Your thoughts about F-35. Comparisons with other fighters

Dr Carlo articles make me feel that F35 is just

NATO used to be all about dogfighting where its pilots excellent training and skill and their super planes were expected to rip through its commie enemies like a hot knife through butter.

That was until they were introduced to the R-73 and the helmet mounted targeting system Schlem.

They then realised that even if they could outmanouver the enemy he still just needs to fire a missile before the NATO missile hits him and he can still get a kill.

Trading plane for plane didn't suit them at all because their planes were expensive and their pilots were expensive to train too.

The result was a sudden change in focus on BVR combat where their force multipliers like AWACs aircraft and jammers and JSTARs etc aircraft and their AMRAAM missiles and of course stealth platforms gave them an edge they like to conduct humanitarian operations with.

""Why are we observing such a single-minded rejection of the need for effective endgame defences on Western combat aircraft?""

The West fired all their smart people in DOD. Civil Service/Engineers/Scientists.

It's just fighter jockeys turned Generals running the show now and they really aren't very smart. They want looks. They don't have a Team of scientists/engineers anymore telling them that pretty bird is a flop. They'll just keep pouring Billions into it until it works. Or maybe they'll take Noshir Gowadia out of prison to help get the F-35 finished. He did so well with the B-2...ha ha ha!

The West's gone to crap because 1/3rd of America will be dead by 2020. The Baby Boomer Generation was all about them and they didn't have enough kids to even replace them. So Donald Rumsfeld came up with making a few "superbases" cheaply run with the Joint Basing Project to try and keep a military going.

Why do you think Obama's giving +1 million foreigners US citizenship year after year and America leaves it's southern border open?

History books will show Russia's "collapse"....was actually a reorganization to sustain military power into the 21st Century. America should have done it..but didn't. Their Baby Boomer Generation was all about them and to keep getting their free $$$$. Time will tell if the Pentagon can keep a country together.

Vladimir79 wrote:I am going to hold my vote until Su-35BM gets AESA.

Is AESA a miracle weapon ?
Could an AESA not be jammed ?
Could an AESA radar make the difference ?
Most of the air to air kills since the 50's occured in dogfights combats. In these occasions most of the time US used to  play with 5 -if not 10- against 1 ennemy. Knowing the very genious russian engineers, I could not imagine they did not already find a parade against AESA's radar. Moreover the reliabilty of the AESA technology is....hummmm. Ask to the pilots.

nemrod wrote:

Vladimir79 wrote:I am going to hold my vote until Su-35BM gets AESA.

Is AESA a miracle weapon ?
Could an AESA not be jammed ?
Could an AESA radar make the difference ?
Most of the air to air kills since the 50's occured in dogfights combats. In these occasions most of the time US used to  play with 5 -if not 10- against 1 ennemy. Knowing the very genious russian engineers, I could not imagine they did not already find a parade against AESA's radar. Moreover the reliabilty of the AESA technology is....hummmm. Ask to the pilots.

The West have to use AESA because their PESA does not have dynamic shift phase like Russian PESA.

Each element of a Russian PESA have the ability to oscillate the radar beam in 120 degre, 60 left and 60 right. The radar surface can also mechanically osciallate another 120. In all, Sukhoi Su-30/35 have a total 240 degree oscilattion. Which enable the airplane to have a broader view compared to F-teen.

Not to mentionthat Russian radars are bigger, have larger diameter, that means the resolution is higher.

One advantage of AESA is that, the radar is not restricted by the traditional surface. And you can put it freely on the airplane's aerodynamic surface.

That's why Sukhoi T-50 is having a 10 metre L-band radar on the wings.

Meanwhile F-22 put the AESA on the same position of PESA

Just like buying a TV not to watch program, but to emit light, like a super luxurious lamp.

AESA has more advantages over PESA


1 longer detected distance

2 anti-jaming

3 few unit losing  efficacy don't effect whole rada

4 clearer view

5 lighter  

AESA is very useful ,but more expensive than PESA

type055 wrote:
AESA has more advantages over PESA


1 longer detected distance

2 anti-jaming

3 few unit losing  efficacy don't effect whole rada

4 clearer view

5 more lighter  

AESA is very useful ,but more expensive than PESA

Replacing PESA with AESA is inevitable. Like fruit ripening is inevitable.

But the issue here is when and how. You have to wait until the mango turn yellow in order to fully enjoy its sweetness.

The Pentagon is jerking off with immature AESA which is ineffective and purely sextoy. On the other hand, Russia patiently develop the techs and wait until they fix all the problems.

Russia create weapons to fight, not to jerk off.

higurashihougi wrote:
Replacing PESA with AESA is inevitable. Like fruit ripening is inevitable.

But the issue here is when and how. You have to wait until the mango turn yellow in order to fully enjoy its sweetness.

The Pentagon is jerking off with immature AESA which is ineffective and purely sextoy. On the other hand, Russia patiently develop the techs and wait until they fix all the problems.

Russia create weapons to fight, not to jerk off.

its a matter of investment i suppose. the US has a lot of money to burn, and they invested that into AESA- there are currently hundreds of platforms employing various radar with AESA based tech. so its a very mature tech for them.

Vladimir79 wrote:Denmark and the Netherlands are cancelling their F-35 orders, UK is reducing theirs by half if not all together.  There is still no agreement with Italy.  It looks like the F-35 is headed for a lame duck in Europe.

thats an negative on Netherlands Vladimir, at least not an complete cancelling of orders altough its indeed been greatly reduced.

the netherlands will "just" buy 12x F-35 CTOL versions. 3 on training, 3 on downtime/mission deployment, 3 on maintenance, and 3 will be operational on an cycling roster.