Ah okay. I thought during the announcement it was stated that prototypes had been flying for 5 years at that time.
Not that I can find mentioned anywhere. Something maybe about a super early concept aircraft maybe 2020? but I cant find any details on it. one of their “Experimental X-plane prototypes” maybe?
But it sounds like what the BAE EAP was to the Typhoon and from what little I can find, sounds like it was testing the AI manned-unmanned 6th gen stuff
I found this, a direct quote from the announcement speech:
“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built. An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation.”
So somewhere in the middle — experimental prototype, but intended to become the F-47.
YF-47 lol
@Morvran this is farther along than EAP since it was part of Boeing’s proposal to the NGAD competition, wouldnt be surprised to learn of a live fire like how they did it with the YF-22
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So adjacent yes, but not specifically the same aircraft and we have no idea how much overlap there was. It could be an entirely different aircraft
This was post-trial as just a few lines before it said the contract was given to Boeing. Like @quartas121 said, it was probably the YF-47 — basically what the YF-22 was to the F-22. Yes, a little different but essentially the same plane. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to call it the same thing.
I can message you a link to the speech but I’m afraid I can’t post it here without getting a mute for politics.
Only real advantage would be LO really which is good but not as much as you claim
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more advanced towed decoys, ECM suite? also from what i could find the DAS is exceptionally good. LO is not perfect but it would also enhance the effectiveness of other countermeasures thus leaving the typhoon completely outclassed in that regard
Better than Britecloud?
Still reckon SAABs modern stuff is probably just as good if not better and ECRS Mk2 is meant to be extremely good at EW.
But better than anyone elses? I doubt it beyond maybe the 360 IRST doubling as a long ranged MAWS, but also not necessarily all that different to what the Rafale already has.
But thats it though, the stealth, that is really all that the F-35 has over… well, anything else on the market.
Sure that is very useful, not denying that fact, but take that away, by say, mounted extra weapons to the wings to offset the very low internal capacity?
Then what does the F-35 do over anyone else?
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F-35 also gets Britecloud. but a towed decoy like ALE-70 should be more powerful
yeah, it has pretty insane range
the ability to be used in that stealth configuration when you really need it
doubt it, thats just an opinion and probably an untrue one anyways.
so is APG-81
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It’s not like the sep v3 would be game breaking. It gets aps (which should’ve been on sep v2)
Better armour (if gajin actually models it)
A better round (if gajin adds it)
An apu (which isn’t a feature that works rn)
And thats it, it doesn’t even get gen 3 thermals.
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From what I can find, the US looks to be replacing AN/ALQ-260s with Britecloud
Got figures for the F-35 vs everyone else?
So once again, Stealth, thats it, that is all the F-35 actually does better than anyone else on the market? Which is kinda my point, You’d hope with the investment into F-35 and the massive cost of the F-35 program, that the aircraft itself would at least be on par with the competition in most respects.
Some of the Eurocanrds have better or equivalent ECM towed decoys built in and Britecloud (Which the F35 will be getting)
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Yeah, so it wouldnt necessarily add much either.
APS sure, niche but useful.
Better armour, big “if” if it gets modeled, though imo, the Abrams survivability is just fine.
Better round again, entirely gaijins decision.
I dont think it would be this giant hail mary that some US mains think it would be (not against it, but I dont think it would do everything they think it would) and if it did come with better rounds, then so would everyone else. Challenger 3(P4) for example would be a major upgrade over the Challenger 2s at 12.7 whilst having a shell on par with A3/A4.
ALQ-260 is the BriteCloud
it tracked ballistic missiles from 800 miles away and was able to track, not just detect, tank guns firing on the ground. i dont think any other MAWS has shown that capability.
according to? the decoys are also internally carried for the 35, and they are more modern
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The RAF planned upgrade to increase the CM load to 150 ish + BOL is gunna be awesome if it happens.
That is a lot of Britecloud
My bad, whatever the Little buddy is then.
Fair then, though I also ahve no idea what something like Litening V can do either.
But still semi niche
US buying Britecloud for the F-35? Its rare for the US to buy none US miltiary gear, so when they do, you know its really good
yes, and the ALE-70 is carried internally
full 360 IRST/MAWS is pretty useful for SEAD, think of how far they can detect and pinpoint SAM launches that arent aimed at them, or even just detect them for the sake of passing on the information
they won because the competition was behind schedule (BriteCloud 55 already existed after all), but aside from that yes it does seem like a very promising system
Which again, just reinforces my point that the only thing the F-35 is actually good at is SEAD.
Though, a decent SAR system such as on the litening V or ECRS can be just as good at doing this. Heck CAPTOR-M was really good at doing this
idk if the litening V SAR is much good compared to an aircraft radar or dedicated SAR pod. those options all involve heavy radiation emissions which can compromise stealth and iirc SAR doesnt have excellent range