{"id":182689,"date":"2015-07-01T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/07\/01\/the-new-brewster-buffalo\/"},"modified":"2015-07-01T17:08:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T22:08:00","slug":"the-new-brewster-buffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/07\/01\/the-new-brewster-buffalo\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Brewster Buffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

A test pilot with a wide range of fighter experience engaged in mock dogfights with an F-16, and the result was Not<\/span><\/b> pretty<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can\u2019t turn or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy\u2019s own gunfire, the pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back in January.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cThe F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage,\u201d the unnamed pilot wrote in a scathing five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is unclassified but is labeled \u201cfor official use only.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> The test pilot\u2019s report is the latest evidence of fundamental problems<\/a> with the design of the F-35\u200a\u2014\u200awhich, at a total program cost of more than a trillion dollars<\/a>, is history\u2019s most expensive weapon.<\/span>

<\/span> The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps\u200a\u2014\u200anot to mention the air forces and navies of more than a dozen U.S. allies\u200a\u2014\u200aare counting on the Lockheed Martin-made JSF to replace many if not most of their current fighter jets.<\/span>

<\/span> And that means that, within a few decades, American and allied aviators will fly into battle in an inferior fighter\u200a\u2014\u200aone that could get them killed \u2026 and cost the United States control of the air.<\/span>

<\/span> The fateful test took place on Jan. 14, 2015, apparently within the Sea Test Range over the Pacific Ocean near Edwards Air Force Base in California. The single-seat F-35A with the designation \u201cAF-02\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aone of the older JSFs in the Air Force\u200a\u2014\u200atook off alongside a two-seat F-16D Block 40, one of the types of planes the F-35 is supposed to replace.<\/span>

<\/span> The two jets would be playing the roles of opposing fighters in a pretend air battle, which the Air Force organized specifically to test out the F-35\u2019s prowess as a close-range dogfighter in an air-to-air tangle involving high \u201cangles of attack,\u201d or AoA, and \u201caggressive stick\/pedal inputs.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> In other words, the F-35 pilot would fly his jet hard, turning and maneuvering in order to \u201cshoot down\u201d the F-16, whose pilot would be doing his own best to evade and kill the F-35.<\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> The F-35 was flying \u201cclean,\u201d with no weapons in its bomb 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.<\/span>

<\/span> But the JSF\u2019s advantage didn\u2019t actually help in the end. The stealth fighter proved too sluggish to reliably defeat the F-16, even with the F-16 lugging extra fuel tanks. \u201cEven with the limited F-16 target configuration, the F-35A remained at a distinct energy disadvantage for every engagement,\u201d the pilot reported.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cInsufficient pitch rate.\u201d \u201cEnergy deficit to the bandit would increase over time.\u201d \u201cThe flying qualities in the blended region (20\u201326 degrees AoA) were not intuitive or favorable.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> The F-35 jockey tried to target the F-16 with the stealth jet\u2019s 25-millimeter cannon, but the smaller F-16 easily dodged. \u201cInstead of catching the bandit off-guard by rapidly pull aft to achieve lead, the nose rate was slow, allowing him to easily time his jink prior to a gun solution,\u201d the JSF pilot complained.<\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> And when the pilot of the F-16 turned the tables on the F-35, maneuvering to put the stealth plane in his own gunsight, the JSF jockey found he couldn\u2019t maneuver out of the way, owing to a \u201clack of nose rate.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

And to add insult to injury, the JSF flier discovered he couldn\u2019t even comfortably move his head inside the radar-evading jet\u2019s cramped cockpit. \u201cThe helmet was too large for the space inside the canopy to adequately see behind the aircraft.\u201d That allowed the F-16 to sneak up on him.<\/p>\n

In the end, the F-35\u200a\u2014\u200athe only new fighter jet that America and most of its allies are developing\u200a\u2014\u200ais demonstrably inferior in a dogfight with the F-16, which the U.S. Air Force first acquired in the late 1970s.<\/span>

<\/span> The test pilot explained that he has also flown 1980s-vintage F-15E fighter-bombers and found the F-35 to be \u201csubstantially inferior\u201d to the older plane when it comes to managing energy in a close battle.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what happens when you allow the USMC’s supposed need for a STO\/VL airframe to dominate all other considerations with regard to basic airframe, which is the reason for poor rear vision, and hence the need for the humungous high tech helmet, with visor mounted display, which prevents adequate view to the rear.<\/p>\n

I would note that the real problem here is not that our pilots might have inferior equipment, in WWII the F4F Wildcat achieved a 6:1 kill ratio, and the lamentable F2A Brewster Buffalo achieved a 26:1 kill ratio in Finnish service.<\/p>\n

Achieving air superiority comes down to training and tactics, so even with an inferior platform, particularly when backed up by superior numbers and logistics.<\/p>\n

If the US goes into combat with the F-35 it will not be a disaster.<\/p>\n

The real disaster is that we are spending over a Trillion dollars on something that provides no advantages over existing aircraft.<\/p>\n

We could buy homes for more than 4 million families, or provide health insurance for 10 million families for a decade, or fix around one third of our deferred infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n

The opportunities that have been missed while we are spending money on a white elephant are the real disaster here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A test pilot with a wide range of fighter experience engaged in mock dogfights with an F-16, and the result was Not pretty: A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can\u2019t turn or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1038,987,1006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-budget","category-fail","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}