At top and above — F-35s and F-16s. Air Force photos
War Is Boring: Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight
New stealth fighter is dead meat in an air battle.
A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can’t turn or climb fast enough to hit an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy’s own gunfire, the pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back in January.
“The F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage,” the unnamed pilot wrote in a scathing five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is unclassified but is labeled “for official use only.”
The test pilot’s report is the latest evidence of fundamental problems with the design of the F-35 — which, at a total program cost of more than a trillion dollars, is history’s most expensive weapon.
Update: Pentagon’s F-35 stealth jet can’t win dogfight – report -- RT
WNU Editor: I would love to see this dogfight exercise done with an F-22 instead of an F-16 .... I suspect that it would not even be a contest.