F-35...getting more bad press lately.
- Thread starter Gilligan
- Start date
Depends on what F-18 you are talking about, the F-18A-D Hornet's are at least 20 years old and are running out of airframe time, the F-18E/F Super Hornet are at least 10-15 years old but is still in production. Most of the older Super Hornets have been regulated to secondary duties such as training squadrons and test squadrons, however, the fleet still has old Hornets and their airframe time has been extended from 6000 flight hours to 10000 flight hours. With the wars in Iraq and A-stan, the Hornet's airframe time is being used up at an alarming rate and they are being worn out at a rapid rate, basically, we are wearing them out big time and it's costing more in money and man-hours to keep them flying.
While the F-35 isn't the best aircraft it is what the Navy wanted, a jack of all trades platform, kind of like the "general purpose fighter" from the late 50's/early 60's. If one remembers, the F-4 Phantom was considered a general purpose fighter when it first entered the fleet and look at it's service career.
BTW, the last I heard, the Super Hornet Line is only going to stay open until late 2016, unless congress decides otherwise.
The only thing I can't understand about the F-35 is how is it the Navy decided not to put an internal gun in it, didn't we try that before* and it didn't quite work out that great.
(for those who don't know aviation history, the F-4 Phantom was built without a gun and during Vietnam it was determined to be a huge mistake, the Air Force put a gun in their main variant (F-4E) but the Navy refused to and it cost them in the air war over Vietnam)
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Sure, I realize that. My point was simply that new ones are still being built and can continue to fill the role they are filling so well now. I am simply concerned that the "added value" of the F-35 variants is not matching their horrendous price tag. I would love to be proven wrong.
MADPEBS1
Man, I'm still here !!!
If we need a gun with this platform the pilot phucked up, they will never see us before we see them. CAS will be a small part of what this jet does, And helo's can take care of most of that. We can stay up high and use the SDB to limit fraging friendly's if we must.
Salvador
One Nation Under God
MADPEBS1
Man, I'm still here !!!
Posey. Flower. I grow flowers. Plants. I spelt it rong.
that was PHUCKING funny sh1t right there, WOW
This is supposed to pick up the slack from ditching the warthogs, hard to do any of the A10's job without a gun.
Midnightrider
Well-Known Member
There is an external pod for mission specific scenarios. However the internal gun on the AF variant only holds about 200 rounds. That's less than 1 second of fire....
Impossible when you always think you're right Mr. Tool.
Weak, Jimmy...as always. Go play with your video cameras.
You know what their going to miss the most on this thing...a rear view mirror. The only way their going to know who just shot them in the ass is to punch out and look.
You are forgetting the air to air role, a gun isn't just for air to mud.
No stealth with pods loaded.
Also, IIRC there is a rounds limiter setting, which means you can set a certain number of rounds for each trigger pull. You only need 2 or 3 rounds to bring down an aircraft now a days, so a 50 round burst can bring down an aircraft.
No stealth with more than about 20% of total weapons load capacity loaded...from what I've read.
Midnightrider
Well-Known Member
From what I understand the gun pod is stealthy. Obviously not as stealthy, but stealthy.
MADPEBS1
Man, I'm still here !!!
what i said was if they get into a furball, they messed up, they should never get to in close fighting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MADPEBS1
Man, I'm still here !!!
thats funny because that was documented as an issues during boat det !
Not to be disrespectful but you don't know anything about air to air combat and ROE's do you?
It's not all BVR and like in the movies, if that was the case we won't need fighters since we wouldn't need anything that maneuverable, we could just hang missiles on the B-2 and call it done.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Seriously though.... A lot of people like to pick on the F-35, P-8, etc. for the money being spent but... you never hear anyone complaining about NMCI which I believe is still the largest and most expensive contract there is. We all know what a POS that is.
You obviously weren't paying attention, there was a www.nmcisucks.com and people made up NMCI sucks bumper stickers and got told they can't bring their cars on base as long as they have those bumper stickers on their cars.