Comment by lettergram | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lettergram | Hacker News Reader

It might be just me… but I can’t imagine these planes being effective in large scale combat. Similar to the onset of WWII they quickly developed cheaper, more robust systems. This fighter has a lot of moving parts and would require a LOT of logistics to keep it running and build more. Practically speaking, they’d need a cheaper plane to actually fight any war. Particularly, with the ability to launch missiles and destroy factories. The less parts / reliance on large logistics the better. Might be good in the immediate combat, but anything over a few months I double many planes would be operational.

That said, baring a world war, this plane seems fine. As the US basically has a safe enough logistics train that they can deliver these planes around the world. IE fight in regional conflicts the plane works fine.

One lesson of the Ukraine war so far is that the defender needs a very strong SEAD story, because if you let the invader fight a ground war (under an intact air defense umbrella) it becomes an artillery battle in which your civilians, infrastructure, and ground forces suffer tremendously. Another is the power of deep penetration attacks on logistics. You can have doubts about the F-35 as a fighter as such, but the above is what the F-35 was designed to do.

In the oughties it seemed like the consensus was that the F-35 was a terrible weapon (but a great way to make contractors rich). That still seemed a common view in the 2010s. Now people who get paid to make these decisions and don't have an obvious vested interest seem to be making different decisions. I don't know what changed

Mostly economy of scale dropped flyaway cost of it down to 4th gen level ($80M)

What surprises me is do many countries accepting the high maintenance/flight hour cost. I’d also want something that can operate out of a crappy back road supported by a few conscripts, a few months into a conflict. Or do patrol missions in peacetime for cheap. F-35 ain’t that. But perhaps a mix is also expensive.

The majority view in the 2000s and 2010s was not that the F-35 was overpriced, it was that the F-35 was worse at most tasks than existing aircraft. The fact that it is crazy expensive just made that worse. Something must have changed, because I don't think Boeing has developed mind control rays.

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