Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
There is no comparing the F-35 and the JAS-29E/F. The Saab is a generation 4, generously 4.5 fighter, and not that invisible on radar, the F-35 looks like a marble on a radar screen.
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Can we truthfully call F35 a fifth generation fighter when it lacks super cruise? You can achieve stealth in a couple of ways:
a. build it into the airframe; or
b. use EW.
With respect to the former, the F35 is done. There is nothing more you can do to it.
With respect to the latter, you can continuously upgrade the EW suite without doing anything to the airframe. At this point in time, the EW suite in the Gripen is very, very good.
As for RADAR and the F35, there is every reason to believe the Russians can see it with their Container over the horizon RADAR and, most likely, S-300/400.
If you can actually find the F35 and get within shooting range, then it is highly vulnerable to IR missiles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
Again the strategic implications are completely different. Because of the superiority of the F-35 on nearly all fronts in terms of low observability, interoperability, sensors etc, the concept behind a F-35 is a smaller airforce of 60 some odd planes, and the cost per plane has gone down sharply as the American's have ramped up production. If you're buying 68 F-35's at about 90 million each or have to buy 120 Saab's at even generously 70 million each, the Saab doesn't make sense from an economics standpoint. When you add in air crews, pilots, stores etc.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
...for a less capable plane.
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Stop it. The defence of Canadian airspace is the RCAF's #1 mission. To do that, you need an interceptor operating from FOLs. The Gripen is more than capable of doing that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
...and there are questions around a 50 year track run of a generation 4 fighter.
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What questions? Do you seriously think the F35 will make it 50 years in its present configuration? Its stealth may already be obsolete and, if it isn't, it likely will be in the next decade. As mentioned, LockMart would have to redesign the plane to upgrade the stealth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
If you're going to have a small military and small airforce, then you need to really make it as advanced as you can.
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No, you do not. You do not need to buy over-engineered war machines. You need to buy the gear that will perform the mission and with the best bang to buck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
...but the idea of speed and maneuvering goes away in the modern battlefield over the next 50 years as the focus is on over the horizon who see's who first combat, or the ability to pin point with one asset and seamlessly kill it with another asset and see the whole battlefield.
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So, in this regard, F35 isn't even a fighter; it's just a missile platform.