There's so much FUD dusted up literally every conversation about this program that it's unlikely any minds will be changed before the next peer conflict. Expen

There's so much FUD dusted up literally every conversation about this program that it's unlikely any minds will be changed before the next peer conflict. Expensive education, certainly. If you love the thing, stop reading, and we'll come back and have this discussion after the SCS conflict. That said, those of us on Team Bash aren't doing this out of malice or . . whatever motivation I would have for "trash talking" a military program that indirectly pays my checks. Hell, I should be strapping on my little flouncy skirt right now and getting out the pom poms. It's a fine development platform, and we're learning lots of stuff from the 35. It'll make a great bomb truck over whatever 'stan we need to blow up at the time. Anyways, the thing can't fight. (TL;DR: the plane is in a catch-22 of not having enough range when it carries enough weapons and not having enough weapons when it has enough range. Along with a bunch of other stuff, but that's the big one, and supercruise is a direct part of that) * 1000 NM radius is not enough for SE Asia, at all, certainly not for a Hainan mission. Flying dirty (unstealthed), it flies low for terrain masking, and now it's lucky to get 500 NM. * persnickety: pre-chilled fuel; exotic conditioned electricals; 30,000 dollar CPFH + regionally specific MDF for the active LO systems * Can't stealth mount BRU-61, AARGM-ER/AGM-88G, AIM-260 JATM, JAGM-F, SPEAR 3, JSM, APKWS, AGM-183 ARRW, AGM-158C/D LRASM/JASSM-XR, SACM/CUDA/PEREGRINE, Hammer/Hatchet. Remember, if it has to fly dirty, it has to fly low, and now you're dealing with a 500nm range. The weapons fitment issue is probably the biggest source of FUD on this program, with lots of "it carries X Weapon" when really all they checked is that X fits inside of a NxNxN space. * Can't supersonic launch missiles no supercruise. Subtract 30% from your missile range - a lot of rocket power to make a shock cone on the missile nose. * 8 seconds (A), 16 seconds (B) and 43 seconds (C) over KPP requirement for missile sprint, during the run up to IOT&E and OPEVAL. * 4 AMRAAMS internal, and let's be honest here, you need 3 to guarantee a kill in ECM environment. Take more than 4 and now you're flying "dirty", so you fly low, halving the combat radius if you're lucky. And don't forget, it doesn't have the speed to run once it empties its magazine, and from behind IRST will see its burner from 100k or more. * APG-81, MADL, stealth coatings were pirated in the late aughts, compromised