A Manufacturer Is Designing a Two Wheeled Cart That Can Maneuver in Tight Spaces
Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Tin't Dogfight
New stealth fighter is dead meat in an air boxing
by DAVID AXE
A test pilot has some very, very bad news nearly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can't turn or climb fast plenty to hit an enemy airplane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy's own gunfire, the airplane pilot reported following a twenty-four hour period of mock air battles back in Jan.
"The F-35 was at a singled-out energy disadvantage," the unnamed airplane pilot wrote in a scathing v-folio brief that War Is Tedious has obtained. The brief is unclassified only is labeled "for official apply but."
The examination pilot's report is the latest prove of fundamental problems with the design of the F-35 — which, at a total program cost of more than a trillion dollars, is history's most expensive weapon.
The U.S. Air Forcefulness, Navy and Marine Corps — not to mention the air forces and navies of more than a dozen U.South. allies — are counting on the Lockheed Martin-made JSF to replace many if not most of their electric current fighter jets.
And that means that, within a few decades, American and centrolineal aviators will fly into boxing in an inferior fighter — one that could get them killed … and cost the United States control of the air.
The fateful exam took place on Jan. 14, 2015, plain inside the Ocean Test Range over the Pacific Ocean most Edwards Air Force Base in California. The unmarried-seat F-35A with the designation "AF-02" — one of the older JSFs in the Air Forcefulness — took off alongside a two-seat F-16D Block 40, one of the types of planes the F-35 is supposed to supercede.
The 2 jets would exist playing the roles of opposing fighters in a pretend air boxing, which the Air Force organized specifically to test out the F-35's prowess equally a close-range dogfighter in an air-to-air tangle involving high "angles of assault," or AoA, and "aggressive stick/pedal inputs."
In other words, the F-35 airplane pilot would fly his jet hard, turning and maneuvering in guild to "shoot down" the F-xvi, whose pilot would be doing his own all-time to evade and impale the F-35.
"The evaluation focused on the overall effectiveness of the aircraft in performing various specified maneuvers in a dynamic environs," the F-35 tester wrote. "This consisted of traditional Bones Fighter Maneuvers in offensive, defensive and neutral setups at altitudes ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 feet."
The F-35 was flight "make clean," with no weapons in its flop bay or under its wings and fuselage. The F-16, by contrast, was hauling two bulky underwing drop tanks, putting the older jet at an aerodynamic disadvantage.
But the JSF'southward advantage didn't actually help in the cease. The stealth fighter proved too sluggish to reliably defeat the F-16, even with the F-16 lugging extra fuel tanks. "Even with the limited F-sixteen target configuration, the F-35A remained at a distinct energy disadvantage for every date," the pilot reported.
The defeated flier's 5-folio report is a damning litany of aerodynamic complaints targeting the cumbersome JSF.
"Bereft pitch rate." "Free energy deficit to the bandit would increment over fourth dimension." "The flying qualities in the blended region (20–26 degrees AoA) were not intuitive or favorable."
The F-35 jockey tried to target the F-16 with the stealth jet'due south 25-millimeter cannon, but the smaller F-16 easily dodged. "Instead of catching the brigand off-guard by rapidly pull aft to accomplish atomic number 82, the nose charge per unit was dull, assuasive him to easily fourth dimension his jink prior to a gun solution," the JSF pilot complained.
And when the pilot of the F-sixteen turned the tables on the F-35, maneuvering to put the stealth plane in his own gunsight, the JSF jockey found he couldn't maneuver out of the way, attributable to a "lack of olfactory organ rate.
The F-35 airplane pilot came correct out and said it — if you're flying a JSF, there's no point in trying to get into a sustained, shut turning battle with another fighter. "There were non compelling reasons to fight in this region." God help you if the enemy surprises y'all and yous have no choice only to turn.
The JSF tester found only one way to win a short-range air-to-air engagement — past performing a very specific maneuver. "Once established at high AoA, a prolonged full rudder input generated a fast enough yaw rate to create excessive heading crossing angles with opportunities to point for missile shots."
But in that location's a trouble — this sliding maneuver bleeds free energy fast. "The technique required a commitment to lose energy and was a temporary opportunity prior to needing to regain energy … and ultimately end upwardly defensive again." In other words, having tried the pull a fast one on in one case, an F-35 pilot is out of options and needs to get abroad quick.
And to add together insult to injury, the JSF flier discovered he couldn't even comfortably movement his head inside the radar-evading jet'southward cramped cockpit. "The helmet was too large for the infinite within the canopy to fairly see backside the aircraft." That allowed the F-16 to sneak up on him.
In the finish, the F-35 — the only new fighter jet that America and virtually of its allies are developing — is demonstrably inferior in a dogfight with the F-xvi, which the U.S. Air Force first caused in the late 1970s.
The examination airplane pilot explained that he has also flown 1980s-vintage F-15E fighter-bombers and found the F-35 to be "substantially inferior" to the older airplane when it comes to managing energy in a shut battle.
Source: https://medium.com/war-is-boring/test-pilot-admits-the-f-35-can-t-dogfight-cdb9d11a875
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