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Let's say all the claims in this article are correct. What happens when one gets shot down (as it inevitably will), and the enemy reverse-engineers the stealth

Let's say all the claims in this article are correct. What happens when one gets shot down (as it inevitably will), and the enemy reverse-engineers the stealth tech to either copy or find weaknesses in its capabilities? If they can reverse-engineer faster than we can improve our stealth tech, which seems reasonable, whatever claimed advantages this plane has will be temporary. Or is there another way of looking at this?

CapricornNoble 8y ago
They don't even need to shoot it down. The Chinese already stole the designs, evaluated them, and have been working on their own less-risky copy for years. They have a proven ability to copy and adapt weapon systems at a faster rate than anyone gives them credit for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_FC-31 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_FC-31 The J-31 is basically a twin-engine F-35, minus the sensor fusion capabilities. The Chinese are still very poor at making fighter jet engines, so they went with 2 smaller engines probably for redundancy and because they can't build one gigantic reliable engine anyway. The jet is probably still underpowered.
- crimsonalucard 8y ago
  Do you think it will save costs if the united states moved F-35 manufacturing to China? Quality will be lower but Apple was able to do it with the iPhone without compromising quality.
  - CapricornNoble 8y ago
    Sure it would "save costs".....until we get in a shooting war with China and they stop sending us spare parts. Or given concerns about backdoors in Huawei gear, you can be damned sure they would put hardware-level backdoors in fighter jet control systems. So the cost-benefit analysis needs to take into account the degradation of your security posture that comes from having your greatest adversary supplying your equipment.
    - crimsonalucard 8y ago
      If we get into a shooting war with China then we can switch to Russia. Last resort is north Korea. Although North Korea is really poor with the equivalent infrastructure changes that happened in China we can build it up to a nuclear super power and North Korea can supply the needed parts for F-35 at a really cheap price.

CapricornNoble 8y ago

They don't even need to shoot it down. The Chinese already stole the designs, evaluated them, and have been working on their own less-risky copy for years. They have a proven ability to copy and adapt weapon systems at a faster rate than anyone gives them credit for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_FC-31 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_FC-31 The J-31 is basically a twin-engine F-35, minus the sensor fusion capabilities. The Chinese are still very poor at making fighter jet engines, so they went with 2 smaller engines probably for redundancy and because they can't build one gigantic reliable engine anyway. The jet is probably still underpowered.

crimsonalucard 8y ago
Do you think it will save costs if the united states moved F-35 manufacturing to China? Quality will be lower but Apple was able to do it with the iPhone without compromising quality.
- CapricornNoble 8y ago
  Sure it would "save costs".....until we get in a shooting war with China and they stop sending us spare parts. Or given concerns about backdoors in Huawei gear, you can be damned sure they would put hardware-level backdoors in fighter jet control systems. So the cost-benefit analysis needs to take into account the degradation of your security posture that comes from having your greatest adversary supplying your equipment.
  - crimsonalucard 8y ago
    If we get into a shooting war with China then we can switch to Russia. Last resort is north Korea. Although North Korea is really poor with the equivalent infrastructure changes that happened in China we can build it up to a nuclear super power and North Korea can supply the needed parts for F-35 at a really cheap price.