The Syrian war is looming and yet the US are going to send their traditional F18, F16 fighters only and perhaps B2 stealth bombers. So much for all the hype about stealth fighters. So what is happening with the F-35 ?
Well the answer is it is not ready. The F-35 has an inherent design flaw which cannot be fixed. The weight power ratio is not good enough.
"Former RAND author John Stillion has written of the F-35A's air-to-air combat performance that it cant turn, cant climb, cant run;
It's stealth ability is questionable.
"A Parliamentary Inquiry asked what was the re-categorization of the terminology in the United States such that the rating was changed from "very low observable" to "low observable". "
There are two problems with the the F-35 JSF programme. First it is a joint development programme. The project manager needs to take care of requirements from all the other countries. Whenever one country decide to change a requirement it delays the programme. Anyone who worked in a big multi departments, companies project would know that 90% of the works are politics and the 10% rarely get anything done.
Second, the US usually give contracts to companys based on the look and coolness of a drawing or early prototype. The more features promised the better. This is a problem because the designer had done a fabulous job in drawing a cool looking stealthy slim F-35 with long list of stealth features that got the contract and now the engineers cannot fit everything into that small plane with single engine. The US want their machine to look cool, something the Chinese are critized for.
The plane has such a poor performance problem because it only has one engine. It is also very small so where to put all those bombs ?
Now let's talk about the J20. A lot of people say that the J20 is bigger than the F35 and it does not look cool. It is a designed to be a fighter bomber blah blah blah. But hey maybe they make it bigger after learning the mistakes from the F35. Its twin engines would give it more thrust and maveuvability.
"In 2011, Canadian politicians raised the issue of the safety of the F-35's reliance on a single engine (as opposed to a twin-engine configuration, which provides a backup in case of an engine failure). Canada, and other operators, had previous experience with a high-accident rate with the single-engine Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter with many accidents related to engine failures. Defence Minister Peter MacKay, when asked what would happen if the F-35's single engine fails in the Far North, stated "It wont"."
Hey so maybe the J20 is actually a better plane than most people thought. The truth of the matter is nobody knows the performance of the J20 except China.
But one thing we know for sure is F-35 has a lot of marketing hypes but cannot deliver. The US usually do that to deter their enemies. They do that with all their weapons and hope the enemy would give up without a fight. It is not like they are saving up their stealth fighter for later since they are using the B2 stealth bombers.
On the other hand Russia and China play their cards close to their chests.
The reason I write this post is because I am sick of all these US military marketing hypes. How one plane with shoot down 10. Traditional planes don't stand a chance etc. The reality is they don't even have a stealth fighter that works properly.
"In 2008, it was reported that RAND Corporation conducted simulated war games in which Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighters defeated the F-35"
Reference:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II#Concerns_over_performance_and_safety
Well the answer is it is not ready. The F-35 has an inherent design flaw which cannot be fixed. The weight power ratio is not good enough.
"Former RAND author John Stillion has written of the F-35A's air-to-air combat performance that it cant turn, cant climb, cant run;
It's stealth ability is questionable.
"A Parliamentary Inquiry asked what was the re-categorization of the terminology in the United States such that the rating was changed from "very low observable" to "low observable". "
There are two problems with the the F-35 JSF programme. First it is a joint development programme. The project manager needs to take care of requirements from all the other countries. Whenever one country decide to change a requirement it delays the programme. Anyone who worked in a big multi departments, companies project would know that 90% of the works are politics and the 10% rarely get anything done.
Second, the US usually give contracts to companys based on the look and coolness of a drawing or early prototype. The more features promised the better. This is a problem because the designer had done a fabulous job in drawing a cool looking stealthy slim F-35 with long list of stealth features that got the contract and now the engineers cannot fit everything into that small plane with single engine. The US want their machine to look cool, something the Chinese are critized for.
The plane has such a poor performance problem because it only has one engine. It is also very small so where to put all those bombs ?
Now let's talk about the J20. A lot of people say that the J20 is bigger than the F35 and it does not look cool. It is a designed to be a fighter bomber blah blah blah. But hey maybe they make it bigger after learning the mistakes from the F35. Its twin engines would give it more thrust and maveuvability.
"In 2011, Canadian politicians raised the issue of the safety of the F-35's reliance on a single engine (as opposed to a twin-engine configuration, which provides a backup in case of an engine failure). Canada, and other operators, had previous experience with a high-accident rate with the single-engine Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter with many accidents related to engine failures. Defence Minister Peter MacKay, when asked what would happen if the F-35's single engine fails in the Far North, stated "It wont"."
Hey so maybe the J20 is actually a better plane than most people thought. The truth of the matter is nobody knows the performance of the J20 except China.
But one thing we know for sure is F-35 has a lot of marketing hypes but cannot deliver. The US usually do that to deter their enemies. They do that with all their weapons and hope the enemy would give up without a fight. It is not like they are saving up their stealth fighter for later since they are using the B2 stealth bombers.
On the other hand Russia and China play their cards close to their chests.
The reason I write this post is because I am sick of all these US military marketing hypes. How one plane with shoot down 10. Traditional planes don't stand a chance etc. The reality is they don't even have a stealth fighter that works properly.
"In 2008, it was reported that RAND Corporation conducted simulated war games in which Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighters defeated the F-35"
Reference:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II#Concerns_over_performance_and_safety
