Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth
That is all well and good if we are judging the F-35 by the mission its predecessors were created for - WWIII in Europe. But we are not, that mission does not exist anymore. My argument is NOT that we should buy legacy fighters over F-35 in the bomb truck role. But that we should be buying an X-45C or X-47B type UCAV to play bomb truck.
|
We are getting the UCAV. It is coming in time. Most of the time though, you need more capability than a UCAV so i would not be cuaght dead without the F-35. I did check out Boeing's simulator across from Boeing field though on it's UCAV and it is quite capable, but it's not capable of fighting aircraft. The F-35 is more versatile. One person however will have no problem controlling 4 UCAV's with SEAD being the primary role. I would have brought you guys photo's, but not phone, no camera's, no recorders, no nothing was allowed on site, and if you tried, it was probably a destoryed device in short notice. That building is even kind of cool in that it's on stilts/shocks and seperated from the ground so that no one can detect vibrations to listen in on what is going on inside. When we had our 7.0 Earthquake out here a while back, people in this building never knew we had one because the building absorbed the shock.
Quote:
|
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here? You want a high sortie rate, not low.
|
Yes, thats what I mean. Turn around time is quick on this plane.
Well that is not good news. This does not tell me anything though, so why? Is this only during initial deployment? Will this cost go down shortly after? Not enough info to go on.
Quote:
Oh we'll surely be taking the F-35. The question is how many. And whether the cost will indeed be half of an F-22. And it doesn't look good for either point.
I am arguing that F-22+UCAV and F/A-18E/F+UCAV would have been a better choice than the F-35. Both capabilites-wise and economics-wise
PD
|
I think we need them all. The UCAV programs make great SEAD platforms. i was quite impressed at my demonstration.
-S