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What the Marines Think of the F-35: It "Kills Everything"
The F-35 is coming along. Considering the cost, it is about time. Marine pilots have been sold. But the article seems to worry about Russian and Chinese 5th G aircraft- check out the specs on those; they are third rate with under-powered engines. Their only advantage is numbers.
Even with serious shortcomings, the F-35 has a 24:1 kill ratio. Just think what it will be when the bugs are worked out.
The United States Marine Corps’ top aviation officer offered an upbeat assessment of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to the House Armed Services Committee during his testimony on July 6 . The stealthy new jump-jet is performing well during training exercises despite using an interim software configuration that affords the pricy aircraft only a fraction of the capabilities the Pentagon requires of it.
To illustrate his point, Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the U.S. Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, described a training evolution at the service’s elite Weapons and Tactics Instructor course—which is run by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One at Yuma, Arizona—where the F-35 was a participant. Where as normally half of a thirty aircraft strike package including Boeing AV-8B Harrier IIs, F/A-18Cs and EA-6B Prowlers would not make it through high-end air defenses, the new F-35s struck their targets with virtual impunity.
“The F-35’s—twenty-four to zero kill ratio—killed all the targets,” Davis said. “It was like Jurassic Park, watching a velociraptor—kills everything, does really well. We can’t get that airplane fast enough into the fleet.”
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Originally Posted by Peter1469
