I'm not a fan of the F-35, but this article discussing the hubbub around a recent Thunderbirds photo op with an F-16 and the F-35 is worthwhile reading.
http://www.businessinsider.com/people-are-bashing-the-f-35-over-this-picture-of-it-flying-with-an-f-16-2016-5 Conventional air superiority wisdom says you need two platforms -- an air superiority fighter (when I was a kid, this was the F-15, now it is the F-22) and a multirole fighter (I normally think of the F-16 but also the F-18). The idea is that the air superiority fighter is there to enter a combat zone and outclass anything in the sky, seizing control of the area, while the multirole as the name suggests can be used in air and ground assaults. The multirole fighter is cheaper and produced in larger numbers -- the AS fighter being more expensive but extremely effective. The two platforms compliment each other, as has been the case for a long, long time in air warfare. This is not even considering more specialized platforms like the beloved A-10, recently ended. The F-22 stopped production in 2012, but can you really have air superiority with only a multirole fighter like the F-35? That's the general idea, that the F-35 can "do it all," supposedly an AS fighter like the F-22, a multirole like the F-18, a dedicated ground assault platform like the A-10, and so on and so forth. I'm not an aeronautics engineer, so I cannot comment beyond that. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
