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Low Viz F35 markings

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Low Viz F35 markings

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Old 6th Jul 2019, 10:49
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Low Viz F35 markings

F35s tend to have low viz markings, however, they are now causing confusion as the ITAF have a grey roundel:

Which is now the same as the RAF/FAA markings:



Under International Law it states that “military aircraft means an aircraft operated by commissioned units of the armed forces of a State having the military marks of that State, commanded by a member of the armed forces and manned by a crew subject to regular armed forces discipline”. If the roundel is greyed out then how can it be recognised as the “military marks of that state” when different coloured roundels are used by the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Greece, India, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar, etc... Surely, we should be reverting to the low-viz light blue/pink shades and other states following suit?
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 10:59
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Well according to Trumpton, it's invisible anyway, so what's the problem?

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Old 6th Jul 2019, 12:11
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How exactly are they causing confusion? The F-35A in the picture is ‘unlikely’ to be British (the B might be) and if you get close enough to see the roundel you can probably read the pilot and crew chief’s name on the cockpit surround as well as identify the unit from the vertical surface at the back.
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 12:17
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Contrary to your assertion, the Italian and UK F-35 roundels are NOT the same. You need to look more carefully.

The RAF/RN ones are 2 shades of grey, in 2 rings.
The Italian ones are actually 3 shades of grey, in 3 rings.
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 12:41
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... and is there one with 50 shades of grey?
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 13:31
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Surely if you have to look that closely then it is not distinctive enough - may as well not bother!
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 13:34
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Who's confused? The RAF/RN doesn't operate A models as pictured. Easy to tell and A from a B...
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 14:35
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Originally Posted by TBM-Legend
Who's confused? The RAF/RN doesn't operate A models as pictured. Easy to tell and A from a B...
The B model is also operated by the Italian Navy...

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Old 6th Jul 2019, 14:35
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Who gives a toss.....when you get close enough to confirm what Roundrel shows you are only there because the F-35 wants you to be there.
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 14:49
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“Roundrel” - is that a like mongrel roundel?
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 15:25
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LJ,

The picture you post by way of (quite rightly) demonstrating that the Italian Navy flies the B model - also shows that someone has been kind enough to paint MARINA on the side in letters each bigger than most roundels.

Assuming this isn’t an advert for somewhere to store one’s yacht - can we perhaps conclude F-35s are adequately marked?
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Old 6th Jul 2019, 17:05
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Originally Posted by orca
LJ,

The picture you post by way of (quite rightly) demonstrating that the Italian Navy flies the B model - also shows that someone has been kind enough to paint MARINA on the side in letters each bigger than most roundels.

Assuming this isn’t an advert for somewhere to store one’s yacht - can we perhaps conclude F-35s are adequately marked?
Is it that unusual to have a woman’s name on the side of an aircraft. Marina is a woman’s name, is it not?



But really, the roundel (of different colours) is used by several nations expecting to operate the F35 variants. The variants aren’t too dissimilar in normal horizontal flight and so I argue that this is not right and does not meet the supposed International Law for State Aircraft. This is the first time we have painted our roundel on a combat jet aircraft that confusingly matches that of other nations. If we don’t want to stick to that convention agreed then why bother with any markings at all?
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Old 7th Jul 2019, 09:19
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and another thing..

remember that A to A incident where the escorting Ruski "saw of" the spam can only for the Ruski to merge into the background whilst the grey defender of freedom was still quite visible?
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Old 7th Jul 2019, 18:19
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Originally Posted by weemonkey
remember that A to A incident where the escorting Ruski "saw of" the spam can only for the Ruski to merge into the background whilst the grey defender of freedom was still quite visible?
That is just pixellation with the poor quality video. You called it correct back then.

Actually looking again it seems to suffer from pixilation as soon as it gets the clouds as a backdrop..?
Russian Su-27 "Chases" Off NATO Fighter Jet

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=acShY_1548932459
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Old 7th Jul 2019, 21:35
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Originally Posted by TEEEJ
That is just pixellation with the poor quality video. You called it correct back then.



Russian Su-27 "Chases" Off NATO Fighter Jet

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=acShY_1548932459
No, This is compression not pixellation. It compresss because the colours are close enough to band together as one - that is good visual camouflage!

The F-35 is too dark for good visual camouflage in most instances and could do with a disruptive pattern but then the fancy stuff in the dark paint would not be able to do it's magic!




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Old 8th Jul 2019, 11:51
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Have to say that I was surprised to see that a grey circle now passes for British national insignia. Is it really impossible to make the F-35's secret stealth paint in any colour apart from grey?
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Old 8th Jul 2019, 12:55
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But, like a lot of these pan-nation regulations who is actually going to tell the UK (or whoever) off and enforce any changes should the markings be deemed inadequate or not sufficiently conspicuous? Some US military a/c I've seen over the years lacked any national markings (admittedly they weren't FJs) and I am not aware anything ever happened to them.
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Old 8th Jul 2019, 18:35
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Is it really necessary in 2019 to insist on the presence of roundels? What do they actually do?
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Old 8th Jul 2019, 19:17
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Originally Posted by typerated
No, This is compression not pixellation. It compresss because the colours are close enough to band together as one - that is good visual camouflage!

The F-35 is too dark for good visual camouflage in most instances and could do with a disruptive pattern but then the fancy stuff in the dark paint would not be able to do it's magic!
Actually typerated is correct, I was wrong, my days of mpeg fault finding got a bit hazy..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_artifact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television
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Old 17th Jul 2019, 14:37
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This should solve your problem

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