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I believe it's fair to say both that the project is difficult and that this particular effort appears to have delivered a lower-quality product at higher costs

I believe it's fair to say both that the project is difficult and that this particular effort appears to have delivered a lower-quality product at higher costs and timelines than most of its peers. What are the peers of the F-35?

deltaonefour 5y ago
You could say the same for a toy car that I made when I was 5 out of play dough. That car has no peer. A more relevant question to ask is... in head on air to air combat, is there a plane that can match it or beat it?
SEJeff 5y ago
There are none, obviously.
- Retric 5y ago
  In most ways it’s a cheaper less capable version of the F-22 except it’s not significantly cheaper. The VTOL version of the F-35 has few direct competitors but then again it’s making serious sacrifices for VTOL capacity.
  - SEJeff 5y ago
    My understanding was that the F22 is more for a forward stealth air platform that is also intense at air to air. The F35 in “beast mode” is a gun truck in military jargon and isn’t really all that stealth at all. The F22 and F35 are meant for quite different missions and they’re best paired together. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/f35/news-and-features/raaf-flies-f35as-in-beastmode-for-the-first-time.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/f35/news-and-features/raaf-fl...
    - Retric 5y ago
      The issue is the US military has more than just 2 aircraft. Sure, if it’s going to give up on being stealthy the F-35 can be a relatively slow gun rack with a pile of air to air missiles. Except giving up stealth and it’s lost most advantages over older and vastly cheaper aircraft. Air to ground benefits from the extra carrying capacity but if you have air superiority then drones etc are again vastly more effective for the price. Sure, it’s got nice avionics right now, but that stuff gets replaced long before the aircraft gets retired. That said we didn’t actually built that many F-22’s so we really needed something to pick up the slack.
nradov 5y ago
The Shenyang FC-31 Gyrfalcon is maybe sort of a peer of the F-35A/C. The Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate might eventually be developed into a peer of the F-35A, but for now it's still a paper airplane. There is no peer of the F-35B.

deltaonefour 5y ago

You could say the same for a toy car that I made when I was 5 out of play dough. That car has no peer. A more relevant question to ask is... in head on air to air combat, is there a plane that can match it or beat it?

SEJeff 5y ago

There are none, obviously.

Retric 5y ago
In most ways it’s a cheaper less capable version of the F-22 except it’s not significantly cheaper. The VTOL version of the F-35 has few direct competitors but then again it’s making serious sacrifices for VTOL capacity.
- SEJeff 5y ago
  My understanding was that the F22 is more for a forward stealth air platform that is also intense at air to air. The F35 in “beast mode” is a gun truck in military jargon and isn’t really all that stealth at all. The F22 and F35 are meant for quite different missions and they’re best paired together. https://www.lockheedmartin.com/f35/news-and-features/raaf-flies-f35as-in-beastmode-for-the-first-time.html https://www.lockheedmartin.com/f35/news-and-features/raaf-fl...
  - Retric 5y ago
    The issue is the US military has more than just 2 aircraft. Sure, if it’s going to give up on being stealthy the F-35 can be a relatively slow gun rack with a pile of air to air missiles. Except giving up stealth and it’s lost most advantages over older and vastly cheaper aircraft. Air to ground benefits from the extra carrying capacity but if you have air superiority then drones etc are again vastly more effective for the price. Sure, it’s got nice avionics right now, but that stuff gets replaced long before the aircraft gets retired. That said we didn’t actually built that many F-22’s so we really needed something to pick up the slack.

nradov 5y ago

The Shenyang FC-31 Gyrfalcon is maybe sort of a peer of the F-35A/C. The Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate might eventually be developed into a peer of the F-35A, but for now it's still a paper airplane. There is no peer of the F-35B.