Martian2
SENIOR MEMBER

- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
- Messages
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All exported F-35s are downgraded. Exported F-35s have an RCS (radar cross section) of a beach ball on radar.
Only AMERICAN F-35s are not downgraded and their RCS is the size of a marble.
Japan has spent a fortune to buy 42 DOWNGRADED F-35s. I don't know why they bothered. Downgraded F-35s are easily detected on radar and shot down.
Australia, Canada, and Japan are buying the same downgraded beach-ball RCS F-35s.
Japan just deployed its first downgraded F-35 and no one cares. It's a sitting duck for China's J-20 stealth fighter.
Japan's first operational F-35 gets deployed amid rising threat from China | Business Insider (February 2, 2018)
"Just before the end of January, the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) announced that it had deployed its first operational F-35 at Misawa Air Base.
...
The F-35 will be the most advanced fighter jet in the JASDF arsenal. Nine more F-35s are planned to be deployed by the end of the 2018 fiscal year.
In all, Japan intends to field at least 42 F-35s over the next few years. The first four F-35s were made in the US, and the remaining 38 will be assembled by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan."
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Not so stealthy: the $15b fighters | The Sydney Morning Herald (March 14, 2006)
"A crucial aspect of the fighter's 'stealth capability' - radio frequency signatures - has been downgraded from 'very low observable' to 'low observable', according to the US Defence Department website.
Peter Goon, a former RAAF flight test engineer, said that would mean the difference between it appearing as a 'marble and a beach ball' on enemy radar.
...
Signs that the stealth capability had been lowered first emerged last year, when key performance indicators on the US Defence Department Joint Strike Fighter website changed. The manufacturer of the aircraft, Lockheed Martin, insisted repeatedly to the Herald that the reported shift was an error. Australia's Defence Department also maintained there had been no change.
But those assurances have proven false. When the Herald contacted the US Defence Department Joint Strike Fighter program office in Washington, a spokeswoman said the latest table on its website was correct. 'There is no reason to pull it from there,' she said.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman said yesterday: 'We will have to defer to our clients, the US Government, if that is their decision.'"
Only AMERICAN F-35s are not downgraded and their RCS is the size of a marble.
Japan has spent a fortune to buy 42 DOWNGRADED F-35s. I don't know why they bothered. Downgraded F-35s are easily detected on radar and shot down.
Australia, Canada, and Japan are buying the same downgraded beach-ball RCS F-35s.
Japan just deployed its first downgraded F-35 and no one cares. It's a sitting duck for China's J-20 stealth fighter.
Japan's first operational F-35 gets deployed amid rising threat from China | Business Insider (February 2, 2018)
"Just before the end of January, the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) announced that it had deployed its first operational F-35 at Misawa Air Base.
...
The F-35 will be the most advanced fighter jet in the JASDF arsenal. Nine more F-35s are planned to be deployed by the end of the 2018 fiscal year.
In all, Japan intends to field at least 42 F-35s over the next few years. The first four F-35s were made in the US, and the remaining 38 will be assembled by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan."
----------
Not so stealthy: the $15b fighters | The Sydney Morning Herald (March 14, 2006)
"A crucial aspect of the fighter's 'stealth capability' - radio frequency signatures - has been downgraded from 'very low observable' to 'low observable', according to the US Defence Department website.
Peter Goon, a former RAAF flight test engineer, said that would mean the difference between it appearing as a 'marble and a beach ball' on enemy radar.
...
Signs that the stealth capability had been lowered first emerged last year, when key performance indicators on the US Defence Department Joint Strike Fighter website changed. The manufacturer of the aircraft, Lockheed Martin, insisted repeatedly to the Herald that the reported shift was an error. Australia's Defence Department also maintained there had been no change.
But those assurances have proven false. When the Herald contacted the US Defence Department Joint Strike Fighter program office in Washington, a spokeswoman said the latest table on its website was correct. 'There is no reason to pull it from there,' she said.
A Lockheed Martin spokesman said yesterday: 'We will have to defer to our clients, the US Government, if that is their decision.'"

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