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Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight

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Test Pilot Admits the
F-35 Can’t Dogfight

New stealth fighter is
dead meat in an air battle

by DAVID AXE

A test pilot has some very, very bad
news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can’t turn
or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the
enemy’s own gunfire, the pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back
in January.

“The F-35
was at a distinct energy disadvantage,” the unnamed pilot wrote in a scathing
five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is unclassified but
is labeled “for official use only.”

The test pilot’s report is the latest
evidence of fundamental
problems with the design of the F-35 — which, at a total program cost of more
than a trillion dollars, is history’s most expensive weapon.

The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine
Corps — not to mention the air forces and navies of more than a dozen U.S.
allies — are counting on the Lockheed Martin-made JSF to replace many if not
most of their current fighter jets.

And that means that, within a few
decades, American and allied aviators will fly into battle in an inferior
fighter — one that could get them killed … and cost the United States
control of the air.

The fateful test took place on Jan. 14,
2015, apparently within the Sea Test Range over the Pacific Ocean near Edwards
Air Force Base in California. The single-seat F-35A with the designation
“AF-02” — one of the older JSFs in the Air Force — took off alongside a two-seat
F-16D Block 40, one of the types of planes the F-35 is supposed to replace.

The two jets would be playing the roles
of opposing fighters in a pretend air battle, which the Air Force organized
specifically to test out the F-35’s prowess as a close-range dogfighter in an
air-to-air tangle involving high “angles of attack,” or AoA, and “aggressive
stick/pedal inputs.”

In other words, the F-35 pilot would
fly his jet hard, turning and maneuvering in order to “shoot down” the F-16,
whose pilot would be doing his own best to evade and kill the F-35.

“The
evaluation focused on the overall effectiveness of the aircraft in performing
various specified maneuvers in a dynamic environment,” the F-35 tester wrote.
“This consisted of traditional Basic Fighter Maneuvers in offensive, defensive
and neutral setups at altitudes ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 feet.”

At top and above — F-35s and F-16s. Air Force
photos

The F-35 was flying “clean,” with no
weapons in its bomb bay or under its wings and fuselage. The F-16, by contrast,
was hauling two bulky underwing drop tanks, putting the older jet at an
aerodynamic disadvantage.

But the JSF’s advantage didn’t actually
help in the end. The stealth fighter proved too sluggish to reliably defeat the
F-16, even with the F-16 lugging extra fuel tanks. “Even with the limited F-16
target configuration, the F-35A remained at a distinct energy disadvantage for
every engagement,” the pilot reported.

The
defeated flier’s five-page report is a damning litany of aerodynamic
complaints targeting the cumbersome JSF.

“Insufficient pitch rate.” “Energy deficit to the bandit would
increase over time.” “The flying qualities in the blended region (20–26 degrees
AoA) were not intuitive or favorable.”

The F-35 jockey tried to target the
F-16 with the stealth jet’s 25-millimeter cannon, but the smaller F-16 easily
dodged. “Instead of catching the bandit off-guard by rapidly pull aft to achieve
lead, the nose rate was slow, allowing him to easily time his jink prior to a
gun solution,” the JSF pilot complained.

And when the pilot of the F-16 turned
the tables on the F-35, maneuvering to put the stealth plane in his own
gunsight, the JSF jockey found he couldn’t maneuver out of the way, owing to a
“lack of nose rate.”

The F-35 pilot came right out and said
it — if you’re flying a JSF, there’s no point in trying to get into a sustained,
close turning battle with another fighter. “There were not compelling reasons to
fight in this region.” God help you if the enemy surprises you and you have no
choice but to turn.

The JSF tester found just one way to
win a short-range air-to-air engagement — by performing a very specific
maneuver. “Once established at high AoA, a prolonged full rudder input generated
a fast enough yaw rate to create excessive heading crossing angles with
opportunities to point for missile shots.”

But there’s a problem — this sliding
maneuver bleeds energy fast. “The
technique required a commitment to lose energy and was a temporary opportunity
prior to needing to regain energy … and ultimately end up defensive again.”
In other words, having tried the trick once, an F-35 pilot is out of options and
needs to get away quick.

Buy ‘The Air Force Way of
War: U.S. Tactics and Training after Vietnam.’

And to add insult to injury, the JSF
flier discovered he couldn’t even comfortably move his head inside the
radar-evading jet’s cramped cockpit. “The helmet was too large for the space
inside the canopy to adequately see behind the aircraft.” That allowed the F-16
to sneak up on him.

In the end, the F-35 — the only new
fighter jet that America and most of its allies are developing — is demonstrably
inferior in a dogfight with the F-16, which the U.S. Air Force first acquired in
the late 1970s.

The test pilot explained that he has
also flown 1980s-vintage F-15E fighter-bombers and found the F-35 to be
“substantially inferior” to the older plane when it comes to managing energy in
a close battle.

F’d: How the U.S. and Its
Allies Got Stuck with the World’s Worst New Warplane
The
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was meant to improve the U.S. air arsenal, but has
made it more vulnerable insteadmedium.com

F-35 Still Years Away From
Being Ready for Combat
America’s
new fighter jet is plagued with engine, software and fuel tank
problemsmedium.com

For America’s F-35 Stealth
Fighter, the Best Case Is Still … Bad
All
our air-power eggs in one
basketmedium.com

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Published on Jun 29. All
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