UK ordering first 14 F-35's

reply to post by Britguy


Some of them were not merely upgraded, but brand new. Same as the Sea Harriers a few years earlier.

reply to post by Britguy


The cracks are appearing in fatigue testing, after the design life expectancy of parts. They are talking redesign because they are cracking sooner than expected.

Have some of the posters on here just come out of a coma?

Its been Lightening 2 for years, we have all seen numerous threads on the ruskies and chinese stealth platforms and the questions about retiring the Harriers are only about 3 years after we sold them cheap to the USA.

Being as though we, the UK, build a decent percentage of the JSF and our upront investment will mean we have a seat at the table of the largest aircraft programme ever, I cant help think that we may recover a portion of the $2.5b.

Which will come first, the Carrier or the Bird?

Zaphod58
reply to post by ukmicky1980

 

The Typhoon is more capable in flight, but lags in sensors and stealth.

stealth is over rated and will shortly become obsolete due to more cheap processing power and sensor improvements.

the f-35 is a trillion dollar turkey.

we should buy the f-16 instead.large numbers instead of the f-35 rubbish.

or the f-16 xl.

reply to post by beckybecky


Stealth is so much farther advanced than we see it isn't funny. I always love hearing how stealth is so obsolete but everyone is building stealth aircraft.

I guess it's a giant worldwide conspiracy to spend the money on stealth aircraft.

Apparently throwing more computer power at something can solve it, regardless of the problem at hand.

reply to post by beckybecky


If you knew anything about anything, you'd know why the UK won't take an F-16 in place of an F-35. I'll give you a clue, these planes are to be flown off the carriers we are building... I'm sure you can work out the rest from there

And I'm sure I remember everyone saying the Typhoon was a flying bucket of crap back when it was being developed - now everyone loves it... The same will be said of the F-35 which the UK has had a good deal of involvement in designing and manufacturing, to counter the "why not use indigenous" aircraft argument.

stumason
reply to post by beckybecky

 

If you knew anything about anything, you'd know why the UK won't take an F-16 in place of an F-35. I'll give you a clue, these planes are to be flown off the carriers we are building... I'm sure you can work out the rest from there

And I'm sure I remember everyone saying the Typhoon was a flying bucket of crap back when it was being developed - now everyone loves it... The same will be said of the F-35 which the UK has had a good deal of involvement in designing and manufacturing, to counter the "why not use indigenous" aircraft argument.

uk only has 1 carrier.

the f-16 can be adapted to ber carrier based.you just need a arrester hook on the plane or a elasticated net in front to catch it.

it's not rocklet science.

Zaphod58
reply to post by beckybecky

 

Stealth is so much farther advanced than we see it isn't funny. I always love hearing how stealth is so obsolete but everyone is building stealth aircraft.

I guess it's a giant worldwide conspiracy to spend the money on stealth aircraft.

it's called fashion or momentum.once they start they cannot stop.
it's just like men having sec.

just because everyone has started doing it does not mean it is correct.

even the serbs could pickup the " STEALTH" aircraft on their old crummy radar.

even the u.k could pick it on their rapier missile radar at the airshows.

stealth is over rated and in any case laser radar cannot be fooled by some paint.because laser light is not radio waves.

even if a plane was totally invisable it can be tracked by air turbulence rader plus heat sensors.

so there you have it.final proof stealth is over rated,expensive and useless.,

he who fires first and from longer range is the winner nowadays.

reply to post by beckybecky


There are two under construction. If you think it's that easy you need to think again.

First you have to redesign the carrier to add arresting gear and catapult, which is a couple billion at this point, since the first carrier is floating.

Then you have to do a major redesign of the F-16. Wings, landing gear, and aft fuselage all have to be significantly strengthened for carrier ops. By the time testing and redesign is done that's another few years and several billion.

reply to post by beckybecky


The Serbs picked up an F-117 on the same route three nights in a row, when the doors were open, which is the least stealthy point.

The Brits picked up a B-2 flying in for an airshow that wasn't running full up stealthed.

Yeah, you're right. China and Russia are building their first stealth aircraft because of momentum, and one F-117 shot down in thousands of combat missions proves stealth sucks.

beckybecky
stealth is over rated and will shortly become obsolete due to more cheap processing power and sensor improvements.

Stealth has been foiled for years. In GW1 the Royal Navy were merrily tracking F117 stealth bombers, much to the US annoyance.

However, the UK is unlikely to actually fight a war against an advanced military nation, so stealth still has currency. Besides, whether we like it or not, this is the only VTOL jet on the market.

Edit to add that probably half of Europe rolls their eyes when US stealth aircraft overfly! Stealth has never equalled invisibility. If you are flying behind an F22 you will see it!

Regards

reply to post by paraphi


And, again, it's so far beyond where it was then it isn't funny. The F-117 was first and second generation of a number of classified systems.

Zaphod58
reply to post by Britguy

 

The cracks are appearing in fatigue testing, after the design life expectancy of parts. They are talking redesign because they are cracking sooner than expected.

Well thats just great........


So we have developed and brought a plane that falls apart?

Why didnt the F-22 have so many problems?

paraphi


Stealth has been foiled for years. In GW1 the Royal Navy were merrily tracking F117 stealth bombers, much to the US annoyance.

Well seeing as us Brits kinda know what that stealth tec is I’m sure its alot easier for us to track it compared to a nation that has limited idea behind it. So I would hardly say its foiled. It not foiled when a allied nation that has its own pilots flying B-2 knows some tricks. Its only foiled when a enemy nation can shot them down on a consistant basis.

reply to post by crazyewok


No. Like I said, the cracks are appearing at the end of the fatigue life. They're appearing sooner than the engineers expected though, so they're redesigning some of the parts so they don't fail before the end of the life cycle.

The F-22 had its own problems. The F-35 uses a lot of new tech that's never been seen before.

Zaphod58

No. Like I said, the cracks are appearing at the end of the fatigue life. They're appearing sooner than the engineers expected though, so they're redesigning some of the parts so they don't fail before the end of the life cycle.