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1 hour ago, Ken Cartwright said:

Not really news, but it's nice to see an article discussing air combat with an F-35 in a more modern context:

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/f35-pilot-f-35-can-excel-dogfighting-2017-1

 

 

Great article and IMO so true. With each day that passes and more one can source out online and now in videos on Youtube the F-35 keeps saying to me and should be to my government in OTTAWA,  "FER GAWD SAKE PICK ME!!!"

 

For a small air force like Canada has, every air frame we have in service  must  in essence be available   to do more. A military like the US with vast numbers  for U.S. Air Force, U.S.  Navy and U.S. Marines they will likely have more than enough numbers of F-35's  to be  generous and to  keep in and out of service as needed at any time.  The RCAF will not so with say only 65 F-35's. It will not  have  so many to just  futz  around with. If we go totally F-18E/F we will have to  buy more than enough to keep viable  with attrition for 25-35-40 years as Boeing will sooner than later end  production of F-18E/F. Our then  F-18E/F's will have to  in combat dedicate many  such for air combat protection to cover the ones we will have loaded  with  bombs and  other AGM's. With F-35's  the RCAF will be able to  more easily  with fewer aircraft fight through any air defenses  while still  keeping bombs and such  on board for  the  strike.

 

This is so important for a small air force like the RCAF is. F-18E/F is a  great combat plane, it will integrate in with the USN and F-35C, USMC F-38B in ways Canada  will not be able to afford. The cost of procurement is NOT the end game for Canada and RCAF. The  VALUE  for our  money spent  is, again given we will have a small  combat jet air force.  Add the fact  the RCAF will be able to   replace attrition of our F-35's on an as needed basis since F-35 will probably be in  production  for what  15-20-25 more years. If/when we need attrition  replacements  we will get the latest block builds too. With F-18 E/F we will not likely  be able to  as such because no matter what  future if any sales are like  Boeing will not be building F-18E/F  for 15+ more years. It will likely be done very soon unless it gets  more sales and/or USN some how wants more which I doubt.

 

 

IMO as much as I like F-18E/F, I find it an attractive combat jet, F-35 IS THE ONLY TRUE CHOICE  FOR RCAF!!!:thumbsup:

Edited by Gordon Shumway
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On 1/4/2017 at 0:10 PM, Ken Cartwright said:

Not really news, but it's nice to see an article discussing air combat with an F-35 in a more modern context:

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/f35-pilot-f-35-can-excel-dogfighting-2017-1

 

More good stuff from the pilots:

 

BC:  I was conducting a strike mission and Red Air was coming at me.  In a 4th Gen fighter you must do a whole lot of interpretation.  You see things in azimuth, and you see things in elevation.  In the F-35 you just see the Gods eye view of the whole world.  It’s very much like you are watching the briefing in real time. 

I am coming in to perform the simulated weapons release, and Red Air is coming the other direction. 

I have enough situational awareness to assess whether Red Air is going to be a factor to me by the time I release the weapon.  I can make the decision, I’m going to go to the target, I’m going to release this weapon.  

At the same time I pre-target the threat, and as soon as I release the A2G weapon, I can flip a switch with my thumb and shoot the Red Air.  

This is difficult to do in a 4th Gen fighter, because there is so much manipulation of systems in the cockpit. 

All while paying attention to the basic mechanics of flying the airplane and interpreting threat warnings that are often very vague, or only directional. 

In the F-35 I know where the threats are, what they are and I can thread the needle.  I can tell that the adversary is out in front of me and I can make a very, very smart decision about whether to continue or get out of there.  All that, and I can very easily switch between mission sets.

Mo: I was leading a four ship of F-35s on a strike against 4th Gen adversaries, F-16s and F/A-18s.  

We fought our way in, we mapped the target, found the target, dropped JDAMs on the target and turned around and fought our way out.  

All the targets got hit, nobody got detected, and all the adversaries died.  I thought, yes, this works, very, very, very well. 

Never detected, nobody had any idea we were out there.

 

 

more at the source:

 

http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-f-35-was-something-extraordinary/

 

(I posted this in the F-35 Canada thread, but I feel it is worth posting again here) 

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1000w_q95.jpg

 

NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN – Marine Corps F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, transit the Pacific from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jan. 9, 2017, with its final destination of Iwakuni, Japan. VMFA-121 is the first operational F-35B squadron assigned to the Fleet Marine Force, with its relocation to 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Iwakuni.

 

 

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/3092187/vmfa-121-departs-relocation-japan

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56 minutes ago, TaiidanTomcat said:

NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN – Marine Corps F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, transit the Pacific from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Jan. 9, 2017, with its final destination of Iwakuni, Japan. VMFA-121 is the first operational F-35B squadron assigned to the Fleet Marine Force, with its relocation to 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Iwakuni.

Boy those pilots must really be worried about flying all that way with only one engine instead of two...

 

 yes-it-was-sarcasm.jpg

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“We are going to increase our jobs in Fort Worth by 1,800 jobs and when you think about the [F-35] supply chain across 45 states in the U.S. it’s going to be thousands and thousands of jobs,”

 

“I also had the opportunity to give him some ideas on things we think we can do to continue to drive the cost down on the F-35 program, so it was a great meeting,”

 

“We had the opportunity to talk to him about the F-35 program and I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform and we have to get it at the lowest possible price."

 

“So I’m glad I had the opportunity to tell him that we are close to a deal that will bring the cost down significantly from the previous lot of aircraft to the next lot of aircraft and moreover it’s going to bring a lot of jobs to the United States,”

 

:)

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So what part of "No Politics" is not sinking in here?
Overt cheerleading/trash talking, there's no doubt that's over the line. Let's refrain from being the poster boy for one side or the other as far as politicians go, and that will make me a less cranky mod. 

mmkay?
PMs sent to specific parties.

Al P
ARC Moderation team

Edited by Alvis 3.1
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Shocking news of shock:

 

 

President-elect Trump’s ongoing pledge to reduce the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by stoking competition using the F/A-18 is an empty PR, outgoing Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says. “This may be the easiest promise anybody’s ever made. It was going to happen anyway.” 

The program is expected to transition soon from low-rate initial production into full production, which typically leads to a lower per-aircraft price. “Those prices ought to drop down . . . just as a factor of increasing production,” Mabus says.

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Ken Cartwright said:

A short article about the upcoming A-10 v. F-35 CAS flyoff:

 

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2017/01/25/10-vs-f-35-flyoff-may-begin-next-year-general/

t

Such a waste. I was hoping with Gilmore leaving this would go away. Articles even hints about how it's all on how the criteria is set. They should officially call it the "dog vs pony" show


 

Quote

 

Israel Air Force Chief Sings F-35's Praises, But Warns of Growing Missile Threat

TEL AVIV – Israel’s top Air Force officer on Tuesday praised the “revolutionary” operational potential of its new fifth-generation fighter – the F-35 Adir – yet warned that growing anti-aircraft threats could mean that part of its fourth-generation force could be downed in combat. 

Speaking at the annual conference of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, IAF Commander, singled out Russian-deployed S400s in Syria, which he said “brings critical capability” that could challenge Israeli operations in the region. 

“Clearly we will encounter threats we never encountered before … in the air and from the ground,” Eshel said of the S400 and a spectrum of other threats posed by regional states and non-state actors. 

“From all those threats, yes, there will be an ability to thwart part of the activities of the IAF. I don’t delude myself. We are preparing ourselves so this interference is kept to the bare minimum … but part of our activities will be thwarted. That’s clear. Part of our planes will fall. That’s clear. That’s part of war, but [these threats] will never be able to stop us,” Eshel said. 

As for the F-35, the first pair of which were delivered into IAF hands last month, Eshel said the US-produced stealth fighter will lift the rest of Israel’s fourth-generation frontline force of F-15I and F-16I fighters into the next generation and preserve its air power supremacy for decades to come. 

“It’s more than just an aircraft. It will transform the entire service into a much more effective, much more lethal force,” Eshel said. 

"We are not adapting the F-35 to the IAF. That would be a mistake. Rather, we’re adapting the IAF to the F-35. We’ll learn how to do this so that all of the force will rise to the fifth generation,” he said. 

Israel’s top air force officer said he was undeterred by criticism directed at the F-35 program, and that the return on investment was well worth the cost. 

“There’s a lot of criticism that this doesn’t work and that doesn’t work. But whoever has a smart phone knows that software changes all the time. This is a smart plane, and there will be different upgrades and versions. … What’s important is that it will know how to operate in places that nothing else can, with a very high level of effectiveness across the spectrum of threats and operational scenarios.” 

In an address devoted to the singular attributes of airpower, Eshel said the F-35 embodied flexibility, speed, agility and survivability that has become a central element of Israeli force strength. “It’s a revolution; far better than anything we have and anything that is flying in this region,” he said. 

According to the IAF commander, Israeli airpower must be prepared to operate in multiple domains, from anti-terror threats close to home to more advanced threats in neighboring states all the way to strike and intelligence collection operations conducted “thousands of kilometers away.” 

“The air domain allows us to deal with a spectrum of threats near and very far away,” he said. 

Eshel insisted that no other tool of military power, whether it involves cyber, special ops or land and sea forces, is equipped to deal as effectively as airpower, especially when fighting in three theaters simultaneously. 


“The Israel Defense Forces demands that we be prepared to fight in three theaters simultaneously …. Our air assets can be in the northern theater in the morning, in places much farther away in the afternoon, and in the evening, operating in Gaza. That’s what’s demanded and there’s no other force that can do this but airpower.” 

In his address to the INSS audience, retired US Air Force Gen. Gary North, vice president for customer requirements at Lockheed Martin, also cited threats posed by Russian S400s in Syria and the benefits of operating the F-35 in a high-threat environment. 

“The combination of stealth and sensor fusion – from space and other airplanes – gives the individual aviator in the cockpit information and allows him or her to share it with others flying in formation and other airborne platforms and to disseminate it all down to command and control facilities on the ground,” North said. 

Israel’s F-35 Adir force, said North, provides strategic deterrence as well as the ability to enjoy freedom of movement not provided by the very best of fourth-generation aircraft. “The Adir uses stealth to get very close and to enable operational decisions as to whether to engage or disengage.” 

 

 

 

-Defense news

Edited by TaiidanTomcat
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  • 5 weeks later...

F-35 enjoyed a 20-1 kill ratio at Red Flag 2017.

 

It is proving quite clear, F-35A, F-35B and F-35C is and will prove itself for a number of decades to come as a premier combat jet and fighting system...There is only one true choice for RCAF as being shown by   the US military and numerous allied and friendly air arms.

 

 

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What's the lifespan left in the legacy Hornets from the USN and the RAAF this story suggests? I would think they'd be similar to the existing RCAF planes. Wasn't there some coming up from Kuwait that had a better lifespan left on the airframes?

 

Alvis 3.1

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19 hours ago, Alvis 3.1 said:

What's the lifespan left in the legacy Hornets from the USN and the RAAF this story suggests? I would think they'd be similar to the existing RCAF planes. Wasn't there some coming up from Kuwait that had a better lifespan left on the airframes?

 

Alvis 3.1

For the USN and the USMC, I would think the timeless cats and traps the Hornets endure on carriers would put hella stress on the airframes, which would shorten the lifespan compared to the RAAF and RCAF aircraft.

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20 hours ago, Alvis 3.1 said:

What's the lifespan left in the legacy Hornets from the USN and the RAAF this story suggests? I would think they'd be similar to the existing RCAF planes. Wasn't there some coming up from Kuwait that had a better lifespan left on the airframes?

 

Alvis 3.1

 

I bet the Kuwaitis are in the best shape. RAAF may be OK too though. This is assuming "overages" either in RCAF schedule or the sudden "need" brought in by the new government. The Marines are looking at replacing Hornets first over harriers which is a reversal from the plan a few years back. 

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