January 7, 200917 yr New analysis of the F-35 JSF from Carlo Kopp and the APA gang ... Assessing JSF Defence Penetration Capabilities
January 7, 200917 yr Author And, unsurprisingly, rapid commentary from Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week's ARES Blog ... JSF News 2 - Stealth Questions Raised
January 7, 200917 yr But those aren't news neither a surprise for us, F-35 is publicly less stealthy than F-22 (I use those relations of "stealthyness" in my personal databases): http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/a...s/20051125.aspx F-22 Stealth Ability Revealed by USAFNovember 25, 2005: The U.S. Air Force, in it's effort to get money to build more F-22s, has revealed just how "stealthy" the F-22 is. It's RCS (Radar Cross Section) is the equivalent, for a radar, to a metal marble. The less stealthy (and much cheaper) F-35, is equal to a metal golf ball. The F-35 stealthiness is a bit better than the B-2 bomber, which, in turn, was twice as good as that on the even older F-117. Much older aircraft, like the B-52, have a huge RCS, which makes them very easy to spot on radar. But with a smaller RCS, it's more likely that the aircraft won't be detected at all. The air force revealed this information, which is usually kept secret, because it wants to make the case that it makes more sense to cut production of the F-35 (which cost $30-50 million each), so that more F-22s (that cost over $100 million each) can be bought. Most of the air force generals are former fighter pilots, and the F-22 is a much hotter fighter than the F-35 (which is basically a fighter-bomber, with emphasis on the latter function.) This is causing an international uproar, because of the many foreign countries that are buying the F-35. Some of these countries have contributed money for the development of the F-35. The F-22 will not be exported, because it uses so much top secret technology.
January 8, 200917 yr Author But those aren't news neither a surprise for us, F-35 is publicly less stealthy than F-22 ... Yes, I think that's been abundantly clear all along. What isn't clear is whether the JSF can live up to the selling points being made by "LockMart".
Create an account or sign in to comment