it is interesting since the F-35B will be the worst in flight performance, but have unique weapons the C and A dont get, like ASRAAM thats better then the 9X in most ways, and Meteor that is slightly better then the later 120Ds but worse then the new missile (I think its the AIM-260?)
More likely a way to get more customers/partners.
You can bet that there would be a lot less partners if they didn’t offer something like that.
its overwhelmingly a US design with foreign manufactured parts. and “joint” refers more to the USMC/USN/USAF nature of the progam lol
this isn’t about offering, the whole project started as a Multinational development
the US just always chose the, usually worse, US option for the specific parts that were supposed to be made in other nations
those are now making the US part instead of their Superior homemade original one
its why the UK never bought F-14s, F-15s and F/A-18s because the US at the time didn’t want manufacturing outside of the US, but it was a key requirement for any new British planes to be built in the country
yeah, arms sales are so connected to politics bc of the whole job market thing and supporting domestic industry that local manufacturing brings, thats what i meant by PR/politics
it started between the US and UK and anything else is simply untrue
also why the Luftwaffe initiated MBB Lampyirdae, took part in the EFA Program and Modernised their F4Fs instead lf Buying F-15 or F/A-18 in the 80s
U.S. Marine F-35 can also use the Meteor.
not yet the meteor still isnt done testing and integration. ASRAAM is all clear though
I mean from some snippets of interviews that some of the Rafale people posted in their thread it is heavily implied that the Rafale didn’t score much lower than the theoretical F-35 in our trials.
So without the partnership benefits it could have gone another way.
wont ever use them tho because the US refuses to purchase and Use weapons manufactured outside of the US and at least Germany is gonna block the manufacturing of Meteor on US soil
yeah technically Marine F-35Bs can get all british weapons as they are jointly tested in the US hence why I said the F-35B will have the worst performance of any F-35 but the best AAMs
i hope they add an earlier F-35B at lower BR and then the peak F-35B
bro what would they add after adding all these planes
and istg, something big is gonna happen
“Jointly” the UK MoD signed a deal that the entire integration is done in the US for Political reasons
true 9M and C-5 at about 0.3 - 0.7 higher then the current max br and then ASRAAM and Meteor another 0.7 to 1.0 above that
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you seriously think the RAF or BAE reps arent watching it all happen?
idk, better versions of Existing planes? current Prototypes?
what are they gonna add to Ground after literally currently in game tanks?