4 ms·
There isn't one, including the F-35 apparently.
by wmeredith 7y ago
There isn't one, including the F-35 apparently.
- greedo 7y agoThe use of the gun is perhaps 1% of the role of this fighter. The number of times a fighter has used a gun in air combat in the last 30 years is non-existent. For strafing, (generally out of favor for CAS due to non-combatant casualties) the gun is inaccurate. This will be updated with a software fix. If you read the reports of pilots flying the aircraft during Red Flag and other exercises, the plane is excellent. But there's a continual axe grinding over this plane that is factually inaccurate.
- AdrianB1 7y agoIn aviation every kilogram of weight is costing a lot, carrying a useless gun is pointless. If the gun use is too low to make it accurate, it is better to completely eliminate that quarter ton of metal.
- greedo 7y agoPolitics and institutional inertia will often overwhelm engineering. The USAF has a strong memory of deploying the F-4 Phantom to Vietnam without a gun. They believed that the Sparrow (AIM-7) and Sidewinder (AIM-9) were mature enough to win most encounters. Turned out not to be the case, and gun pods were quickly designed and shipped out. These aren't optimal since they induce a significant amount of drag, as well as taking up an external mountpoint. So since then, the idea has stuck around that a fighter must ship with a gun. The F-35A models have internal guns, while the B (STOVL variant) and C (Naval variant) can use an external gun pod. This is a tough engineering task since the pod needs to be stealthy. The value of the gun on all three variants is really limited IMHO. The F-35A only carries 182 rounds, and the B/C gunpod 220. That's just not much ammo for CAS, nor even A2A engagements.