Our military...
is a joke.
Before entering the war, the US analysed air combat in Europe and saw the things that mattered were the obvious ones. Power (height, climb and speed) range and armament. Maneuverability didn't really matter. In fact, the Vought F4U Corsair was in no way anywhere near as agile as the Japanese fighters that it shot down at an 11 to 1 ratio, but it was much faster, had near twice the horsepower, and up to 10 times the firepower.
So why are we buying low observable F35s? They are out ranged, out powered and out armed by their most likely combatant of which there are more than 500 in our vicinity. Oh but they're stealthy... NO THEY'RE NOT!!!
They're Low Observability. Where radar will pick up a F22 at 3 miles, and a non stealthy fighter at 40 the F35 can be picked up at around 20. Unless it fires a missile which gives away it's position allowing the target aircraft to salvo 4 missiles almost guaranteeing a hit before supercruising away while the F35 can neither run away or catch up.
Our primary combat aircraft doesn't have the range to protect our shipping lanes, our oil fields or even the coastline. It doesn't have the speed to catch enemy aircraft, or the fire power (4 missiles) to reliably bring them down. It has NO CHANCE of penetrating enemy airspace reliably.
And all of this is widely known in defence communities.
So much for deterrence.
Before entering the war, the US analysed air combat in Europe and saw the things that mattered were the obvious ones. Power (height, climb and speed) range and armament. Maneuverability didn't really matter. In fact, the Vought F4U Corsair was in no way anywhere near as agile as the Japanese fighters that it shot down at an 11 to 1 ratio, but it was much faster, had near twice the horsepower, and up to 10 times the firepower.
So why are we buying low observable F35s? They are out ranged, out powered and out armed by their most likely combatant of which there are more than 500 in our vicinity. Oh but they're stealthy... NO THEY'RE NOT!!!
They're Low Observability. Where radar will pick up a F22 at 3 miles, and a non stealthy fighter at 40 the F35 can be picked up at around 20. Unless it fires a missile which gives away it's position allowing the target aircraft to salvo 4 missiles almost guaranteeing a hit before supercruising away while the F35 can neither run away or catch up.
Our primary combat aircraft doesn't have the range to protect our shipping lanes, our oil fields or even the coastline. It doesn't have the speed to catch enemy aircraft, or the fire power (4 missiles) to reliably bring them down. It has NO CHANCE of penetrating enemy airspace reliably.
And all of this is widely known in defence communities.
So much for deterrence.