German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a parliamentary source told Reuters on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
Good. Europe and its allies must ramp up its own production capabilities, but as long as this isn’t the case, there is not much choice I assume.
must ramp up its own production capabilities
Which is why buying US made plane sucks,
It’s especially a pitty for Germany who has a big industrial complex
It’s especially weird seeing how Germany has over a hundred euro fighters with 50 more on order…
To be fair, whether or not the F-35 is the right choice here, the Eurofighter and the F-35 are for different jobs. The Eurofighter is first and foremost for fighting other aircraft, while the F-35 sacrifices some capability in that regard to be better at blowing up stuff on the ground. That’s why the Americans have both the F-22 and the F-35. The Eurofighter is our F-22, not our F-35
I don’t doubt that the F-35 could take on most other aircraft very effectively, but a big country like Germany is spending enough and flying enough to warrant specialisation
The Eurofighter is first and foremost for fighting other aircraft, while the F-35 sacrifices some capability in that regard to be better at blowing up stuff on the ground.
The only major thing the F-35 is giving up is super-cruise, which makes it less suitable as an interceptor specifically.
I don’t doubt that the F-35 could take on most other aircraft very effectively
For general air-to-air combat and establishing air-superiority the F-35 is still vastly superior. Their stealth allows them to engage other air targets BVR before being spotted themselves. They have been wiping the floor with every other NATO aircraft except the F-22 in past red flag exercises.
It’s also significantly heavier with the same thrust and less wing area, and its payload is limited unless it uses external hardpoints that worsen its stealthiness.
I have read reporting on F-35s getting a 15-1 kill ratio at Red Flag 17, but it’s worth noting that the aggressor aircraft at that one were F-16s. That’s a capable plane in its own right of course, but it’s twice as old as the Typhoon and hasn’t had all of the same modernisation
Oddly enough there’s actually an interview with two pilots of the relevant aircraft who duelled during an exercise last year in which they (very briefly) discuss some of the advantages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upqVaKWQ_EU
Very interesting interview. I think they were training specifically for close air combat in the scenario, which is not something the F-35 is meant to do. But it makes sense to at least train for it. They just really briefly mention my point in the video at this timestamp.
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Developing a fighting jet needs time, the aim for FCAS is 2040, and at the moment it looks like that is not going to happen. For the next 20 years an alternative is needed.
You assume wrong. There many local, superior options : gripen, Eurofighter and best of all, Rafale.
None of those is superior.
They are superior insofar that that crazy annoying orange Putin puppet across the pond can’t shut them down easily.
The “kill-switch” is a myth.
And as much as I’d like to piss of Trump by denying the US the business, it shouldn’t come at the expense of our military capabilities.
Even if there is no literal kill switch, you can easily ground a high tech gadget like a modern fighter jet in short order by ceasing delivery of spare parts.
A good amount of the parts are already produced in Europe. Also there is over 20 F-35 operators already, almost all friendly to each other. Unless the US would cut of everyone from crucial spare part deliveries, they could still be sourced.
Also if the US would actually do such a thing that would guarantee that no one will ever buy their fighter jets again and they love selling fighter jets. It’s just not a realistic scenario.
Also if the US would actually do such a thing that would guarantee that no one will ever buy their fighter jets again and they love selling fighter jets. It’s just not a realistic scenario.
The US has never done anything stupid that has damaged itself more than others, especially not the current government, right?
At this point, the US should be considered both an enemy and a Russian client state. Whenever Putin makes a phone call to Trump, he will parrot whatever Putin is saying for a couple weeks.
Parts are made in Australia as well. I know because I’ve been part of protests urging the government to stop sending them to Israel.
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