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Comment by fmajid | Hacker News Reader

Parking lots would make more sense than highways.

They're STOVL airplanes. Short Take Off Vertical Landing. They can only take off vertically on exhibitions, when they're carrying no weapons and little fuel. For normal operations they need a short runway.

I believe they also have a VTOL capacity of about 5,000lbs (vs 2,500lbs for the Harrier). The second you switch it to STOVL though, that capacity increases dramatically, so there's generally not going to be a reason to attempt VTOL in combat.

Off-topic, but the F-35 VTOL design is amusing to me in that it was designed by Russia, but they never made more than a prototype and sold the tech to the US where we've now used it to make planes to take on Russia.

A modern industrial estate could be more useful than somewhere more remote. You get large car parks to park vehicles and build things. Warehouses to hide equipment, do maintenance, and provide shelter. You have access to grid power and water. It will be on existing transport networks.

And it might just provide better cover. Western europe has hundreds of places like this. The enemy has to work out which building you are using in a group of fifty other non-descript buildings.

Parking lots would make no sense whatsoever, and I fail to see how you’d even get the idea that they would.

I assume OP means because it's a VTOL? It doesn't need a runway, just a large enough flat spot.

Yes, I realized that afterwards, but it’s not VTOL but STOVL. I believe it can take off vertically but mostly for airshow demonstration purposes, with minimal fuel and armament.

In any case, highways make much more sense logistically and operationally.

Extremely big parking is an US thing!

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