Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Randal Walker
As for the F-35, couldn't a cheaper aircraft carry the same munitions?
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A cheaper aircraft could carry the same munitions, and more of them. That would be the A-10 or F-15E, but both of those stand out like dog's balls in a non-permissive battlefield. The F-35's low-observability means it can perform more missions with an ever-increasing threat than the 4th Gen aircraft.
When I flew the A-10 I never knew how large it appeared on radar; I knew it wasn't particularly stealthy, but hiding from MiG-29s and MiG-31s was a matter of flying down in the weeds. A couple years after I left the A-10 I transitioned to the F-16, and after seeing nearly every A-10 or AV-8 trying to hide at low altitude, I realized that hiding down low wasn't always going to work, since the pulse-doppler radar mostly eliminated the advantage offered by ground clutter against older radars.