F35 program

In total it costs about 1.5 trillion dollars. Is it worth the investment?

Attached: EB256543-FC14-4A30-8A61-4AC772F72DC4.jpg (639x459, 30.51K)

Yes.

Just look at it. It's ugly. I'd say it wasn't worth the investment, in fact it would have been worth paying to scratch the project, so that people don't have to fly in that coffin.

We're trying to sell it to a non-SATO, non-SETO country that could easily become an enemy, so you know it's a meme.

Can some high iq user explain to me those wavy patterns on the hull? Is it bolted plated or what is it?

1.5 trillion to develop and build 2,500 f35s and maintain them to 2045 you retard.
Would have cost 3 trillion to maintain legacy f16, f18s and f15s to 2045. And legacy aircraft design would almost be 100yrs old at that point

looks sexy, way better then you eurofighter

I should think they could afford paint for that price.

US would never sell a weapon they dont have a hard counter to. Its basically a way to get the wests air-force dependent on the US military industrial complex, buying planes and parts for years for a weapons platform that is completely compromised and vulnerable against any conflict against the US.

Yes, it's a necessary step in the progression of fighter aircraft; the manned drone control suite.
Sooner or later, we're going to have to remove the pilot from the air superiority fighter, and the fastest and most sensible way to get this done is to keep the pilot in the air in a supporting role, managing the future autonomous battlespace.

Objectively yes.

It's a fitting replacement for the F-16/F-18 platforms which are showing their limitations.

The programs faults are not with the product itself, they are problems completely related to the defense procurement process.

That said... IMHO, a better option would have been to further develop additional blocks of the F-22- A two seat strike variant to replace the F-15E, a carrier based variant to replace the hornet, etc. The F-22 has more capable technology in several regards. That said, it could never replace the F-15E, F-16 or F/A-18 platforms because as of today it's ground attack capabilities are still fairly limited.

I also think it's important to point out the F-35 or F-22 will never be suitable replacements for the A-10. They are too fast. Period. The A-10's closest replacement to date is UAV's.

If you think the F-35 is ugly, you should have seen it's competitor, aka Jay Leno.

This is the correct answer
Why wouldn't it be worth it, the only thing that wasn't worth it was cutting the f-22 program

>Why wouldn't it be worth it, the only thing that wasn't worth it was cutting the f-22 program

This. The F-22 program should have continued, and IMHO, more consideration should have been given to selling them to the Japs.

Aerospace fag here.
Still make f22 afterburners.
The f22 program was mostly shut down because making more than 200 f22s was pointless. F22s have no rival, and are so damn expensive to maintain. Why use a 300 mill dollar stealth jet when a legacy f15e can do 99% of anything you throw at it.

F22s and f35s are synergetic and have a important roll to play, but bombing 3rd world shit holes isn't one of them.
I don't drive a race car to work because it's unnecessary. But I won't drive my Corolla to a race track.

so the US still cant maintain the f-22 fleet? can they make replacements? i remember when a few were lost in a hurricane lol

>I also think it's important to point out the F-35 or F-22 will never be suitable replacements for the A-10. They are too fast. Period. The A-10's closest replacement to date is UAV's.
What do you think of replacing the A-10 with light attack aircraft?

Attached: HKF4O3IN4JCHZHSBDSBPGARSZQ.jpg (1200x630, 192.45K)

It's a composite skin with "baked in" stealth properties. It's also not rivited together and instead fused I'm assuming with some kind of crazy epoxy. Older riveted together skins have stress concentrations around the river and this newer method that essentially glues them together spreads the stresses out evenly across the composite material minimizing stress and failures on the skin and airframe. Mechanical joining and fasteners are old and antiquated.

The F-35 will make America lose its next war. Expect these things to perform worse than the AH-64 Apache Longbow, which had a bad habit of crashing on its own when they briefly deployed them to the Balkans.

The aircraft currently in production are nothing compared to what we have behind classified requirements.

The new variants of the F16 blocks (i.e. Block 60 etc.) are all fantastic platforms. The F35 just adds so many new functionality to this type of aircraft.

The future of aerial warfare is unmanned drones though. The amount of money being spent on CUAS is a good indicator of that.

I gotta disagree here. LM made many sexy jets. This isnt one of them. The Eurofighter looks better than this. Hell the F15 looks better than this.

Italian typical cope of if it doesn't look cool it's shit. Go polish your Ferrari while wearing a g-string like ferrari's fag son Dino who died of aids.

Imagine you are a military leader of a nation who wants to do something about a military with F-35s. Now imagine immense helplessness.

The coating is specialized. Paint would be a liability.

The F-15 Silent Eagle blows the doors off the F-35, and costs less.

Can you explain why the rudders aren’t symmetrical? Doesn’t it make the jet off kilter?

>Why wouldn't it be worth it, the only thing that wasn't worth it was cutting the f-22 program

The F-22 is made by the same company that makes the F-35 and the F-22 has a number of issues as well, MAJOR ones.
It also is so damn expensive even the USA can't afford to buy any more of them, that's why the program was axed.

F22 readiness is low.
A few were crashed in 2018/19
Hurricane killed a few
Most need engine overhauls (Pratt F119)
But with the US breaking over 300 f35s we'll be fine.

>Marine F18 Aviation Ordnanceman

Back in 2012 there was talk about bringing back the OV10 Bronco and was selected to work on them.
Granted you have to sacrifice speed but the Bronco was an amazing Aircraft to work on. Granted you have to sacrifice speed but the OV10 can fly in AOs longer on standby than F18s without refueling. Turnaround times, maintenance and rearming literally took us 20 min one time.

Attached: unnamed (1).jpg (512x288, 40.39K)

The profile of the plane and the thrust require the rudders to be that way. There are also other things like size, requirements during maneuvering at high speeds, weight distribution of internal parts, stealth outfit, etc. which require special looking design.

Attached: 140310-F-NG006-007.jpg (4256x2832, 768.4K)

They have approved paints for the RAM coatings.

I'm a Boeing fag and the f15 silent eagle is DOA.
Boeing hasn't made a good redesign in a long time.

would an f-22 beat an f-35 in a straight up fight? assuming it was two air force brids going at it?

Is that the plane that was supposed to have 'stealth' technology and the the British said "we've been tracking two of your planes flying over our airspace, please cease and desist"

kek....stealth

>she isn't sexy-

Attached: 1442098561358.jpg (1200x609, 119.87K)

I'm a Boeing employee .. People in this thread are fucking retarded..

F-15 / F-18 will basically never go out of town. Been around since the 70's with minimal design advances until this year when the F-15X was revealed. It will be the king of aero fighting until anyone can figure it the fuck out and give us a reason to finally improve our 50 year old design. There are classified programs nobody knows about, along with the capability for F-15 / F-18 / F-22 to have tech advances for minimal cost, not to mention can already house modern payload.. Cost to maintain is not an issue, and won't be. Go back to world of warplanes faggots. Stop LARPing about aerospace because you watch History channel.

>Can some high iq user explain to me those wavy patterns on the hull? Is it bolted plated or what is it?

The hull is made of carbon fiber patches that are glued together.

Yes. That said our F-22's fuck your euro ass all day

>They have approved paints for the RAM coatings.
For the entire exterior? I can't find anything and I find it hard to believe putting a coating without sacrificing some stealth capability.

F-22 is on video losing to Rafaele

>What do you think of replacing the A-10 with light attack aircraft?

I am not him but speed and altitude are the best defenses against man portable anti air missiles and neither helicopters nor A-10s belong on the front lines against a technologically advanced opponent.