WestPoint23,
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I disagree, the F-35, especially the A and C variants are not mainly fighter bombers, they are multi role aircraft.
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No. That's why they are delaying testing of the porkmobile version until the very last. The F-35C buys naval compatibility at the cost of up and
away performance with the wetted area and aspect ratio drag issues on that 620 square foot wing (bigger than an F-15's IIRR).
While I find it amazing that the USN can trim their inventory purchases down to as few as 170 airframes AND still want to develop a 'new fighter' to
do what the F-35C will not, the reality remains that the number on deck is what will ultimately dictate the capabilities of any FADF and the F-35C is
never going to be a two-per-boat squadron aircraft.
It's all silly anyway since the weapons you kill a CVSF with are all massively standoff enabled (ballistic or cruise) and 2-per-plane doesn't work
to kill supersonic sea skimmers, whether that's a Tomcat/AIM-54 (realworld) combo. Or an F-35C with a pair of AMRAAM internally.
Speaking of which, ALL F-35s are only rated for _two_ Air To Air weapons in the bay:
>
The primary air-to-air armament of the JSF, in U.S. service, is a pair of Raytheon AIM-120 advanced medium range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMs),
carried on launchers built intothe inboard weapons bay doors. The details of this installation are significant. Two AMRAAMs constitute a defensive
load, not armament for a fighter sweep, and there is no provision to carry more AAMs internally, replacing the bombs. AMRAAM itself, without a
short-range AAM to back it up, is mainly a defensive weapon.
>
www.amazon.com...
If there is a counter quote or better yet, picture, proving otherwise, I'd like to see it.
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Also, IMO the Typhoon is not a better overall A2A fighter, the Lightning has several key advantages.
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Vs. the Su-30MKI it is. Because it will have Meteor operational by 2010 and it's shape will allow it to energize that round even more. Fuel is
wrong but offset by external tanks which means it cleanup-rampup-sprintup doesn't come heavy to the fight either.
That said, for all practical purposes the maximum loadout of BVRAAMs on the Flubber remains six if you want any kind of practical CAP endurance or 3X
maximum G circles at .9 Mach and 15K at end of radius.
Four on the belly, two on the outboard midwing stations. The inner midwings will have wing tanks. The inboards are not rated for type thanks to
aerodynamics issues and the outboards are (I believe) restricted by weight to ASRAAM/IRIS-T/AIM-9 class weapons.
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This question is so open ended and in some aspects irrelevant it cannot possibly be used as an argument that fighter X is better than Y.
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No, what is foolish is the assumption that wasting a helluva lot of money on the 'fighter mission' means diddly dip if they are functionally unable
to prosecute the anti-MRBM mission by which the Japanese Home Islands will be threatened by Korea as China's stalking horse. The certainty of all
these nations going ballistic/nuke capable is an acknowledgement that nobody living in the REAL WORLD wants to play machismo bull# games of
knights-dueling over paper specs. They want to win and the way they do that is by NOT fighting us as more experienced equals.
Invest in the ABL 747 and you will have both DCA missions covered.
Invest in a 'converted space launcher' and counter hostage the Chinese AND Korean capitals. Shut that 'yapper' Lil' Kim right the hell up.
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We can also argue about it's sensor and avionics suite as well. Anyway, with regards to stealth, that's a pretty big difference when it could be the
only thing that determines who lives and who does not.
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In the DCA game, I will take first pole over first acquisition if only because most of my sensorization should be offboard anyway.
The Su-30 of course has 'growth margin' inherent to the reactivated R-100/Ks-172 program and a few other developments but then again, if I were
China and I wanted to cut Japan off at the knees, I would do so by choking off the maritime traffic (oil and raw materials) that she depends on coming
out of the PG through the SCS. Something like 70-80% of the worlds critical trade goods goes through a stretch of water maybe 200 miles wide and
1,000 miles long between the straights of Malacca and Taiwan and Japan flat out _can't reach half of it_.
As a 'not-so-lasting legacy lesson' for our screwups in Vietnam, there is no greater example for what Iraq will soon come to mean.
Sun Tzu said it: Never attack your enemy where he is strong.
To which I would add: Never GIVE your enemy strength by justifying a fight over his shores.
Why would China do either by 'making a fight of it' over the bloody home islands where they KNOW we would have to come to help out?
Yet in all else, the 'fighter mission' is ridiculous for the actual number of times in a 1,000 sortie _offensive_ airwar that it is even
employed.
Since Japan remains, more or less, neutral, she has no business, forward over the Yellow Sea and I don't see why the Chinese would want to change
that by being the aggressors.
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Why? In this case it is more appropriate to say that the Flanker's will have an extremely difficult time.
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Agreed. The Chinese have blown it by designing fighters based on U.S. hi-lo doctrine rather than ones tailored to their own unique needs and even if
creeping encroachment starts to happen, it will occur first in the Malaysian archipelago, not up North.
The latter is what the Norks of Mordor are for fixating our attention upon.
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The F-35 has more internal fuel and a higher bypass
engine which translates into more endurance and range than the Tiffy.
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I repeat, Tacair is worthless if the primary threat is ballistic based and/or you are fighting a 'purely defensive war' in which the smaller assets
ability to multiple sorties and diversify aimpoints is rendered redundant by doctrine as well as radius and (manned) time on station coverage
issues.
If you want to scare the Chinese co-develop a 767 or 777 tanker model that is competitive with the A-330MRTT and then 'give them' 30-50 of the
suckers while buying another 400 of our own.
Better yet, let Japan become a nuclear power (sure as hell 'more secure' than Iran) and show the Chinese that 'two can play at that game' with a
_very capable_ (penetrating) nuclear MRBM force less than a 1,000nm off their capital.
I would do the same for the Koreans on a U.S. dual-key basis and a Lance followon.
Resulting in less than HALF the money spent for equal deterrence and an explicit message: nuke-arming feral barbarians half way around the world can
lead to very smart people putting equivalent Pizza Hut nuke capabilities right on your damn doorstep _which work_.
Especially if they are ARRMD type naval-launch compatible and/or dual-role conventional/nuke armed using 'not invented here' development to get past
INF we would all be better off.
MAD wasn't abandoned because it worked. It was abandoned because we were stupid enough to think that 'once they admitted they lost the Cold War'
the bad guys would instantly begin to invest in their economies (which they did, with Western money and expertise which was subsequently nationalized
if not outright stolen and copied in the FSU oil and gas industry and PRC commerical production ones respectively) and act like decent people.
Instead, we are spending BILLIONS to chase down proliferated WMD technology with conventional overwatch forces while they sit back and giggle at our
one-legged asskicking contestant status.
THAT has got to stop. And a micro-Widow won't do a damn thing to make a difference.
KPl.