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US Air Force Declares F-35A Ready For Combat (defensenews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Defense News: The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for battle, 15 years after Lockheed Martin won the contract to make the plane. The milestone means that the service can now send its first operational F-35 formation -- the 34th Fighter Squadron located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah -- into combat operations anywhere in the world. The service, which plans to buy 1,763 F-35As, is the single-largest customer of the joint strike fighter program, which also includes the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy and a host of governments worldwide. "Given the national security strategy, we need it," [Air Combat Command (ACC) head Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle] said. "You look at the potential adversaries out there, or the potential environments where we have to operate this airplane, the attributes that the F-35 brings -- the ability to penetrate defensive airspace, the ability to deliver precision munitions with a sensor suite that fuses data from multiple information sources -- is something our nation needs." Carlisle said in July that even though he would feel comfortable sending the F-35 to a fight as soon as the jet becomes operational, ACC has formed a "deliberate path" where the aircraft would deploy in stages: first to Red Flag exercises, then as a "theater security package" to Europe and the Asia-Pacific. The fighter probably won't deploy to the Middle East to fight the Islamic State group any earlier than 2017, he said, but if a combatant commander asked for the capability, "I'd send them down in a heartbeat because they're very, very good." The declaration is another achievement for the $379 billion program -- the Pentagon's largest weapons project -- following the declaration of a first squadron of F-35s ready for combat made by the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2015.
that it could well be obsolete in less time than it took to develop it if computer controlled drones keep advancing at their current rate. There was a story not long ago about a computer flying a simulated fighter outperforming a top gun in a dogfight. Move technology on 15 years and putting a pilot in a fighter could seem rather quaint.
Okay, here you go. Want another? ;)
Fox: "I think we should call it... your grave!" Cast: "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"
People always say this but the reality is no one knows how global security is going to change through the lifetime of an aircraft and aircraft themselves are evolved to deal with new and emerging threats. People said the same about Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon 5 years ago, and yet it's already having to intercept 4.5th Gen Russian fighters that are infringing European airspace in the Baltic.
In many ways though it kind of works like nuclear deterrents and MAD; in large part the reason we don't have to send things like F-22s up against Su-37s is precisely because Russia knows if it forces such a confrontation it'll lose. The very fact we have the qualitative edge is in itself a reason for not having to use it. If we ditch it because we believe we don't need it, then we're more likely to find that we need it, only then we wont have it and we'll have already lost.
There were lots of planes that people called a failure at the start, and turned into outstanding aircraft. We can't get enough V-22s now. The WWII P-51 was a pathetic aircraft until they changed the engine and added the 85 gal fuel tank behind the pilot. The fuel tank made the plane unstable, but since you had to take off from England and climb to altitude before flying to Germany, you burned all that fuel before you got into the fight. Suddenly you had an outstanding long range aircraft.
Law Number XVI: In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one tactical aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3½ days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.
:)
And by "mission" I mean to siphon as much money from the taxpayer into into Lockheed Martin's bank accounts...