They are still complicated, Expensive, and without large numbers (There was a small panic when a hawk was downed by an Iraqi Mig-25)

What I fear is that standard tech is getting to a point where large numbers of COTS drones can flood an airspace and cause damage that advanced fighters can't.

Then you are using a half a million dollar missile to down a 5000 dollar worth drone and you have 50 behind that. Using cheap russian heaters to eventually drive away even our 22s and 35s (Hard to get into gun range when you got heaters coming from all directions if even one drone detects you) And forget AAA when they will surely have anti-rad weaponry. It will be WW2 flak carpeting all over again.

That is today. What about in the future when they can be even more advanced? What if they were equipped with advanced visual detection or radar?

The more I think about it. The more it is dawning on me that the 35 will not be effective past 2020 except in some dirt poor country.

Su-35s aren't the problem. It's the stuff that's going to be around 10-20 years from now that's going to make us look goofy for dumping $300 billion or so into an already obsolete manned bomb truck.

PD

thems the ones you'll be fighting in

You will not catch me in a F-35 in 10 years. No way no how! I do NOT have a deathwish.

Nah. The U.S. and allies will get more than 20 years out of them. We simply got more than 20 years from our generation 1 stealth platform before much of a counter was developed to deal with it. It's all the same as before. Every weapons system has countermeasures built against it eventually. But through modernization efforts, many of those counters can be greatly negated. The U.S. has been successful in it's modernization efforts to deal with newer and impending military threats. The F-35 program will see the same evolution. It's no different than what's occured in the past. By the time the F-35 has seen a decade of service, we may see some new credible counters o it. But it will still take a number of years to field and mass produce them. But at that time, ways to negate those counters will be in production for the F-35. You're assuming that any true counters to F-35 will be out on the same day or same year as F-35 roll-out. That's not going to happen on anything but an internet article.

Zachstar has a very good point about newer technology. But his views regarding masses of unmanned drones is a bit unrealistic. Nobody has anything coming out that is going to be revolutionary enough in scope to negate F-35 in the near term. Nor do any trends show anything forthcoming within the 10-15 year time. There simply is nothing coming out of either Russia or China at the moment that can be considered as earth shattering. Neither Flanker, J-10, or current SAM trends in both give no indication of too much trouble. Pak-FA doesn't appear to be advancing all that well, nor does the J-12/J-13. As far as the drones go. If Zach wants to know where the drones will be coming from, most of this capability is being advanced in the US military. Not too much seen from the potential opponents.

Educate yourself on AESA radar - yes it has the ability to do what amounts to something similar to an EMP attack, though in a limited frequency range that the radar operates in, and can jam, and there is some sort of requirement was for network penetration exists as well. That is the part that is unknown at this point - the network penetration portion. F-22 has this same capability.

-S

I'm relatively critical of the F-35 myself.
Fortunately Germany didn't buy into that one. We don't have a carrier and won't get one anytime soon, so we won't need the VTOL version (which is what most foreign buyers want) anyway.
If you take the F-16, you have superficial similarities. A plane developed for a limited mission (basically a F-5 type light daylight only fighter) that developed into the best multirole aircraft in the world.
On the other hand, when the basic F-16A flew for the first time, it had a lot of reserves in power and gross weight.
I don't see such reserves on the F-35.
I don't share Subman's view on Radar. The IR sensors the US had in the 1970s were useless, basically for the same reason radar was limited in power.
There was no useful system to sort out "real" contacts from backround noise. Computers do that now.
Stealth has the disadvantage of limiting the plane to internal loads, and 2-4 bombs are not really great, even when these are GPS guided munitions.
Also, half of those missiles intended for the JSF have allready been cancelled, sometimes even the replacement of the replacement has been cancelled
:D
The F-35 has some great features, but it won't be the ultimate fighter. The fact that it is purposely inferior to the F-22 (which is 20 years older in concept) speaks volumes.
Electronically, the F-35 benefits from technological advantages made since the design of the F-22 was finalized, but the plane itself has nowhere near the capability of the F-22.
It often seems to me there are only two reasons why foreign countries want the F-35:
- they need a VTOL fighter for a future carrier
- they actually want the F-22 but can't order it because export of the F-22 is banned by law
It is strange that all those countries ordering the conventional F-35 want the F-22 despite it being for older technologically and despite the exorbitant price tag.
Some countries order F-35s for other reasons as well, like the Netherlands (officially bribed by Lockeed Martin!) or Turkey, who simply wants license production of the F-35 as a start point for developing their own fighter aircraft.

Now regarding the "Flanker menace"

Indonesia has a whopping 4 Flankers, with orders for another six.
These include single seat 2 Su-27 SKs and 2 twin-Seat Su-30MKs.
The Su-27 SKs are the export version of the cold war Su-27S, so they might be downgraded. The Su-30MKs are not on par with the indian, chinese or venezuelan Su-30MKK/MKI, but rather export versions of the baseline Su-30 originally intended for the VVS.
The further orders include 3 single-seat Su-27SKM, which is an upgraded variant, as well as 3 very capable Su-30MK2. This is a dedicated maritime strike variant used by China and now Venezuela.
So Indonesia has 4 baseline Flankers and will recieve a further six state of the art variants.
There are no Su-35s in indonesian service. The Su-30MK2 somewhat close in capability to the Su-35 as it has the same more powerful engines, but it is a maritime strike aircraft (which could be used as a fighter as well).
It appears that the original four are to train indonesian pilot on russian-style aircraft while the others are the operational aircraft.
These replace 12 early F-16s and over 30 Skyhawks. Sounds to me like the Indonesians simply replaced aging equipment with a smaller number of modern, very capable aircraft.
These 10 aircraft represent a threat to 71 F/A-18s and 21 F-111s?
Even if the F-35 is inferior, Australia will have far more of them than the indonesians will have Flankers.
Of course the indonesians could order more, but while Indonesia is currently economically sound, it does not have anywhere near the budget surplus of Venezuela, Russia or China to finance a drastically expanded military.
Also one must consider the fact that since the fall of Sukharno in the 1970s, the Indonsian air force is western trained and equipped. Also, the readiness and training level of this air force must've been hit hard by the 1990s economic crisis.
The turnover to russian fighters must be a really drastic change to a air force used to US-made planes, especially when the rest of the air force (transports, helicopters, etc) remains US-equipped.
Russian aircraft use metric instruments and generally have somewhat different approach to cockpit ergonomics. The recent perm air crash was most likely caused by a pilot used to russian instruments misinterpreting a western style ADI under stress. The same problems would magnify for combat aircraft.
The Flanker is a quantum leap from any combat aircraft of a third world nation, even an F-16. A F-16 pilot will suddenly have an aircraft twice as large, with much more power, unheard of flying characteristics and a totally foreign cockpit layout. Tactially, a Flanker opens up totally new possibilities with powerful radar and BVR missiles, none of which was sofar in service with Indonesia.
Also historically you cannot create an efficient air force by simply selling advanced fighter aircraft to any given nation.
The arabs did not suddenly become a capable air power because of the latest MiGs, while Israel managed to beat them with inferior aircraft due to a sound indigenous doctrine and good training.
You can't transplant either the US or the russian way of running an air force to any given air force and expect it to work. The indians are so efficient with russian planes because they allready had an air force build on sound traditions of the RAF.
The indonesian air force has none of all that. While their pilots are not dumber or less talented than others, they might still take years to learn to properly fly their Flankers, let alone fight them.
The russians might embark on a vigorous training programme, but traditionally, they just fly in the aircraft, teach some pilots to fly them and then leave.
Generally, the Flanker seems to have become the western air industries boogeyman (boogeyplane?)

The dreaded Su-35s are a collection of prototypes. Less than a dozen exist, and only in Russia.
Apparently new Su-35s are now being build for the russian air force, but the russians put priority on upgrading their existing Su-27Ss from cold war days to Su-27SMs by porting over Su-35 electronics to existing cold war age aircraft, much like F-15s were upgraded.
The Su-27S is underpowered compared to the Su-35, yet the move makes sense, as the baseline Flanker is still a very capable aircraft and since flying time during the 1990s was very limited at best, these aircraft are less worn out than the average F-15C.
Also, Russia is concentrating on the PAK-FA, so building a large number of interim fighters makes no sense if you have something totally new coming up.
The Flanker series still has some life in it though, as the Su-34 bomber and the Su-33 carrier fighter and the Su-30 series of twin seat multirole fighters for export.
The Su-35 might be retained as a backup if the PAK-FA is delayed seriously.
But it seems that most traditional russian buyers as well as some new customers are set on the PAK-FA, not on the Su-35.
The PAK-FA has not flown sofar (we don't even have any relyable concepts of it!) but I don't doubt that given the proper amount of financing, Sukhoi can produce something really capable. Maybe not an instant F-22 equal, but something very close.
It is a daring project of the russians to make a F-22 equal in about a quarter of the time it took to complete the F-22 (and much less time than the F-35), but much of the technology that was revolutionary in the 1990s is now commercially available, plus the russians have the money for it now.
Neither AESA radars nor radar absorbing materials nor any other technology used in the F-22 is a US state secret. AESA radars will become pretty much world standard in a few years.
Also, the russian military-industrial complex seems somewhat less convoluted to me than the US one.
To make it short: If the potential customers of the F-35 worry about the Su-35, what will they say about the PAK-FA??
On the other hand, I wouldn't expect PAK-FAs (Su-50s?) to end up in Indonesia, so unless Australia thinks about attacking Brazil, the RAAF might never have to face them in combat.
But unfortunately, the problems do not limit themselves to the PAK-FA.
Right now, the only serious contender for the western aircraft (US, Europe) industry is Russia, with China emerging just now.
But for the future, it seems everybody and his dog is trying to build indigenous advanced fighter aircraft!
India, Iran and Pakistan (with China) have fighter projects and states like South Korea and even Japan consider to design their own 5th generation fighters!
Brazil has joined PAK-FA and might develop some version of their own and sell it all over the world.
So the F-35 equipped nations will not only have to worry about Flankers anymore.
In fact the Flanker should be the least of their worries...


(An almost-Skybirdesque post by me, whew...)
:D

Although this is off topic I don't agree with this given the number of hours the pilot had in that type of plane.

I do agree that Russian cockpit ergonomics were different but that has changed with the newer fighters they have moved to glass cockpits and better HOTAS.

No. If it were, Dowly would have somehow blown himself up with his own AIM-9 and Hunter, as I understand things, would have then crashed and burned on the runway while attempting to land afterward. No one would want to buy either plane.

Ah!....so you've flown with them both online as well have you :lol:

Yes, and the range it can actually do that effectively on is also constrained by the limited power it has.

I agree it will be a reasonably effective jammer in the X-band.

and there is some sort of requirement was for network penetration exists as well. That is the part that is unknown at this point - the network penetration portion. F-22 has this same capability.-S[/quote]

One must wonder how that last would work.

OOO the magic radar!!! YAY!!! You mean the same radar that some think will be like impossible to detect in use or somthing like that?

As for EMP attack? You mean the EMP that nukes give off and is easily defeated with a metal cage? You mean EMP effects that have been known about for decades?

That's not a very accurate assessment of what the radar will do. From what I understand it will negate an enemies ability to fully utilize their radars range and scanning through some type of electro-magnetic beam focused towards the emitter. It's expected to be able to negate any accurate tracking of the enemy emitter. I'm sure there may be some drawbacks to it's uses, but combined with the other stuff in the F-35 package, I expect it to just be another tool in the basket for this aircraft. If you can negate an enemy radar to a certain extent, it gives you a pretty sizeable advantage.