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Comment by rayvd | Hacker News Reader

How do the issues with the F-35 platform stack up against those of earlier models? I've read anecdotes that early on the F-16 and F-15 also had significant flaws, yet those were eventually sorted out and both have become mainstays of air forces around the world.

I've no doubt there have been massive costs overruns (what government program doesn't), but would be willing to bet that the F-35 turns out to be a really good plane and does nothing to threaten the US's position as the premier air power.

Some good discussion:

https://www.quora.com/Is-the-F-35-as-bad-as-many-people-clai...

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The F-15 first flew in 1972, and four years later entered service. Three years after that it was seeing regular combat in Israeli service and production was being upgraded to the F-15C/D variant. By 1984, 12 years after it flew, it had all but replaced the aircraft (F-4 variants, mostly) it was intended to in USAF service.

The F-35 first flew 12 years ago. You do the math.

It's questionable if manned high performance fighter aircraft have a vital aka non symbolic role in a modern army. That's not to say the F-35 will not be used or even preform well, but consider unmanned satellites made manned high altitude surveillance obsolete even if they where not as directly useful.

It is tempting to dismiss the possibility of a serious war. We did that after the Great War, the War to End all Wars, now known as World War I. It's been a while, over 70 years now, but you can be sure that there will be another serious war.

When that happens, there will be no satellites. There will be no way to remotely operate any equipment. Mere navigation and communication will be difficult again.

Any sort of unmanned equipment will have to operate autonomously, making deadly decisions in an unfamiliar and hostile environment. That's a tall order for modern AI.

Back in the 90's missiles where already able to navigate by landmarks and stars. GPS is nice, but it's in no way needed for Drones.

The kind of war you are talking about is exactly the kind of war where small numbers of expensive F-35's will very quickly be destroyed and how quickly new weapons can enter the battlefield will be a major issue. The vast distributed supply chain is probably the number 1 issue with F-35's for that kind of a fight.

While not great as spy satellites, using flocks of cube satellites for communications would be very hard to shut down. A single launch could put hundreds of separate targets up which would need to be individually targeted. Similarly unmanned drones can fill in for spy aircraft in tactical situations and are very cost effective.

I can't say what the modern version of total war between modern supper powers would look like, but I very much doubt it would look much like WWII.

Obsolete might be a strong word, the U-2s are still in service.

U-2s's that fly along side unmanned RQ-4s's

It's replacement are all supposed to be drones or at lest pilot optional.

That said, using obsolete hardware can be a budget issue. The Airforce also uses 8-inch floppy disks in missile silos for example, and sure they still work.

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