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Comment by gherkinnn | Hacker News Reader

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The F35 program had a ton of issues and was expensive, but so was the B2 program. Sometimes something good comes out of a difficult process. They have made a lot of F35s now and exported many of them with many many more on order. At this point I think it is fair to say the F35 is a successful platform.

Rafale and Gripen don't hold a candle to the F35's capabilities, they're just a different class of aircraft. Not to say any one of the three is bad, but the EU currently just does not have it in them to have a viable competitor.

Ask Iran how much of a shit show the F35 is.

Iran has been crippled with sanctions limiting their ability to develop/buy any kind of fighter aircraft. Shooting from the air in Iran equals fighting a bot in an FPS game. They don't shoot back

That is a patently absurd take, ask Iran how much of a shitshow it is to be on the receiving end of planes your AA can't see.

The B2 is what did the damage in Iran. F22 and F35 were reportedly sent to protect the bombers.

I don't see how that detracts from the point that the F35 has been fraught with problems and operating it is dependent on an unreliably ally.

Israel has no B2s. Israeli F35s flew constantly over Western and Central Iran (including Tehran) for 12 days as if Iran's extensive air-defense network was not even there, doing a lot of damage.

Russian milbloggers responded with, "Why can't the Russian air force fly over Ukraine like that?"

Another absurd take - there was 1 sortie of B2s which was America's show of force. There were two weeks of daily Israeli F35 sorties, starting with SEAD and then progressing to strategic bombing targets. They all completed their missions with no loss of aircraft.

Tell me, when has an F35 failed to perform in combat duties? You're running off of internet memes from a decade ago while the F35 was still in development (and having a bad time of it). They are selling like crazy, and it's not because their customers are misinformed about the capabilities.

This is completely wrong. B2 bombers only dropped the MOAB on the nuclear enrichment sites. Israel used F35s to bomb Iran at will. Iran didn't shoot down a single plane.

They dropped the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), not the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB).

Minor point. OP is still completely wrong to ignore the HUNDREDS of bombs that Israel F35s dropped on Iran.

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