(Luft) Lockheed Martin F-35 - Lightning II

[Quintus Fabius]

Obzwar es in keinster Weise eine praktische Relevanz hat, so kann eine F-35 nach neuen Tests der Norweger bei geschickter Taktik jede F-16 im Dogfight aus dem Himmel fegen:

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Wie ich es schon früher vermutete muss man mit diesem Flugzeug einfach taktisch etwas anders an die Sache heran gehen.

I now have several sorties behind me in the F-35 where the mission has been to train within visual range combat one-on-one, or «Basic Fighter Maneuvers» (BFM). In a previous post I wrote about aerial combat in general (English version available), and about the likelihood that the F-35 would ever end up in such a situation. In this post, however, I write more specifically about my experiences with the F-35 when it does end up in a dogfight. Again, I use the F-16 as my reference. As an F-35-user I still have a lot to learn, but I am left with several impressions. For now my conclusion is that this is an airplane that allows me to be more forward and aggressive than I could ever be in an F-16.

Since I first wrote this post, I have flown additional sorties where I tried an even more aggressive approach to the control position – more aggressive than I thought possible. It worked just fine.

To sum it up, my experience so far is that the F-35 makes it easier for me to maintain the offensive role, and it provides me more opportunities to effectively employ weapons at my opponent.