Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight
New stealth fighter is dead meat in an air battle
by DAVID AXE War Is Boring Jun 29 2015
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/test-pilot-admits-the-f-35-can-t-dogfight-cdb9d11a875

A test pilot has some very, very bad news about the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter. The pricey new stealth jet can’t turn or climb fast enough to hit
an enemy plane during a dogfight or to dodge the enemy’s own gunfire, the
pilot reported following a day of mock air battles back in January.

“The F-35 was at a distinct energy disadvantage,” the unnamed pilot wrote in
a scathing five-page brief that War Is Boring has obtained. The brief is
unclassified but is labeled “for official use only.”

The test pilot’s report is the latest evidence of fundamental problems with
the design of the F-35 — which, at a total program cost of more than a
trillion dollars, is history’s most expensive weapon.

The U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — not to mention the air forces
and navies of more than a dozen U.S. allies — are counting on the Lockheed
Martin-made JSF to replace many if not most of their current fighter jets.

And that means that, within a few decades, American and allied aviators will
fly into battle in an inferior fighter — one that could get them killed …
and cost the United States control of the air.

The fateful test took place on Jan. 14, 2015, apparently within the Sea Test
Range over the Pacific Ocean near Edwards Air Force Base in California. The
single-seat F-35A with the designation “AF-02” — one of the older JSFs in
the Air Force — took off alongside a two-seat F-16D Block 40, one of the
types of planes the F-35 is supposed to replace.

The two jets would be playing the roles of opposing fighters in a pretend
air battle, which the Air Force organized specifically to test out the F-35’s
prowess as a close-range dogfighter in an air-to-air tangle involving high
“angles of attack,” or AoA, and “aggressive stick/pedal inputs.”

In other words, the F-35 pilot would fly his jet hard, turning and
maneuvering in order to “shoot down” the F-16, whose pilot would be doing
his own best to evade and kill the F-35.

“The evaluation focused on the overall effectiveness of the aircraft in
performing various specified maneuvers in a dynamic environment,” the F-35
tester wrote. “This consisted of traditional Basic Fighter Maneuvers in
offensive, defensive and neutral setups at altitudes ranging from 10,000 to
30,000 feet.”

The F-35 was flying “clean,” with no weapons in its bomb bay or under its
wings and fuselage. The F-16, by contrast, was hauling two bulky underwing
drop tanks, putting the older jet at an aerodynamic disadvantage.

But the JSF’s advantage didn’t actually help in the end. The stealth fighter
proved too sluggish to reliably defeat the F-16, even with the F-16 lugging
extra fuel tanks. “Even with the limited F-16 target configuration, the
F-35A remained at a distinct energy disadvantage for every engagement,” the
pilot reported.

The defeated flier’s five-page report is a damning litany of aerodynamic
complaints targeting the cumbersome JSF.

“Insufficient pitch rate.” “Energy deficit to the bandit would increase over
time.” “The flying qualities in the blended region (20–26 degrees AoA) were
not intuitive or favorable.”

The F-35 jockey tried to target the F-16 with the stealth jet’s
25-millimeter cannon, but the smaller F-16 easily dodged. “Instead of
catching the bandit off-guard by rapidly pull aft to achieve lead, the nose
rate was slow, allowing him to easily time his jink prior to a gun
solution,” the JSF pilot complained.

And when the pilot of the F-16 turned the tables on the F-35, maneuvering to
put the stealth plane in his own gunsight, the JSF jockey found he couldn’t
maneuver out of the way, owing to a “lack of nose rate.”

The F-35 pilot came right out and said it — if you’re flying a JSF, there’s
no point in trying to get into a sustained, close turning battle with
another fighter. “There were not compelling reasons to fight in this
region.” God help you if the enemy surprises you and you have no choice but
to turn.

The JSF tester found just one way to win a short-range air-to-air
engagement — by performing a very specific maneuver. “Once established at
high AoA, a prolonged full rudder input generated a fast enough yaw rate to
create excessive heading crossing angles with opportunities to point for
missile shots.”

But there’s a problem — this sliding maneuver bleeds energy fast. “The
technique required a commitment to lose energy and was a temporary
opportunity prior to needing to regain energy … and ultimately end up
defensive again.” In other words, having tried the trick once, an F-35 pilot
is out of options and needs to get away quick.

And to add insult to injury, the JSF flier discovered he couldn’t even
comfortably move his head inside the radar-evading jet’s cramped cockpit.
“The helmet was too large for the space inside the canopy to adequately see
behind the aircraft.” That allowed the F-16 to sneak up on him.

In the end, the F-35 — the only new fighter jet that America and most of its
allies are developing — is demonstrably inferior in a dogfight with the
F-16, which the U.S. Air Force first acquired in the late 1970s.

The test pilot explained that he has also flown 1980s-vintage F-15E
fighter-bombers and found the F-35 to be “substantially inferior” to the
older plane when it comes to managing energy in a close battle.