We've discussed quite a few issues associated with BFM and WVR combat, but one area that, frankly leaves me slightly perplexed is the business of extreme aoa manoeuvring (maneuvering if you're that way inclined). Apart from airshows and to demonstrate the excellence of that area of the F-35 flight control system, what's it for? This is a genuine question.
My confusion starts at the point where the pilot 'back-stops' the stick. If he's doing much more than cruise speed, the aircraft would (if the software allows it) snap to a very high number of gs as the aoa increases and the drag is going to go through the roof. If this was started from slower speed, you'd get the result we've been seeing in the high aoa testing vids.
What next? If the pilot maintains the aoa, the aircraft will have almost stopped and is now going to go in just one direction; down. At very slow speed, the F-35 will have become a strafe panel in the sky and a virtually non-evading missile sponge.
Someone claimed that it could be used in combat to slow the aircraft down suddenly. We know this is a fantastic BFM because Maverick did something similar in Top Gun, only he used the speedbrakes. From all the stuff we know about corner velocity and sustained rate of turn it's clear that the one place you don't want to be in a fight is low and slow - you cannot manoeuvre and you cannot escape.
Another claim was that it allows you to point the nose very quickly to take a shot. Why bother if you can do HOBS already? What would the airflow be like underneath the aircraft for a missile launch at 50 degrees aoa? I don't buy that one either.
And then there is the idea that it's some sort of substitute for thrust vectoring. See this:
The vid of the aircraft doing the high aoa tests did not show it "changing direction". All you really get is an enormous amount of drag for the thrust to overcome and a stalled wing that isn't even creating enough lift to maintain level flight.
And, of course it's nothing new. The Su-27 at Le Bourget in 1989 demonstrated Pugachev’s Cobra at low level, taking the aircraft past 90 degrees aoa at low speed and low altitude.
Even the Saab J-35 did it (without canards or vectored thrust).
Has anyone here seen this used as a successful combat manoeuvre?
So my question is, what's it for?