24 Jul 2018, 02:20
For a small force the bulk of dedicated BVR, even with 4 slammers and 2 heaters, would be see-first, flank-first, shoot-first (two weapons), kill-first, tank or RTB first.
There's then the (remote) possibility (after tankng) of coming back in for another kill (two weapons again) then heaters to guard another tanking or else RTB phase.
So, if we already had 6 slammers internally, would these be used? Very rarely in practice, I think. So do you need six slammers internally? Nice, but it's not essential. What would be better to acheive clear air superiority/dominence is another 24 x F-35 strike sqn, each with 2 slammers and 2 heaters per, then go smoke an air base or two.
Further the earlier comment, if a passive-mode AIM-120 kill is viable, through F-35 system of systems leverage, and a single missile was launched on a passively derived target vector using LPI datalinked high-loft nav from an MDF determined ideal aspect and radius launch, even if that one missile fails to track, or to hit, or to fuse, would the BVR target(s) even know it was tracked or attacked already? That a track failed, or that a missile missed, or sensor/fusing failed to kill, etc.?
Most of the time the target won't know this, or else will be unsure if it's a false indication. In which case, why fire two missiles at each target at all? That was essential with the 3rd and 4th gens, but only because they were SEEN, and thus in merging geometry early and fast (i.e. not just to overcome pk/prob issues).
But if still unseen and undetected, and thus not merging, but instead you are using performance and sensors to maintain a minimum tactical VLO BVR radius---why fire two quasi-passive mode AIM-120 missiles at any BVR fighter-sized target?
Where's the imperitive to do so any more?
If the one missile missed they probably wouldn't notice the attack occurred, but even if they do notice a near miss---so what? They still don't know where you are. Nor how many you are, but must assume at least two F-35 jets with a likely minimum of 3 further unseen missiles, and as many as 11 further unseen missiles available.
Crap trowser much?
Seems to me that using just a single higher-PK passive targeted and nav-ed AIM-120 per target makes much more tactical sense here than using the traditional two slammers per target that 4th-gen fighting requires. The old BVR rules-of-thumb no longer apply here, so I'm not sure the historical BVR missile sensor-combo (non-fiction) examples apply to F-35 BVR methods and tactics.
I expect they've simmed this out and determined the weight gain of an initial 6 internal slammer design wasn't needed (for now), nor a SACM missile, et al., as F-35s would be able to kill efficiently, and egress, using just two, four or six BVR missile loads, and far more efficiently than any teen fighter uses these same missiles.
Accel + Alt + VLO + DAS + MDF + Radial Distance = LIFE . . . Always choose Stealth