USAF not F-35 thread

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15 years 3 months

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1760 F-35? Thats remains to be seen.. ;)

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1760 F-35? Thats remains to be seen.. ;)

Indeed.

Take your bets. Mine is that the production of the F-35 will stop sooner because it is not sufficient for air to air. I'd say 1400 max, then they ramp up the F-X.

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16 years 7 months

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The Tornado F3 received only minor upgrades over the last decade of its service and was retired on schedule AFAIK. The Jaguar and Harrier on the other hand were both retired ahead of schedule so upgrading them (or retiring them depending on your perspective) was not as per plan, The equivalent here would be to upgrade the Eurofighter fleet in 2025 and retire it in 2030. A major upgrade in 2035 on the other hand is highly unlikely.

The exact oposite...
The major upgrades on the Tornado fmk3 we're made in its last decade of life, and they were quite massive; by comparison with it's 1986 deployement plan the mk3 was retired a full decade before it was suposed to, on the other hand the Jag's, harriers, sea harriers (and Bucaners) all outlived their original planned retirement by a very handsome margin.
The RAF has a past record of upgrading the platforms that it uses right to their retirement, it's entirely conceivable that the Phoon will get this same treatment.

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The exact oposite...
The major upgrades on the Tornado fmk3 we're made in its last decade of life, and they were quite massive; by comparison with it's 1986 deployement plan the mk3 was retired a full decade before it was suposed to, on the other hand the Jag's, harriers, sea harriers (and Bucaners) all outlived their original planned retirement by a very handsome margin.
The RAF has a past record of upgrading the platforms that it uses right to their retirement, it's entirely conceivable that the Phoon will get this same treatment.

First the upgrades were not massive. and second you cant extrapolate future from past performance considering all other limitations going on industrial and financial sector. Scale of Al Yamamah exports declining relative to past and north sea is running ouf of oil.

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12 years 10 months

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Yes the can. The USAF is either shooting too high, or the execution of the program is poor.

No. The USAF intends to buy 1760 F-35s, which is huge compared to european acquisitions. The USN/USMC inventory is about 1200 planes or something like that. They have well enough money to develop and build planes in a cost effective way. Much more than the Europeans for sure. The real problem is with the acquisition of military weapon systems. And this is not only a USAF problem, the other services are doing a terrible job at it, especially the Army.


Between the Rafale, Eurofighter and Gripen, the Europeans could have saved a hefty packet by eliminating overlapping development efforts and economies of scale. And they'd have done far better on the export market. The result would have been 1000 odd orders which while less than the 2443 F-35s scheduled, would still have provided decent scale. As things stand, the F-35 is not only demolishing their export markets, its also taken a huge chunk out of their home market. Pity really.

Take your bets. Mine is that the production of the F-35 will stop sooner because it is not sufficient for air to air. I'd say 1400 max, then they ramp up the F-X.

You'd lose that bet. The F-X isn't going to be available before 2035 by which time the F-35 production will be coming to an end. (I suggest you find out when the last F-16 was delivered to the USAF and when it received its first F-22.) And I'm sure in 2035 folks will be moaning about how the steady and reliable F-35 (in today's SH's role) shouldn't be junked in favour of the flawed-in-a-thousand-ways F-X (assuming the development of a new clean-sheet F-X design is even sanctioned).

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The exact oposite...
The major upgrades on the Tornado fmk3 we're made in its last decade of life, and they were quite massive;

What major upgrades were made to the aircraft in the last decade (aside from new weaponry)?

by comparison with it's 1986 deployement plan the mk3 was retired a full decade before it was suposed to, on the other hand the Jag's, harriers, sea harriers (and Bucaners) all outlived their original planned retirement by a very handsome margin.
The RAF has a past record of upgrading the platforms that it uses right to their retirement, it's entirely conceivable that the Phoon will get this same treatment.

The Sea Harriers and Harrier IIs were axed with plenty of life left in the airframe and resulted in significant value simply being written-off by the MoD (applies to the Jaguar too, albeit a little less so). To assert that the EF would receive a huge new MLU post 2040, requires faith in the continuation of the tradition of mismanagement that produced the Nimrod MRA4. Alternatively, if we take the EF T1s as an example of things to come, the RAF's EF fleet may well have been retired by 2040.

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Between the Rafale, Eurofighter and Gripen, the Europeans could have saved a hefty packet by eliminating overlapping development efforts and economies of scale. And they'd have done far better on the export market. The result would have been 1000 odd orders which while less than the 2443 F-35s scheduled, would still have provided decent scale. As things stand, the F-35 is not only demolishing their export markets, its also taken a huge chunk out of their home market. Pity really.

the problem is that you consider Europe as a country, while it is not.

Look at the Typhoon: had they used a single production chain, there would've been economies of scale. But instead, every country's politician wanted to have its own assembly chain (jobs in HIS country and so on), as a result, you get and aircraft that costs more than a "single country" Rafale, while doing less

To get what you talk about, they'd have to be wise enough to sit around the table, agree on everything that's needed (regardless whether "my" country needs it all or not) and then set up a single production project, eventually make manufacturers compete with different projects and choose one, built where it was designed.

A scenario you most certainly won't see in Europe before the end of this century

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Between the Rafale, Eurofighter and Gripen, the Europeans could have saved a hefty packet by eliminating overlapping development efforts and economies of scale. And they'd have done far better on the export market. The result would have been 1000 odd orders which while less than the 2443 F-35s scheduled, would still have provided decent scale. As things stand, the F-35 is not only demolishing their export markets, its also taken a huge chunk out of their home market. Pity really.

The French and the Sweedes were not satisfied with the EF-2000 specs. France has a manufacturing base that can build an entire fighter, unlike other european countries except the UK, so it was considered a strategic decision to maintain it. The Sweedes wanted a much lighter plane than the EF.

You'd lose that bet. The F-X isn't going to be available before 2035 by which time the F-35 production will be coming to an end. (I suggest you find out when the last F-16 was delivered to the USAF and when it received its first F-22.) And I'm sure in 2035 folks will be moaning about how the steady and reliable F-35 (in today's SH's role) shouldn't be junked in favour of the flawed-in-a-thousand-ways F-X (assuming the development of a new clean-sheet F-X design is even sanctioned).

The F-35 is too slow to intercept fast supercruising fighters. The standard in terms of speed will be much higher in the next 10 years. Even a adaptive engine will not be enough for the high drag F-35. A fighter needs enough speed to catch up with his opponent or escape.

The F-16 was still quite a fine plane in 2001 when the last were build for the USAF, it was not a turkey with like 30% less effective speed than its opponents.

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Hyperbole. There are no planes in the F-35's class that can carry their war load the distance at the speed of the F-35A. Stop comparing clean airframes to a loaded F-35.

And this is the NOT F-35 thread. Take the discussions about F-35 against the rest of the world to another thread.

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he was obviously referring to A2A loadout

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Laughable. The typhoon and rafale are already faster than the F-35A in a2a configuration, and the range difference is marginal if they carry a centerline tank. And they can drop their centerline tank if they want. In 10 years the PAK-FA will be coming in numbers with its supercruising engines. Good luck to the fat F-35 to catch up with it.

Ok, this is not an F-35 thread, I just answered your point ( you already knew what I was gonna say but apparently you have a hard time accepting what you don't like ), so let's get back on topic.

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Look at the Typhoon: had they used a single production chain, there would've been economies of scale. But instead, every country's politician wanted to have its own assembly chain (jobs in HIS country and so on), as a result, you get and aircraft that costs more than a "single country" Rafale, while doing less

To get what you talk about, they'd have to be wise enough to sit around the table, agree on everything that's needed (regardless whether "my" country needs it all or not) and then set up a single production project, eventually make manufacturers compete with different projects and choose one, built where it was designed.


Well for the prime example of where this lack of co-operation takes you just look at the Jaguar. Started out as a joint effort to produce an advanced trainer common to UK/France. Both sides kept sticking their two pence worth in and the size and weight kept increasing until the decision was made to delete the second cockpit and make a dedicated combat aircraft of it.

Hotshot, that is one of my thoughts on the F-35 too. It just isn't going to be as good at any of its roles as any of the types it is intended to replace. Assuming it ever makes it into service of course.

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The French and the Sweedes were not satisfied with the EF-2000 specs. France has a manufacturing base that can build an entire fighter, unlike other european countries except the UK, so it was considered a strategic decision to maintain it. The Sweedes wanted a much lighter plane than the EF.

Well they're fortunate that Egyptian military junta decided to splurge on arms during an economic crunch, else that 'strategic decision' might have landed Dassault Aviation with the first clean-sheet design to fail to get a single export order. As it is, production has been squeezed down to a trickle to make the annual intake affordable to the French state. With the basic French fighter industry wrapping up by 2020 or so (though allied segments will persevere, similar to Israel), closely followed by the remainder of the European industry by 2023 (when the Gripen E transits out of production), the question of how justified that decision to preserve 'national capabilities' was, may have a disheartening answer.

The F-35 is too slow to intercept fast supercruising fighters. The standard in terms of speed will be much higher in the next 10 years. Even a adaptive engine will not be enough for the high drag F-35. A fighter needs enough speed to catch up with his opponent or escape.

The F-16 was still quite a fine plane in 2001 when the last were build for the USAF, it was not a turkey with like 30% less effective speed than its opponents.


That's just silly. The F-35 does Mach 1.6 and thanks to huge internal fuel load, it can afford to fly clean. Unless its involved in a tail-chase with a PAK FA, speed is hardly an issue.

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sustained speed is always an issue in any intercept,
and thanks to huge drag, it will need all that fuel to just briefly reach M1.6 before bingo fuel

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sustained speed is always an issue in any intercept,
and thanks to huge drag, it will need all that fuel to just briefly reach M1.6 before bingo fuel

Seems many of the above posters learned nothing from the extensive discussions about external weapon drag( or don't want to learn because it upsets their views).

We've taken actual drag indexes from actual flight manuals, to compare and if still it is impossible for some to grasp the obvious then.....

Any fighter hanging 2 x 2000lb bombs a centerline tank, 2 x aam and a targeting pod is going to have a very large DI, not to mention the speed limits placed on the aircraft from the targeting pod.

And please, several of the above posts should be in the f-35 thread. Does every thread have to turn into "rant about the F-35" thread?

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Any fighter hanging 2 x 2000lb bombs

seems you didnt even check what the discussion was about, (hint: intercept)
but that didnt stop a knee-jerk response referring to 2x2000 lbs bombs,
tell me: since when was bomb-lugging mandatory or even desirable on intercept missions

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seems you didnt even check what the discussion was about, (hint: intercept)
but that didnt stop a knee-jerk response

Point stands, look back at DI discussions, all sorts of load outs were compared. Anyway, instead of looking at the most common load outs for actual combat aircraft usage, most want to compare intercept configurations. Not very realistic.

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no, there's no point in including bombs on intercept missions,
and no point in discussing intercepts with someone harping on about bomb loadout on intercept missions

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lol ok guys let's get back on topic. :D

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Point stands, look back at DI discussions, all sorts of load outs were compared. Anyway, instead of looking at the most common load outs for actual combat aircraft usage, most want to compare intercept configurations. Not very realistic.
Many countries don't do much beyond intercept missions. I briefly remember that some Gripen users don't even have A-G modes installed, for example.