How to Get The Most of F-35B

[Sturgeon]

An interesting read, in which he suggests operationally IFRing F-35s with V-22s, and creating a V-22 AWACs.

[Belesarius]

Very good read, and probably one of the best pro-F35 articles I've read in a while.

[Collimatrix]

I keep hearing that the VSTOL variant imposed serious penalties on the other variants.  I find this believable, but I've never heard any specifics on exactly what performance penalties these are.

[Belesarius]

Because of the lift fan space, it has a diffferent than optimum internal space design.  At least if I read that article right...  I'm also really surprised that the USMC and frankly, all of the branches haven't done more to leverage the potential of the V-22 program.  The V-22 has a lot of potential as a CAS/COIN platform, and as well as Tanker Ops, AEW/ELINT etc.  Also interesting that they are going to be using it to replace the C-2.

[xthetenth]

The F-35 kind of sort of makes sense once you understand Corps doctrine and it isn't really quite as bad as it's been made out to be. Basically the idea is that the Corps serves as a fire brigade for relatively small interventions like Granada, using seaborne mobility to be able to get a fighting force there pretty quickly, and they want to be able to offload as much of the heavy support duties to things sitting offshore as possible because that makes it faster to deploy and faster to re-embark, which is pretty key because after the cold war we can't expect problems to not get pushed while we're busy. If there's two things near critical and one flashes over the other is very likely to get pushed over the edge as well.

 

A V-22 for refueling is something they've been working on and is a very good idea because buddy stores suck and will suck much worse with a requirement for VTOL. V-22 AWACS would be fantastic but in my estimation what it would really help is meaning the QE class can achieve something like full supercarrier capability because AWACS needs loiter in a way helicopters can't provide. It's a good design for mitigating the flaws of a helicopter. What it isn't is a match for the capability of airliner derivatives when you can use a fixed strip and want as much efficiency as possible.

 

Having to have a fuselage that will fit the lift fan is likely coming at some performance cost, but being a multi-role fighter with weapons bays is likely inflicting a greater cost.

[Sturgeon]

Colli, my understanding is that the biggest cost for STOVL in the F-35 family is the engine. It has to be an enormous wide thing with certain characteristics that impact its VTOL performance (such as exhaust heat).

[Belesarius]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EV-22-Osprey-AEWC-Aircraft/926796214019494

 

So, a EV-22 concept has a FB page. Relevent I thought, as we were talking about getting the most out of the F-35.