F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

[tomahawk6]

I'm surprised Luke AFB isn't included in that, seeing how it's already the site of F-35 training for USAF and foreign partners thus far.  (Norway, Japan, RAF, Italy.)

Maybe Luke is maxed out and unable to handle a larger workload ?

 

[MarkOttawa]

Japanese change course on assembling F-35s in Japan:

Japan commits to local F-35 production

The Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) has confirmed plans to continue the local production of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

The move reverses a decision in late 2018 to cease local production at Japan’s final assembly and checkout (FACO) facility in Nagoya and instead focus on the localised maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade (MRO&U) of F-35s. That move was previously prompted by the high cost of building the F-35s at the facility.

However, a spokesperson from the MoD told Janes that the new decision to continue building the aircraft at the Japanese FACO facility was influenced by the declining costs of producing the F-35 locally. Producing the aircraft locally, said the spokesperson, is now cheaper than importing the F-35 from the United States [!?!, emphasis added].

The spokesperson was speaking to Janes nearly three weeks after the United States government approved a potential USD23 billion deal to sell Japan an additional 105 F-35s.

This Foreign Military Sale means Japan will operate a total of 147 F-35s, becoming the second-largest operator of the aircraft in the world [emphasis added].

These aircraft will comprise 105 conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A aircraft and 42 units of the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B.

The spokesperson said, “For the acquisition of F-35As in fiscal years (FY) 2019 and 2020… the Japanese MoD has decided to use domestic manufacturing at the FACO… It is confirmed that the unit cost of aircraft produced at the domestic FACO [facility] is less, compared to the unit cost of imported aircraft.”
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/japan-commits-to-local-f-35-production

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Trying out those new-fangled capabilities:

US Air Force tests electronic warfare capabilities with fighter, recon and bomber aircraft

The U.S. Air Force has concluded a two-day, $1.4 million exercise that evaluated the F-35 fighter jet’s ability to provide its electronic warfare capabilities to other stealthy reconnaissance and bombing platforms.

The event, which took place Aug. 4-6 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, tested the ability for the F-35 to provide Suppression of Enemy Air Defense, or SEAD, support for other stealthy platforms such as the B-2 and the RQ-170 reconnaissance drone, according to an Aug. 6 news release from the Air Force.

Maj. Theodore Ellis, chief of 53rd Wing Weapons, said the exercise focused on demonstrating stealth platform effectiveness against advanced threats using emerging technology and capitalizing on joint capabilities.

Other platforms that participated included the F-22, the F-15 and the Navy’s E/A-18G aircraft. Some aspects of the scenario tested these fourth- and fifth-generation platforms’ joint and coalition SEAD integration. Other scenarios focused on how the latest fourth-gen electronic capabilities could increase fifth-gen freedom of maneuver, and vice versa, in contested environments, the Air Force said.

U.S. adversaries over the past several years have developed advanced radars to detect incoming aircraft, pairing them with long-range missiles that in many cases outgun U.S. military weapons.

The event allowed the Air Force to explore the integration of tactics, techniques and procedures that have never been tested together.

“Through events like these, we continue to improve our joint 4th and 5th generation tactics, which enhances our abilities in an advanced threat environment,” Ellis said.

Events like this are the prime movers to test and evaluate emerging capabilities and technologies — as opposed to training and readiness — with an operationally realistic scenario...
https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2020/08/07/us-air-force-tests-electronic-warfare-capabilities-with-fighter-recon-and-bomber-aircraft/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Trying out those new-fangled capabilities:

Mark
Ottawa

Lots more at The Drive's "The War Zone" (great site):

Stealth Is Put To The Test In Huge Exercise Teaming RQ-170s, F-35s, B-2s With Other Jets
This exercise is also the first confirmation that the Air Force's top-secret 44th Reconnaissance Squadron flies the reclusive RQ-170 Sentinel.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35465/stealth-is-put-to-the-test-in-huge-exercise-teaming-rq-170s-f-35s-b-2s-with-other-jets

Mark
Ottawa

 

[OceanBonfire]

Disjointed between parties, even between the US military services:

Substandard parts, poor oversight led to potential F-35 fee overpayments

Insufficient staffing and differences in measuring F-35 aircraft availability hours between services, international partners, and customers are the reason that the Pentagon potentially overpaid Lockheed Martin performance-incentive fees for the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), according to a former programme official.

In a 22 July House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing; Theresa Hull, Pentagon assistant inspector general for audit acquisition, contracting, and sustainment, testified that the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) had potentially overpaid USD10.6 million in performance-incentive fees by not independently collecting and verifying aircraft availability hours. This, she said, is because the JPO did not conduct adequate oversight of Lockheed Martin's performance related to receiving F-35 spare parts and verifying aircraft availability hours.

Speaking under condition of anonymity, the former F-35 official told Janes on 4 August that the JPO was not independently collecting and verifying aircraft availability hours because the three US military services, eight partner nations, and five Foreign Military Sale (FMS) customers all collected this information differently. Even the US military services, he said, have their own unique ways of measuring the readiness of their aircraft.

"For the JPO to try to collect all that information independently would mean that we would have had to have hundreds of more people in hundreds of different places for all the different services and partners flying aircraft because they measure it differently," the former F-35 programme official said.


https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/substandard-parts-poor-oversight-led-to-potential-f-35-fee-overpayments

 

[MarkOttawa]

Slowly, slowly...

F-35 Will Finally Go into Full Production Next March, Acquisitions Chief Says

The Pentagon's top weapons buyer said Thursday that the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter should finally go into full production by next March following a series of delays -- the latest for COVID-19 workplace restrictions.

"I am confident that we are going to meet the March date," said Ellen Lord, undersecretary of Defense for Acquisitions and Sustainment.

However, Lord said she is going to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, next week with Robert Behler, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, to check on issues with the Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) facility for flight operations testing.

She said the trip is necessary to "understand exactly where we are" on the ability to run the JSE and get to full production.

"There have been setbacks within the JSE" on getting to full production for the F-35, the most expensive weapons system ever bought by the Pentagon, at $398 billion thus far.

The March 2021 target date, first reported by Bloomberg, was forced by delays to comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines "to make sure we had a safe working environment," Lord said at a Pentagon briefing.

More than 440 F-35s have been delivered around the world as of October 2019; full rate production approval would allow Lockheed to start producing upward of 160 aircraft per year.

Military.com reported last September that issues with the Joint Simulation Environment were delaying Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) for the F-35s.

The IOT&E will go ahead "when the JSE is ready to adequately complete the testing," DoD spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Andrews said in a statement at the time. "The JSE is required to adequately perform F-35 IOT&E against modern adversary aircraft and dense ground threats in realistic scenarios."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/08/21/f-35-will-finally-go-full-production-next-march-acquisitions-chief-says.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

South Korea to double total F-35 buy to 80, including now 20 F-35Bs for a light aircraft carrier:

Korean military to buy 40 more fighter jets from U.S.

Korea will double the number of F-35 stealth fighter jets it will buy from the United States, including variants that will operate on the country’s first aircraft carrier, according to military sources. 

A total of 40 Lockheed Martin-built F-35 jets will be acquired at a cost of approximately 8 trillion won ($6.7 billion), the sources said. 

Priority will be given to the acquisition of 20 F-35B jets, which are capable of short takeoff and vertical landing, and are due to be deployed on a light aircraft carrier Korea plans to complete by the early 2030s.

An additional 20 F-35A jets — the conventional takeoff and landing variants – will be acquired afterwards, which will raise the total number of fifth-generation fighters in Korea’s air fleet to 80. In 2014, the country signed a $6.4 billion deal with the United States to acquire 40 F-35As as part of the first phase of its air force augmentation plan.

Military sources added the additional acquisitions of F-35 aircraft, constituting the second phase of its fighter jet project, will be formally ratified at a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting slated for October. 

“The second phase of the fighter jet project had initially been planned for 20 units, but this has been doubled to coordinate with the construction of a light aircraft carrier,” a source said, adding that the timetable to purchase the F-35B variants was pushed forward. 

In its national defense plan for 2021 to 2025 unveiled earlier this month, Korea announced for the first time it was planning to build a 30,000-ton level aircraft carrier that will operate fighter jets capable of vertical takeoff and landing. 

The decision to expedite the purchase of the F-35B planes — the only planes in production around the world that are capable of vertical takeoff and landing — was reached to allow planners to design the aircraft carrier in line with the aircraft's specifications. 

To suit the Navy’s plan to complete the vessel sometime around 2030, a concept design needs to be drawn up by the end of this year, before work on basic design begins next year [emphasis added]. 

“We require knowledge of the precise specifications of the F-35B jet to design the deck and main parts [of the carrier],” said a military source. “But Lockheed Martin is of the position it cannot release information on the jet until a contract is signed for its purchase.”

A feasibility study on the acquisition plan is set to be completed by the first half of next year, with military planners believing the purchase will go through in the middle part of the decade if a contract is signed between 2021 and 2022. 

Though the new F-35B planes are set to be deployed on an aircraft carrier, they will be operated by the Korean Air Force rather than the Navy, sources said. 

So far Korea has received the delivery of 16 F-35A jets it ordered in 2014, but plans to obtain all 40 by the end of next year [emphasis added], which will then mark the launch of the second phase of its acquisition plan. 
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/08/25/national/defense/F35-F35B-stealth-fighter/20200825172700453.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Really sticking it in Erdogan's eye if true (note also Incirlik):

Greece to take over F-35As initially intended for Turkey

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on 27 Oct. that Greece will take different measures regarding the defense of its national territory, air space and territorial waters. The purchase of 20 F-35A stealth fighters initially intended for the Turkish Air Force is part of the program.

Greece will take additional measures to further prevent illegal immigration, for the further defensive shielding of its Aegean islands with new missile systems, to strengthen the defense in the Aegean and Thrace, on land, air and sea.

In addition to the protection of its borders in terms of personnel, Greece is proceeding at a rapid pace within 2021 and 2022 to the strengthening of its Armed Forces with equipment. During U.S. State Secreary Mike Pompeo's recent visit, the supply of 20 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters was launched, 6 of which will be purchased on smart loan in 2012 and together with the first 6 MBDA Rafale fighters will be the firepower of the Greek Air Force. The F-35As were initially intended for the Turkish Air Force, a program the U.S. scrapped following the purchase of Russian-made S-400 Triumf air defense systems by Turkey.

Moreover, the U.S are reportedly considering the possible transfer of its Turkish air base of Incirlik to Crete, the Greek newspaper Estia reports in its 28 Octobre [sic] edition. The issue is described as "early" but is already being formally discussed in the U.S. Senate. In a few days, the annual defense agreement between Greece and the USA will also expire. The Government will propose to the Parliament its five-year extension.

In addition, the new Greek armament program includes the purchase of Spike antitank missiles from Israel along with drones and anti-drones, as well as the construction of four frigates and possibly the activation of the option for the construction of 2 new 214 submarines from Germany, Estia concludes.
https://www.airrecognition.com/index.php/news/defense-aviation-news/2020/october/6649-greece-to-take-over-f-35as-initially-destined-to-turkey.html

Predate: Plus Greeks getting 18 Rafales from French (12 used):
https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/08/france-to-order-12-more-rafale-fighters-to-replace-greek-supply/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CBH99]

Ouch.

Allowing the Greeks to have the 20 F-35A fighters that were initially intended for Turkey, AND moving it's airbase from Turkey to Greece?

I think we can effectively say that Turkey will be more closely aligned with Russia in the next few years, regardless of whether it is an official member of NATO or not.  Much to NATO's disadvantage.

:2c:

 

[tomahawk6]

Turkey cannot be trusted. Better to move our assets to Greece and Cyprus.

 

[suffolkowner]

Ouch.

Allowing the Greeks to have the 20 F-35A fighters that were initially intended for Turkey, AND moving it's airbase from Turkey to Greece?

I think we can effectively say that Turkey will be more closely aligned with Russia in the next few years, regardless of whether it is an official member of NATO or not.  Much to NATO's disadvantage.

:2c:

I don't see how a Turkish-Russian relationship can be stable. To me it would be to NATO's advantage to get rid of Turkey, or at least keep them at the red headed step childs table. The Black Sea is a dead end either way

 

[CBH99]

I don't see how a Turkish-Russian relationship can be stable. To me it would be to NATO's advantage to get rid of Turkey, or at least keep them at the red headed step childs table. The Black Sea is a dead end either way

I both agree & disagree with you, simply on the basis that the issue can become complicated.

Turkey is a horrible NATO ally, and I agree that they don't deserve to be a member of the alliance based on what the country has come.  Broadly speaking:

-  A dictatorship under Ergodan, which has arrested & suppressed it's citizens en masse in the last few years, which has carried out air strikes against Kurdish villages & towns INSIDE OF TURKEY (Literally conducting air strikes on it's own citizens)

-  Supporting ISIS financially, while supporting and protecting ships illegally smuggling weapons into Libya.  (The most recent example had Turkish warships with a FC radar lock on a French warship that was attempting to do an intercept.)

^^ Two of the main examples, amongst countless smaller ones



BUT...

Losing Turkey as an 'ally' to Russia would eliminate the buffer between East & West, as Turkey is more or less known as being the gateway to the East.

Turkey has the ability to 'turn on the tap' when it comes to massive immigration & refugee problems for the rest of Europe.  Think it was bad a few years ago?  Wait until Turkey isn't an ally, and effectively stops helping to mitigate the mass migration.

NATO would obviously lose easy access to the Black Sea -- which may or may not be that big of a deal, depending on tactical scenarios of the future.



It's sad to see the relationship deteriorating the way it has.  Blame can easily be put on both sides.



Would NATO as an organization be better off without having to deal with Turkey's constant BS?  Yes. 

Would NATO as an organization be better off with Turkey falling more or less under the Russian sphere of influence?  No.


:2c:

 

[FJAG]

I don't see how a Turkish-Russian relationship can be stable. To me it would be to NATO's advantage to get rid of Turkey, or at least keep them at the red headed step childs table. The Black Sea is a dead end either way

Seems to me that Turkey and Russia are at odds over the Armenia v Azerbaijan issue as well as Northern Syria.

See here, here, and here.

Fundamentally, both countries have conflicting interest in the region. It may well have been that Russia sold Turkey S400s but one must wonder if they come with a remote "off" switch?

:cheers:

 

[suffolkowner]

I both agree & disagree with you, simply on the basis that the issue can become complicated.

Turkey is a horrible NATO ally, and I agree that they don't deserve to be a member of the alliance based on what the country has come.  Broadly speaking:

-  A dictatorship under Ergodan, which has arrested & suppressed it's citizens en masse in the last few years, which has carried out air strikes against Kurdish villages & towns INSIDE OF TURKEY (Literally conducting air strikes on it's own citizens)

-  Supporting ISIS financially, while supporting and protecting ships illegally smuggling weapons into Libya.  (The most recent example had Turkish warships with a FC radar lock on a French warship that was attempting to do an intercept.)

^^ Two of the main examples, amongst countless smaller ones



BUT...

Losing Turkey as an 'ally' to Russia would eliminate the buffer between East & West, as Turkey is more or less known as being the gateway to the East.

Turkey has the ability to 'turn on the tap' when it comes to massive immigration & refugee problems for the rest of Europe.  Think it was bad a few years ago?  Wait until Turkey isn't an ally, and effectively stops helping to mitigate the mass migration.

NATO would obviously lose easy access to the Black Sea -- which may or may not be that big of a deal, depending on tactical scenarios of the future.



It's sad to see the relationship deteriorating the way it has.  Blame can easily be put on both sides.



Would NATO as an organization be better off without having to deal with Turkey's constant BS?  Yes. 

Would NATO as an organization be better off with Turkey falling more or less under the Russian sphere of influence?  No.


:2c:

I just don't see Turkey and Russia playing friends very well. Trading with each other especially arms sure.

Turkey's going to do what it does no matter what I think, unless there is a radical change/coup. I'm not sure how much influence Russia or anyone can or has been able to apply

To me I dont see the significance of the Turkish straits anymore. Russia is bottled up in the Black Sea not unlike the Baltic and once it gets out there are the Greek,Italian,French, and Spanish navies not to mention the Americans in the Med to mop them up. Who would want to enter the Black sea to engage in a naval battle with the Russian navy-suicide

Probably decades ago I was watching the agenda with Steve Paikin where they were discussing Turkey/Iran/Islamism and the one pundit called this to a tee. I remember being very impressed by his analysis. The other pundit, I can't remember her name but she's well known I think for her Middle Eastern analysis, was flabbergasted at his opinion and voiced the complete opposite. Sometimes the American led west makes some strange bedfellows and I think Turkey is joining Pakistan in that regard.

What was this thread about again? Oh yeah order some F-35's already and get some of that Turkish parts supply in Canada

 

[tomahawk6]

Its clear Turkey seems to like Russia more than NATO as it purchased the S400 system.

 

[CBH99]

What was this thread about again? Oh yeah order some F-35's already and get some of that Turkish parts supply in Canada

Amen.

 

[CBH99]

Its clear Turkey seems to like Russia more than NATO as it purchased the S400 system.

In all fairness to Turkey (And I'm not a huge fan of Turkey by any means) - their purchase of the S400 falls purely on the shoulders of the US.

For almost 20 years, Turkey had been requesting to purchase Patriot systems from the US.  Their requests were always stalled, and eventually turned down.  Up until recently, Turkey had to rely on German units deploying to Turkey with older & less capable versions of the Patriot to have a decent regional air defense capability.

Turkey also made a fair point.  Turkey has been a member of NATO for ages, has allowed the US the use of it's bases for conducting operations in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.  It was requesting the Patriot to help bolster NATO's eastern flank against Russia, and other threats they face in the region.  They were constantly turned down.

The US has even sold the latest versions of the Patriot system to Saudi Arabia - a non-NATO country with a brutal regime in power.  So the US was willing to sell the Patriot system to Saudi Arabia, but not Turkey...despite Turkey being a NATO member. 

I believe it was that sale that finally broke the camel's back, and Turkey decided to give up trying to buy the systems from the US and instead buy something from Russia. 

They paid Russia X amount of money for a certain amount of systems, and Russia delivered what was agreed on.  Can't fault Turkey for being frustrated, and can't fault Russia for earning the business.



Like I mentioned before, it's sad to see the relationship deteriorating as quickly as it has.  Much blame on both sides. 


:2c:

 

[tomahawk6]

The US deployed the Patriot when Syria became a threat. The S400 deal also saw Trump pull the US offer to sell Pat's.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/politics/turkey-patriot-missiles-us/index.html

 

[MarkOttawa]

Almost video game time:

Lockheed Martin moves to connect USAF F-35 simulators in USA and UK in 2021

Updated on 2 December: This article has been changed to reflect new information. Based on information initially provided by Lockheed Martin, the article originally said Royal Air Force and US Air Force F-35 simulators would be connected in 2021. The company now says the date of networking those two air forces’ F-35 simulators has not been determined, but that USAF-operated simulators in the USA and the UK will be networked in 2021.

Lockheed Martin plans to connect full-mission simulators in the USA and in the UK at RAF Lakenheath through a software upgrade starting in 2021, allowing US Air Force (USAF) pilots to virtually train with one another across international borders.

The Distributed Mission Training system, which was developed by Lockheed in partnership with the F-35 Joint Program Office and the USAF, allows pilots of several different aircraft types to practice flying together in separate simulators.

The company also says the Royal Air Force’s F-35 simulators in the UK are next in line to be connected to the Distributed Mission Training system, an ability which would allow British and American pilots to train together virtually.

In February, for the first time, the service successfully linked simulators for the Lockheed F-35, F-22 and F-16 fighters, as well as the Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, in a virtual combat training test at Nellis AFB in Nevada.

Now, the USAF aims to deploy and connect more full-mission simulators. Next year, Lockheed plans to add the Distributed Mission Training system capability to US Navy and US Marine Corps F-35 simulators at NAS Lemoore in central California and US Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California.

“Much like a multiplayer game online, which allows users to play and connect despite the physical distance, [the Distributed Mission Training system] allows pilots to train together in real time,” Todd Canterbury, senior manager for Lockheed Martin global sustainment, said on 1 December. “You can have F-35 pilots from Hill [AFB] fly with F-16 pilots from Shaw [AFB], fly with F-22 pilots from Langley [AFB], all being controlled by an AWACS controller in the UK.”

Despite thousands of miles between them, Lockheed says simulations should have “negligible” latency. The company also says the connections have been cyber-hardened to prevent eavesdropping by adversaries.

Lockheed says operators of the F-35 are using simulators more and more to train pilots. For example, because the fighter is a single-seat aircraft, and there is not an instructor pilot onboard to help guide a trainee on first flight, simulator practice helps increase safety.

“Back when I first flew this airplane, we required the first sortie just to be a taxi,” says Canterbury, a former USAF fighter pilot who went by the call sign “Tales”. “The pilots and the maintainers would plan and prepare just as if it were a real sortie. But in the end, we taxi to the runway and taxi back. Entirely unfulfilling.”

By training for about 30h on the full-mission simulator, pilot trainees are now able to get airborne on their first sortie in the F-35, he says. “The services are also looking at innovative solutions to get initial qualifications in the jet without using the jet,” Canterbury says.

Prior to joining Lockheed in July 2020, Canterbury was commander of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke AFB in Arizona. He says that during his time with the USAF, about 60% of pilot flight hours were done in real F-35 aircraft and 40% were done in simulators.

“But they’re seriously looking at tilting that model on its head and performing more in the simulator than in the live-fly environment,” he says.

“Some of the reasons for that is the fifth-generation airplanes we’re flying have simply outgrown our fourth-generation ranges. We no longer have the airspace or the detection ranges available to us. We no longer have the ability to fly supersonic at will, as much as we need to with this airplane, these tactics,” he says. “Additionally, there’s just certain things that we don’t want to fly in the open air environment, because we’re always under the watchful eye of our adversaries.”

Moreover, the USAF’s F-35A is enormously expensive to operate – about $44,000 per flight hour, based on one estimate – and so any time that a pilot can spend in a simulator, instead of the actual aircraft, saves money. (For its part, Lockheed says it still believes the cost per flight hour of the F-35A will be reduced to $25,000 by 2025).

Operating costs can quickly pile up when it comes to large scale war games like Red Flag, an advanced aerial combat training exercise that encompasses dozens of aircraft, multiple nations and takes place several times per year at Nellis AFB and at Eielson AFB in Alaska.

“Simulation is ideal for large-scale exercise training, reducing risk and freeing up the actual aircraft,” says Lockheed. “With simulation, our goal is to provide a range of potential mission scenarios to prepare pilots and maintainers for what they may face in combat. In addition, virtual training exercises are ideal for scenarios that may be cost prohibitive in the live training environment.”

Source: Lockheed Martin
F-35 pilot in full-mission simulator
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing/lockheed-martin-moves-to-connect-usaf-f-35-simulators-in-usa-and-uk-in-2021/141399.article

Mark
Ottawa

 

[CBH99]

I see the article did make mention of something I was going to bring up, re: the system is 'hardened' to prevent adversaries from observing.

I realize this is the 21st century, and technology is blowing by me -- and people far smarter than I have probably already thought these issues through.

But why does everything need to be online & linked these days, especially when we have a war (cold or hot) against an EXTREMELY capable adversary looming on the horizon?

China has already hacked & stolen a lot of data on the F-35 and it's capabilities, and has no doubt developed plans to counter some of the advantages the F-35 would have.  Advantages that would be far more useful if the Chinese didn't know about them until they were experiencing being on the receiving end.


Why does Lockheed/US continue to publish developmental technologies online (even if they are 'hardened' and 'secret') - and in this case, does this not present a valuable opportunity to a country like China to learn even more??