PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why is the RAF buying the F-35?
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Old 28th Mar 2011, 18:33
  #18 (permalink)  
SSSETOWTF
 
Join Date: Apr 2000
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The RAF need the F-35 because it's a great bit of kit that can do things that Typhoon can't (and Typhoon can do things that F-35 can't).

In the 2020+ battlefield you'll expect (or at least you should plan for) things like SA-10, -11, -12, -15, -20 & HQ-9 and their derivatives floating around. Your air threat is likely to include all the Su-27 derivatives, or perhaps even J-20 / PAK-FA class aircraft with some pretty potent A-A missiles.

LO saves you time and money; it's for the same reasons that LGBs save you cash because 1 airplane can drop 1 bomb to kill a target, as opposed to the good old days when waves and waves of aircraft were needed to drop dozens and dozens of iron bombs to get the Pd up. If you're going into a nasty IADS of modern Russian/Chinese/French SAMs you can either use a package of dozens of F-18Gs and F-16CJs, with stand-off jammers & Rivet Joints etc. Or you use a couple of LO aircraft with some appropriate planning - which is what the F-117s were used for with great effect in Iraq. LO is not a panacea that will give the pilot total impunity in all future scenarios, but when well-managed it's an incredibly useful tool to have in the toolbox.

The airplane is much more than LO though, and its sensors are as 5th gen as the LO part is. No pilot flying with a current targeting pod such as Sniper or Litening 3 wants to go back to the good old days of Nitehawk or TIALD. And, for example, once pilots have flown with APG-81 they'll wonder how they ever got anything done with the current generation of radars out there (except the F-22 bubbas of course).

For the UK as a Level 1 partner, the airplanes are effectively free to buy to the UK taxpayer. For every pound we spend on the airplane, the UK Exchequer gets at least a pound back in industrial offsets. We buy 138 airframes, while the rest of the world buys 3000+ more and there are jobs for hundreds of workers for decades at BAE, Rolls, Martin Baker + literally hundreds of second and third tier suppliers. And all those companies pay tax on their profits to the Exchequer. The only downside is that the money comes out of the Defence budget and goes back into the NHS & Welfare budget pots...

So to me, the better question is why on earth should the UK consider pulling-out?

Regards,
Single Seat, Single Engine, The Only Way To Fly!
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