Eyewitness From the Cockpit: F-15/16 vs. MiG-29

[RN7]

The 'success' of Lockheed-Martin's F-35 on the international arms market may have unintentionally engineered a fighter and fighter-bomber gap between most Western and Western aligned states and the Russian/Chinese bloc.

The F-35 is considerably aerodynamically inferior to and less stealthy than an F-22. The F-35 is also aerodynamically inferior to the F-15, all Sukhoi Flanker variants, most Chinese 4th and 5th generation fighters and also the Eurofighter. Additionally the F-35 is also aerodynamically inferior to the T-50 PAK-FA, and in all likely hood will be less stealthy than the T-50. Within WVR ranges the F-35 is also aerodynamically inferior to the Eurofighter, the Rafale, all GE engined F-16's and probably the Mig-29.

So far the USAF, USN, USMC, Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and Turkey and probably other countries plan to replace their current fleets of F-4, F-15, F-16, F-18, Harrier and Tornado with the F-35. As a fighter its aerodynamically inferior to most of these aircraft and has no-where near the payload and range of a Tornado. So basically the US, most of NATO and key Western allies will be using an aircraft which is reliant on stealth and so-far unproven and unreliable gadgets to fend of Russian and Chinese aircraft that are superior BVR fighters, and who will have more powerful strike aircraft. The USAF will still have the F-22, its bomber fleet and the F-15E, but the other's who don't have the Eurofighter (maybe the Mitsubishi F-2 as well) will become vulnerable if not downright outclassed by Russian and Chinese BVR fighters, and this will get worse if Russian and Chinese stealth detection technology matches or surpasses the F-35's alleged attributes. This gap will continue until the late 2020's when the US 6th generation fighters such as the USAF F-X and USN F/A-XX start to come on line.

Worrying.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Somewhat OT

You know, with only a small number of corporations left to supply equipment and the fact that those corporations are huge multi-national entities with considerable power to sway governments, it seems to me that the world has reached the problems of the Cyberpunk genre of games* - except we seem to have got them about 10-20 years ahead of Cyberpunk storylines.



* As in, corporations fighting dirty to sell their product even if it means foisting off any old crap to the customer - the product is not important, the sale is paramount.

[RN7]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Somewhat OT

You know, with only a small number of corporations left to supply equipment and the fact that those corporations are huge multi-national entities with considerable power to sway governments, it seems to me that the world has reached the problems of the Cyberpunk genre of games* - except we seem to have got them about 10-20 years ahead of Cyberpunk storylines.



* As in, corporations fighting dirty to sell their product even if it means foisting off any old crap to the customer - the product is not important, the sale is paramount.

As in Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk 2020 series? Its only 5 years away and there are already many parallels.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Yeah RN7, that's pretty much what I was thinking.
Although I tend to think in the realworld we started much earlier than in the fictional cyberpunk worlds, not so much because of the tech but more so the status and size of corporations now and such things as employing private security companies for warfare and the loss of personal freedoms in the name of security etc. etc.