
China's Copycat Jet Raises Questions About F-35 - jonbaer
http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/09/more-questions-f-35-after-new-specs-chinas-copycat/121859/
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SEJeff
The F35/F22 AESA phased array radar is still as far as I'm aware, the best in
the world. It was considered so sensitive, that the US wouldn't even let the
UK use it. There isn't a closer military partner with the US than the UK, so
that says how much the US values some of the components like that.

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venomsnake
The F35 will be the superbattleship of WWIII - by the moment it arrives in all
its glory it will be obsolete, as were the battleships in WWII.

If it has a pilot inside - it is obsolete. A good 30-40% of the plane's weight
goes to ensure the pilot mostly survive.

~~~
SEJeff
Upfront disclaimer. I'm a veteran of OIF II (2003-2004 during the Fallujah
Offensive) who flew the Shadow 200 aka one of the unmanned aerial vehicles you
speak of. I was a 96U, which has been renamed to a 15W[1]. That picture is one
of the teensy UAVs, not one of the bigger ones like the Shadow, Hunter,
Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk, etc.

The UCAV/UCAS (aka UAV fighter jets for dogfighting) is still a very new
concept and hasn't been proven in a battlefield environment yet. In fact, the
USAF cancelled the X-45 UCAV demonstrator project even after it succeeded at
pretty much everything they asked of it. The technology to really do some of
these things has only matured in the past 5 or less years, and having it in
milspec fielded gear in another 10 is possible, but still quite ambitious.

As someone who has 480+ combat flight hours flying missions all over Iraq, I
call BS on your comment.

[1] [http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-
job...](http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job-
categories/transportation-and-aviation/unmanned-aerial-vehicle-operator.html)

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ionwake
I think he was saying when ww3 arrives, which I presume would be in atleast
around 10 years time. I think thats what his point was.

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venomsnake
My idea was that the next major conflict will be of "If I produce dumb drones
faster than the other side can shoot them down I win" type. Quantity has a
quality of its own. And with 3d printing turning a carrier into UAV factory is
not impossible. Make them semi-autonomous and it will be formidable.

~~~
SEJeff
Perhaps, but weaponized lasers are an affordable deterrent to just that. The
navy was the first to field them. They were worried that Iran would simply
swarm their big battleships in a carrier strike group with dozens upon dozens
of small speedboats + suicide bombers, or remotely piloted. Some lasers that
are taught to focus on burning out the engine make short work of that.

Things like this are what I'm referring to:
[http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/boeing-drone-laser-
we...](http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/boeing-drone-laser-weapon/)

The anti-small swarm lasers are already in active duty on a few newer Naval
warships. In the 10 years time you mention for a possible ww3, not only will
airborne lasers be viable, they'll be commonplace. So again, no I don't think
that's really going to be a big issue.

Also, if your idea did happen, it would be awful hard to defend a floating UAV
3d printing factory in the ocean. The US is slowly losing air superiority over
the rest of the world, but there isn't a navy that would come close to even
matching the might of the blue water US navy in 10 years, not by a long shot.
Even China struggles with that.

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Borogravia
It's going to be funny as hell when the Chinese version dramatically
outperforms the great-at-nothing boondoggle we've talked ourselves into
buying.

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hydrogen18
I was thinking along the opposite lines: the F-35 has been a giant shitshow
designed to get foreign militaries to waste efforts trying to "duplicate" it.

It'd be even more hilarious if the Chinese stole the plans to the F-35 and
produced it verbatim. They'd realize they would have wasted a great deal of
espionage and manufacturing effort on producing the lamest fighter ever.

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astrodust
The USSR spent a ton of money making the Buran and had very little to show for
their efforts other than a warehouse full of expensive, rusting junk.

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hydrogen18
This is true. The most successful Russian rocket line is the Soyuz family.
It's unrelated to the Energia rocket that was used in the Buran programme.

The Buran was basically a money pit for the USSR.

