13447008:cobra_commander said:
Which parts did I fabricate?
I've got a degree in Airplane design. I'm more than familiar with the current operational and strategic capabilities of our various abilities to flex power and how they relate to the current battlefield.
The F-35 is a mid range, relatively slow, moderately stealth multirole aircraft. The current stratigic focus for the DOD is on preventing and winning COIN and near peer wars.
The primary role of the Air Force in a COIN environment is logistics h(troop and equipment movement) and precision air to ground engagements against targets without early warning systems or capable Anti-Air assets. Precision and ability to avoid green on green (something the air force, especially fighter and bomber piglets is terrible at) are paramount. The F-35 offers little to no advantage over current multirole platforms in these cases and is actually a drop in operational capability from UAVs and A-10s.
The primary roll of the AF in near peer environments is prevention through overwhelming firepower projection, and second strike capabilities by projecting an image of impunity. The F-35 does not realistically offer a big enough advantage over current options to justify the cost (the F-22 does). The stratigic drawbacks of its low range, low endurance, and slow speed more than offset the tactical and operational advantages of its new tech and moderate stealth capabilities. A carrier group with F-35s (plus litorial craft with Marine variants) is not much more persuasive to China than a CG w/ F18s. A carrier group with long range, high endurance stealth UAVs (something more than possible in 5-10 years) does.
From an aeronautics and engineering perspective the whole JSF concept is and was silly and stupid. The idea that you could create a single 'modular' platform that would excell at both ground based, carrier launched, and VTOL is fucking stupid. They have different needs. By trying to do all in one you fuck over the capabilities of the ground based model with many of the limitations of VTOL aircraft. 'Modular' really doesn't work with aircraft design. Every part of a design ought to be focused around the singular purpose of the aircraft. JSF really is the product of a dated policy that was implemented to cut costs in defense spending with slight reduction in potential capability relaying on how advanced the aircraft was (for the late 90s) to stay ahead of near peer adversaries through mid 2020s. Well it is now 2015 the F-35 is not operational, extremely expensive and nearing the end of the period where it was assumed to provide significant tactical, operational, and stratigic advantage.
the tech really is there to replace fighter pilots. We could just have them wear that $400,000 helmet and put some cameras on the UAVs of the future. Not risk pilot lives. Have aircraft that could fly longer, faster and further, and not need to unfuck every pilots spine every time he does a 6+ G turn.
The F-35 has yet to do anything except burn taxpayer dollars in development.
I'm gonna go back to underfunded training for a bunch of guys who actually have been involved in implementing US foreign policy. But that's ok, we don't need money for weapons and munitions that actually get used. Spend it on the F-35.
*Pours tall glass of scotch, punches own dick, and loudly sighs* Here goes a huge waste of time:
Oh you have a degree in airplane design? Fantastic, you're driving my point home that you have no expertise related to tactical/operational levels of 3rd, 4th, and especially not 5th generation warfare. Do you know the capabilities of Russian double digit SAMs? Chinese fighters/SAMs verse their Russian originals? Do you know what a 6G turn feels like or why the fact that you even mention it highlights the unarguable point that you don't know why the fuck it's negative 1,000 on the give a fuck scale? You don't. I know you don't because of the simpleton bullshit you're saying.
Ironically, you are exactly the kind of fucking idiot that would have designed the F-35 in the first place. I know because I talk to them in person. Some know-it-all "I have a degree in X" dude with zero experience in anything that actually matters when designing a combat weapon, and to make it 100x worse you're tactical opinion is a product of nothing more than the last 12 years of low threat CAS in some third world country. How very quickly you've forgotten that every single war since Vietnam had SEAD, Strike, and escort packages working together to infiltrate IADs that look like baby shit compared to what we face today. Not to mention cyber, comm, etc. For fucks sake a Yugoslavian SA-3 (translation: kindergarten in the SAM world) shot down an F-117 in less than 15 years ago. You think the AF is concerned with CAS? You think that's the challenging part? News for you: low threat CAS comprises about 1% of what the Air Force trains to, prepares for, and spends money on developing. And frankly, it's fucking easy compared to leading SEAD or planning a strike package into a Russian MEZ. Mentioning the A-10 and F-35 in the same sentence is a gigantic red flag that says "I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about". It's like talking about why a BMW sedan is way worse at off road than a Jeep Wrangler. No shit, what the fuck are you talking about? Talk to me about the A-10 when we are discussing bombing targets on day 10 of the war, it's not going to even turn a wheel until the SAM/Fighter threat is decimated. It's a flying bullseye made for CAS and CAS only. It has no place in any conversation regarding the F-35 unless you are specifically trying to pin AF budget on it like every other ignorant and emotional douchebag sitting in his mother's basement claiming they're some kind of tactical god. You'd do very well in Congress for two reasons: You're outspoken about shit you don't understand and you're adamant that the A-10 and F-22 have fuck all to do with the F-35.
Itemized list of points I don't have days to discuss, because without years and years of flying, tactical, and air combat experience to hinge your opinions on, all you are doing is repeating bullshit you've read on the internet. Lockheed literally has a dude who's hired to read shit like this on the internet and try to figure out where the fuck someone imagined it from:
-The F-35 is the second most stealthy jet in the world. "Moderately stealthy"? Dude, GFY. You don't know a fucking thing about what those capes even mean or feel like to an adversary.
-"Relatively slow" If you are another asshole comparing mach 1.8 to mach 2.0 and this and that, maybe you should point out that 99.9% of fighters have never and will never get to that speed. The F-35 is plenty fast, moot point.
-Your entire first paragraph is about low-threat CAS....again....point to a jet that can't/isn't doing that right now. That's not what the F-35 or any 5th gen fighter is for. We have more than a robust setup for that in every service.
-UAV's are great for CAS. Any idiot can fly them and with other Air Force capes they can do as well as piloted fighters. Now why the fuck are you even talking about that in relation to a SEAD beast jet that definitely needs a pilot. IMO, the kind of wars that would have 35's and 22's on the point do not consider a single blue (It's blue dude. Not green. Good guys are blue and bad guys are red.) asset in enemy territory.
-You talk about F-18's like their many variants are remotely similar. Don't.
-"Not much more persuasive to China than a CG w/F-18's". I had to stifle vomit after reading this.
-Engineering and design plans and acquisition and blah blah blah. No shit. You would have to literally be retarded to argue that the F-35 was well designed from a financial, contractual, or time based standpoint. I don't think any intelligent person is or will ever argue that. So why the fuck did you waste 2 minutes of our life writing about it? It's done, that money and time is GONE. VTOL IS stupid, but the Marines are ridiculous sometimes so why the fuck wouldn't they request to land in the grass on the battlefield with a fucking F-35?
-The F-35 is, like nearly every jet ever, behind schedule. But it is flying at bases all over the country already, the Navy goes "operational" like tomorrow, and the AF goes operational in something like 6 months. Say what you want, but again that shit is in the past and it's happening now. If you want to cling to shit that doesn't matter now, by all means keep typing. If you want to talk about actually employing in combat, the F-22 did that for the first time (5 bombs?) a few months ago. It doesn't happen overnight.
-"The tech really is there to replace fighter pilots". First, not even fucking close. This again is a statement from your dillusional view that the Army and a few UAVs are going to storm into even a third world country and send it to it's knees. That war would be lost in 20 minutes. For starters, who the fuck do you think plans these wars to the second, in every unimaginably tiny detail, utilizing hundreds of years of combined experience and knowledge? Fighter Pilots. Go to Red Flag at Nellis. That's where war is practiced and war machines for air, space, cyber, comm, etc. are tested for the future. Fighter Pilots are in tune with ALL those facets of war, not just how to do CAS. A-10 dudes are awesome and they crush CAS as they should, but fuck dude when they learn about SEAD or high threat strike on Viper transitions it's like they're starting over with how much they've never seen before. You aren't going to see those guys as Mission Commanders. It's F-16, F-15E, and soon to be F-35 guys that kill it in that arena because they know about EVERYTHING. Master of none? How about Master of Knowing What Everyone Elses Capes are And Exploiting Them in Their Best Arena to Win As a Package? I have tons of UAV friends, some that fly fighters again that would strongly disagree and loudly laugh at your stupid stupid post. UAV's are one piece of the puzzle, someone has to put that together and that's the dudes in the air who can see it real time.
-6G turn comment....holy shit you're a dork. And no, I don't know anyone struggling with back and neck problems. That's what weights are for, this isn't 1989.
-"The F-35 has yet to do anything but burn taxpayer dollars in development". I cannot fathom a single other thing a jet can do but cost money while in development. Nice point....? It's in service now and entering Operational phase 1 for the AF and Navy basically right now.
-$400,000 helmet. That helmet replaces several other systems and combines them, so ya it's expensive but I doubt it would have cost less if they designed those feature into the jet itself. I'd be more concerned about it failing considering the systems and capabilities I'd lose.
-Underfunded soldiers, shit that gets used...blah blah blah. Look man, I work with a J-TAC every single day. I don't hate these guys and I definitely don't intend to come off that way. Those are the smarter guys. But finding your standard 1 each Marine or Soldier is not difficult. A rifle is a relatively simple machine. That's not exactly the challenge we face today. Frankly, aviation isn't the forefront at all either. That shit's in space and in the Google-sphere. That's where today's war is fought every day, that you don't see, and the SECOND lines of defense are non-kinetic/kinetic airborne and seaborne. Supply and demand has an unfortunate bearing on all military members that makes us feel less than human at best. That will never change.
In short, you're opinion of your understanding of warfare, tactics, and especially fighters is so far off the first mark of 1,000,000 that even this long ass response is years away from proving my point. I have an engineering degree too, that didn't make me an expert.