German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a parliamentary source told Reuters on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius intends to order an additional 15 F-35 fighter jets from U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a parliamentary source told Reuters on Monday, confirming a report by Spiegel magazine.
To be fair, whether or not the F-35 is the right choice here, the Eurofighter and the F-35 are for different jobs. The Eurofighter is first and foremost for fighting other aircraft, while the F-35 sacrifices some capability in that regard to be better at blowing up stuff on the ground. That’s why the Americans have both the F-22 and the F-35. The Eurofighter is our F-22, not our F-35
I don’t doubt that the F-35 could take on most other aircraft very effectively, but a big country like Germany is spending enough and flying enough to warrant specialisation
The only major thing the F-35 is giving up is super-cruise, which makes it less suitable as an interceptor specifically.
For general air-to-air combat and establishing air-superiority the F-35 is still vastly superior. Their stealth allows them to engage other air targets BVR before being spotted themselves. They have been wiping the floor with every other NATO aircraft except the F-22 in past red flag exercises.
It’s also significantly heavier with the same thrust and less wing area, and its payload is limited unless it uses external hardpoints that worsen its stealthiness.
I have read reporting on F-35s getting a 15-1 kill ratio at Red Flag 17, but it’s worth noting that the aggressor aircraft at that one were F-16s. That’s a capable plane in its own right of course, but it’s twice as old as the Typhoon and hasn’t had all of the same modernisation
Oddly enough there’s actually an interview with two pilots of the relevant aircraft who duelled during an exercise last year in which they (very briefly) discuss some of the advantages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upqVaKWQ_EU
Very interesting interview. I think they were training specifically for close air combat in the scenario, which is not something the F-35 is meant to do. But it makes sense to at least train for it. They just really briefly mention my point in the video at this timestamp.
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