Originally Posted by
stilton
One thing I’m not clear on is the planned
role for the F35 in RAF service, if it’s to be used primarily as a strike aircraft with the Typhoon taking care of the air to air mission that seems like a fairly potent combination
Typhoon is being updated to take on the vital air to ground role from Tornado GR4 when the latter is retired next year.
I agree that a Typhoon & F35 combination should be quite potent. However, while F35 with its stealth and sensor fusion is likely to be fairly advanced today, in years to come the benefits of these will be eroded. This is my concern in that the basic aircraft itself is quite limited in terms of pure performance. The so called 5th generation attributes will become less relevant with age and unlike Typhoon which remains extremely capable in terms of pure performance F35 limitations could well become exposed.