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Exaggerating for effect, but I think the tech you described for most nations relative to developement capabilities is basically magic, and most F35 partners wil

Exaggerating for effect, but I think the tech you described for most nations relative to developement capabilities is basically magic, and most F35 partners will be relatively secure in their back yards. Realistically we're talking about PRC assembling those pieces together (especially Jilin/Gaofen tier space infra) in short/medium term. I've doubts they plan to export the system, except perhaps to MENA. Hence I think geoeconomics of F35 program is a huge success despite technical / future proofing merits, that likely won't be issue outside of peer warfare for decades. Concern of course is we might have peer warfare sooner.

sudosysgen 4y ago
While this is true, China exporting these is not outside of the question (theres even been talking of exporting the J-31), and I don't forsee China being the only country to do this - I'd imagine in the medium term India to develop similar technology to counter China and to try to resell it. Another thing about satellites is that you could plausibly sell them as a service, much like US AWACS and semi-commercial satellite imagery in Ukraine. At the same time, the F-35 itself is still not a finished product, it's still missing many of its core features such as full sensor networking and it's unlikely to ever be fully integrated at this pace (which the article doesn't mention - the software side of the F-35 program is still a disaster that doesn't seem to be improving as much as promised. Recently there's been chit chat about dependency hell and spaghetti code and the inability to even integrate new weapons platforms without breaking other subsystems) Beyond this, it's not clear that the F-35 represents that much of a leap against non-peer opponents. I'd say technically the program is still an overall success, but it's not really clear that it provides anything like a decisive advantage in any plausible situation.

sudosysgen 4y ago

While this is true, China exporting these is not outside of the question (theres even been talking of exporting the J-31), and I don't forsee China being the only country to do this - I'd imagine in the medium term India to develop similar technology to counter China and to try to resell it. Another thing about satellites is that you could plausibly sell them as a service, much like US AWACS and semi-commercial satellite imagery in Ukraine. At the same time, the F-35 itself is still not a finished product, it's still missing many of its core features such as full sensor networking and it's unlikely to ever be fully integrated at this pace (which the article doesn't mention - the software side of the F-35 program is still a disaster that doesn't seem to be improving as much as promised. Recently there's been chit chat about dependency hell and spaghetti code and the inability to even integrate new weapons platforms without breaking other subsystems) Beyond this, it's not clear that the F-35 represents that much of a leap against non-peer opponents. I'd say technically the program is still an overall success, but it's not really clear that it provides anything like a decisive advantage in any plausible situation.