F-35B on the USS Wasp..

[Srjeeper]

Absolutely beautiful.


These are the latest sea trials of the F-35B on the USS Wasp. They were very successful, with 74 VL's and STO's in a three week period. The aircraft is also stealth, and super-sonic.

The media and the program critics had predicted that we would burn holes in the deck and wash sailors overboard.

Neither of which happened. You will notice a sailor standing on the bow of the ship as the jet rotates.

That was an intentional part of the sea trials.


No catapult... No hook.... It’s a new world out there!



Click your mouse here: F-35 B

 

[Heath_h49008]

The last of the manned fighters.

 

[B3.3T]

Indeed, last of the manned fighters, at least U.S.

 

[TIGERFANS2]

And all the pundits say Ohio and Michigan don't see eye to eye

 

[maddawg308]

Newfangled, high-dollar FUBAR magnet. Thing costs between $197 and $234 million EACH, depending on the package you want. I think the defense contractors in DC have lost their collective marbles with the price tags, believe you me. It's a neat toy, it really is. And all it will take is a $10,000 EMP weapon to knock it out of the sky. Just like a $10 million jet or a $20 million jet.

Just my rambling I guess, but I believe that quantity has a quality all it's own. For the same money, I'd rather have 20-25 F-4 Phantoms with upgraded avionics and weapons flying in the air than a Lamboghini beauty pageant winner.

 

[B3.3T]

An EMP of any strength to do any damage outside a lab requires a nuclear detonation. You're dreaming at $10k. I do agree there will never be enough of these built to offer much of a defense. "Quantity has a quality all it's own." V.I. Lenin

 

[clinto]

Yeah, that video isn't 6 weeks old. It was posted in November, 2011 by Lockheed Martin (it's their youtube channel).

We had a thread here on SS about it back in December, 2011:

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/planes-helicopters/80173-new-f-35b-anyone-seen.html

 

[wreckerman893]

We kicked the German's azz because we had an industrial base that could turn out equipment at a rate unheard of before WWII.

The Panzer was a great tank but we could replace the tanks we lost faster than the Germans could replace their battle losses. Attrition cost the Germans the war.....especially after we bombed their industrial base into the ground.

I see the same problems with the vehicles the military is buying now, fly by wire gear shifting, computer controlled engines, too much reliance on computers. One day that is going to bite us in the arse.

 

[Srjeeper]

Yeah, that video isn't 6 weeks old. It was posted in November, 2011 by Lockheed Martin (it's their youtube channel).

We had a thread here on SS about it back in December, 2011:

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/planes-helicopters/80173-new-f-35b-anyone-seen.html

There ya go Clinto....I fixed it for ya....anything else ya don't care for about the video , just go ahead and pull yer moderator delete bullet outta your pocket and have at it.

 

[maddawg308]

I agree, WM.

In a way, I respect the Russians and the Chinese in their military preparations. If we ever got into a conventional war with them (non nuclear, biological or chemical warfare), we'd have our asses handed to us. They have more than enough conventional munitions and old-tech weapons, all they would have to do is wear us down. Same thing happened to us in Korea - after the first couple months we were fighting mostly Chinese reinforcements that were backing up the North Koreans, I've heard tales of our guys fighting off wave after wave of enemy soldiers with NO WEAPONS AT ALL, their only task was to get us to shoot them and waste our ammo. Eventually we'd spend all our ammo and there would still be wave after wave waiting for us.

Sometimes high-tech is no-tech. Make it too complex and maintenance-intensive and it is almost guaranteed to fail when needed...

 

[Ferroequinologist]

We kicked the German's azz because we had an industrial base that could turn out equipment at a rate unheard of before WWII.

The Panzer was a great tank but we could replace the tanks we lost faster than the Germans could replace their battle losses. Attrition cost the Germans the war.....especially after we bombed their industrial base into the ground.

I see the same problems with the vehicles the military is buying now, fly by wire gear shifting, computer controlled engines, too much reliance on computers. One day that is going to bite us in the arse.

I bet several country's right now could out build us on simple weapons of war. And I agree whole heartily about making the military too complex. A lot has to do with people up top getting out and working for defense contractors, and the demand for bigger and better in the military. My ship was ready to roll at any time and go anywhere, when the Arleigh Burke (DDG51, the 'new' class of destroyers) couldn't even keep it's generators online. Yet my ship got decommissioned and sunk as a target.

Oh, the jet is cool, no doubt. But what the **** over. Remember the m308 and the m715? the m308 preformed better but the military could get 5 m715's for every 4 m308s. those days of thinking like that are long gone.

 

[quickfarms]

Technology for the sake of technology is a waste.

We need to be more advanced than our adversary. But the question is how much more advanced? We need to continue to develop technology but we do not be so advanced that we can not fight a conventional adversary.

Remember the first F4's did not have guns because we were going to use missiles. That was a CF and they added the guns.

 

[maddawg308]

In Vietnam, we had air supremacy, we had state-of-the-art weapons, we had high-tech of the day coming out our ears. We used SE Asia as a testbed for every new combat device idea we could come up with, and in the end we were losing the war against an enemy that for the most part, couldn't read or write, were barefoot and barely clothed, and using weapons that the Soviets and Chinese were happy to THROW AWAY. When high-tech faces a no-tech but determined enemy, all the circuit boards and battery-operated crap you have are useless.

I think the picture below says it all....