Post by tomcam » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 5:12 AM UTC

MarkMarine wrote: post #536

moralestapia wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, one of those guys was just flexing/lying tbf ...

Nah, I read every incident report for military in the US because it was part of my job. Since we were talking about US military aviation I felt that was the avenue. I have read every incident report for Russia, not that I even could.

Always the straight man, I asked, what’s your job? It sounds unreasonably interesting to me.

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

#570

Post by MikusR » Tue, Sep 19, 2023, 5:34 AM UTC

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 the enemy aircraft teleported inside the US then yes. Radars are usually directed across the border.