“The F35 continues to be a controversial plane, but its superior dogfighting abilities and long-range sensors continue to win over skeptics.”
The F35 is participating in air show demonstrations in Paris this week, where it will fly in mock combat against the F16. As NATO looks to buy more of the fighter, these tests are an important show of its strength by America. In particular, for the last several years, the conventional wisdom has been that the F35 is very poor at dogfighting.
Additionally, delays, cost over runs, and even being grounded by fog during its delivery to Israel led to a great deal of grumbling from military analysts and calls for the plane’s cancellation. But this display is a significant step in showing that the early indications about dogfighting were wrong; it can be the dominant long- and short-range fighter for the next 20 years.
Back in 2015, the F35 fighters performed extremely poorly against the dominant F16s, and analysts cited what they saw as “fundamental” and fatal problems. But recent tests have shown such superior performance that Lt. Col. Scott Gun asked his test pilots what happened. The reply was simply that pilots know the F35 plane better. With a better “feel” for items like max power take off, vertical climbs, square loops, and minimal radius and pedal turns, they easily outmaneuvered the supposedly superior F16s, and they now have a chance to show off their planes in Paris.
The dogfighting concerns led to claims that the plane inappropriately focused on long-range sensors. But shrugging off the dogfighting criticisms with its superior performance bolsters allies’ faith in the platform and shows that the plane can engage enemies at both short and long distances. The former is important, because air superiority often depends on close combat.
As the military likes to say, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and for fighters, that often means a dogfight. Their long-range ability is particularly important in places like the South China Sea, where potential enemies like China hope to use new and faster long-range missiles to overwhelm American defenses.
The increased performance and display in Paris might help lower costs as well. Most of the fighter’s hefty price tag is tied up in the initial development and testing phase. Thus, they end up creating a lower average cost for each plane, which helps address one of the plane’s major criticisms—and even the target of several Trump tweets.
The F35 continues to be a controversial plane, but its superior dogfighting abilities and long-range sensors continue to win over skeptics. A large amount of work still remains, such as the ability of the plane to process and display the most pertinent threats, but the F35 is delivering the results that its creators and supporters envisioned.
