The Portuguese Air Force is no longer expected to acquire the 5th generation F-35 fighter from Lockheed Martin, all due to the review of the US position towards NATO.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        it’s trash, if you ignore literally everything it’s good at, which is basically everything it’s designed for.

        Turns out cars aren’t very good at crossing the ocean. Who would’ve thunk a fighter jet not designed for dogfighting wouldn’t be designed to dogfight. Truly a baffling conundrum.

        By all metrics available, the F35 is literally the most capable jet in existence, it’s technological capabilities are literally unmatched.

        • barnacul@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 month ago

          F35 is designed to be a multirole fighter-bomber, it’s a jack of all trades, but has some serious tradeoffs in stealth and maneuverability. And before you go off (rightfully) about how dogfighting is mostly irrelevant in the modern age, manuverability is also how you crank to avoid missiles at long range.

          The F22 can take on multiple F35s at the same time and smoke 'em.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            In those same tests when they let the F-35 engage at range it won most of the time. It’s literally the close in dogfight part that it doesn’t win at and that’s why the F-22 is supposed to do that for it. The F-35 without an F-22 mission profile is to sneak into radar range, trigger AIM 174s from the super hornets behind it to clear enemy air assets and then get into range for it’s air to ground payload; drop that and light the super cruise to go home. At no point is it envisioned willingly dogfighting.