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F-35 - Another News Article - NO politics Please !


Tiger331

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The first story was discredited about two days after it was published. The second is accurate, and the way of the future. Modern militaries (as opposed to old farts like me with wistful memories) call it PCAS - persistent close air support. No more low slow and vulnerable ground attack aircraft with big guns, but large aircraft with big loads of small high precision munitions like SDB loitering behind the FEBA. Calls for CAS get much faster response, the likes of SDB are more accurate and less liable to cause collateral damage and the risk to the most expensive assets - aircrews - is reduced.

But we'll still miss the "Brrrrrtttttt"

Shane

I knew we'd retired the Vulcan too early.

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Report from a Norwegian F-16 driver now at Luke AFB on the F-35 programme. Interesting comparison of his experience flying the F-35 relative to his earlier F-16 experience.

http://theaviationist.com/2016/03/01/heres-what-ive-learned-so-far-dogfighting-in-the-f-35-a-jsf-pilot-first-hand-account/

And the Aussies with a well-balanced report including quotes from Sqn Ldr Andrew Jackson RAAF, also at Luke AFB, stating that the F-35 has better performance and greater manoeuverability than a similarly fitted F/A-18:

http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=13d32d90-5222-474b-a99d-9523fe223cff&subId=409757

Real pilots with real operational experience flying 2 of the types that the F-35 will replace, and both say the F-35 performs better than those legacy platforms.

Edited by mhaselden
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  • 2 weeks later...

well worth a watch and EXTREMELY interesting with many myths debunked with FACTS. It makes Sprey look like an absolute donkey.

I had seen this before but after listening to some parts again today, I'd say that Sprey is far from a donkey but actually a very clever man !

In his description of the weaknesses of the F-35 he uses all the right clichès:

- too much reliance is put on technology, we have to go back to the simpler technology of better, earlier days. Luddism never dies and most important, hinting at the past always work with those who are uncounsciously afraid of the fact that the world is changing (that is 99% of people)

- the enemy will defeat us if we go this way, oh dear, the enemy weapons are simple but invincible. The Vietnam syndrome seem to be another thing that never dies, we went too hi-tech and were defeated by peasants.. Doesn't matter if the Vietnamese suffered losses that no Western society would ever tolerate

- the crusade of a few forward thinking man against the weight and might of bureaucracy (when he blatantly lies about how the F-16 development started). Isn't this perfect material for a Hollywood movie? The "single scientist has discovered the truth against the will of the establishment" always works well with the audience, pity that things are usually never like that.

- the generals only think of their career and don't know what real soldiers/pilots really want. Replace the term general with boss, CEO, teacher, this works anyway. For some reason the ones in charge are always felt as incompetent while those down on the hierarchy know best. Again, how many movies have been made on this ?

- most important: the government is corrupt, they don't want to give our soldiers the right weapons because they have to make money thanks to the defence industry. We have to do something against this to free ourselves from the dark powers above us that want to enslave the world. Circulate this on facebook and other social networks, and don't forget to add a "like" under the post. If we get 100,000 likes the industrial-military complex or the freemasons, illuminati, reptilians or whatever the enemy of the real good people is at the moment will magically dissolve.

The man knows what has an impact on the audience of a TV program and uses all these bits very well. Of course anyone with a knowledge of military aviation would only need a couple of minutes to debunk his statements but he's talking to people who don't know zilch or only have a superficial knowledge. He doesn't have to talk tactics or advanced aerodynamics, just has to throw in a couple of numbers to show that he has some technical knowledge, mention a couple of types to show he knows military aircrafts and the trick is done. And someone will pay him for interviews, maybe he'll write a book and the pension is sorted.

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Yep he is either very clever or very naive. It's a great thing to listen to while modelling. You don't need to watch it at all to hear plenty of very interesting info regarding the F-35 and the US air force aircraft as they've been developed over the years.

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Some of their other clips make elementary mistakes - conflating vehicle mobility gradients as degrees rather than percentages (hint: a 100% angle is 45 degrees) - so I'm curious to see what errors are present in the F-35 clip.

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I'm really getting tired of this childish behaviour, so this thread is being locked forthwith. 22 pages of arguing about a subject that the most important aspects of are secret, and for better or worse, we can do nothing about other than watch and wait to see if we're right. TBH it's the same old entrenched points of view that have been trotted out time after time, and I can identify a LOT of the same people that have been involved in previous debates, and can't abide someone having a different opinions on the aircraft than their own. :fraidnot:

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