4 ms·

Meh, it's popular to crap on the F-35 Program (and with good reason, it's been horribly mismanaged), but it's best to remember that at the end of the day this i

Meh, it's popular to crap on the F-35 Program (and with good reason, it's been horribly mismanaged), but it's best to remember that at the end of the day this is one case where public opinion on its capabilities does not matter and is almost certainly inaccurate. Unless someone on the F-35 team pulls a Snowden, the decisions will be made by people with security clearances who have access to more data than we could ever hope to Google.

AlexCoventry 10y ago
You doubt the credibility of the report? I wouldn't exactly call it mere public opinion... The author seems well-positioned to know how the project is going, and goes into great detail about its flaws.
remarkEon 10y ago
This wouldn't be the first time a bunch of guys with clearances higher than yours got the entire philosophy of future war wrong because they were suffering from some form of sunk cost fallacy.
- yeukhon 10y ago
  To me this is more of a pride thing. It's too much to lose. My theory is certain people want to hold on to that power (budget and control over the development program).
valuearb 10y ago
Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems, not enough ammo in a gun it won't be able to use for years, and can't carry the most useful bombs yet. It's not even going to be fully usable for 7 more years. It's a piece of junk being kept alive by lobbyists and fighter mafia when drones are 10x more cost effective.
- ElectronCharge 10y ago
  "Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems," None of that is actually true, especially the "terrible visibility" part. In fact, it's the only aircraft flying with literally 2 pi steradian (the full sphere around it) visibility. The author of the linked article has a vendetta against the F-35. There are legitimate criticisms, and he outlines some of them - they don't mean it won't be an effective system within a few more years. Could the procurement have been done more effectively? Of course, and I hope future procurements learn a lot from the problems of the F-35 effort. In particular, there has to be a realistic plan to incorporate technology improvements during the development process! I'm also dismayed that computer modeling didn't predict issues like the weak wingtips of the F-35C. All that said, how about a little balance from people who've actually flown the plane in simulated combat...? This pilot flew the F-35B against F-16s and F-18s: "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." You can read many more complimentary words at the link: http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-f-35-was-something-extraordinary/ http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-... "not enough ammo in a gun it won't be able to use for years, and can't carry the most useful bombs yet." The gun will almost never be a combat factor. As to the "most useful bombs", there is always something new isn't there...? The baseline SDB-1s are plenty useful in their own right, along with the various JDAMs and other munitions available.
vladimirralev 10y ago
There are 10 other countries in-the-loop about the F-35. Including Turkey for example who recently found out their airforce is not loyal to the government. If there were any secrets about the F-35 capabilities it's safe bet they have been leaked everywhere by now.

AlexCoventry 10y ago

You doubt the credibility of the report? I wouldn't exactly call it mere public opinion... The author seems well-positioned to know how the project is going, and goes into great detail about its flaws.

remarkEon 10y ago

This wouldn't be the first time a bunch of guys with clearances higher than yours got the entire philosophy of future war wrong because they were suffering from some form of sunk cost fallacy.

yeukhon 10y ago
To me this is more of a pride thing. It's too much to lose. My theory is certain people want to hold on to that power (budget and control over the development program).

valuearb 10y ago

Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems, not enough ammo in a gun it won't be able to use for years, and can't carry the most useful bombs yet. It's not even going to be fully usable for 7 more years. It's a piece of junk being kept alive by lobbyists and fighter mafia when drones are 10x more cost effective.

ElectronCharge 10y ago
"Nope, it's shortcomings are publicly documented. It can't dogfight, maneuver, has terrible visibility, bad systems," None of that is actually true, especially the "terrible visibility" part. In fact, it's the only aircraft flying with literally 2 pi steradian (the full sphere around it) visibility. The author of the linked article has a vendetta against the F-35. There are legitimate criticisms, and he outlines some of them - they don't mean it won't be an effective system within a few more years. Could the procurement have been done more effectively? Of course, and I hope future procurements learn a lot from the problems of the F-35 effort. In particular, there has to be a realistic plan to incorporate technology improvements during the development process! I'm also dismayed that computer modeling didn't predict issues like the weak wingtips of the F-35C. All that said, how about a little balance from people who've actually flown the plane in simulated combat...? This pilot flew the F-35B against F-16s and F-18s: "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." You can read many more complimentary words at the link: http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-f-35-was-something-extraordinary/ http://www.sldinfo.com/the-moment-pilots-first-realized-the-... "not enough ammo in a gun it won't be able to use for years, and can't carry the most useful bombs yet." The gun will almost never be a combat factor. As to the "most useful bombs", there is always something new isn't there...? The baseline SDB-1s are plenty useful in their own right, along with the various JDAMs and other munitions available.

vladimirralev 10y ago

There are 10 other countries in-the-loop about the F-35. Including Turkey for example who recently found out their airforce is not loyal to the government. If there were any secrets about the F-35 capabilities it's safe bet they have been leaked everywhere by now.