
(EDITOR’S NOTE: US Air Force F-35A fighters waited two weeks after landing at Al Dhafra air base, in the United Arab Emirates, before they carried out their first combat mission, dropping a single JDAM bomb against a cave – 32 months after reaching their Initial Operational Capabiity.
A two-week wait to hit a target that isn’t going anywhere is a bit of an anti-climax to the first US Air Force air strike using the F-35A, almost 20 years after the aircraft was selected for development.
Absent an explanation, and a rationale, the two-week wait before the air strike – whose result has not been released – suggests that it was unforeseen, which prompts speculation that it may have caused by a maintenance issue.
Sending two aircraft to drop a single bomb isn’t an impressive feat to recount, especially as in the absence of any opposition requiring the aircraft’s claimed “stealth,” any aircraft could have dropped the same bomb at a far lesser cost.
In fact, the Air Force went out of its way to demonstrate that stealth was not needed for the mission by fitting Luneburg reflectors to each wing, and by carrying Sidewinder missiles on the outboard weapon stations, which multiply their radar cross-section and thus make the aircraft very visible on radar.)
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articl ... -cave.html
A two-week wait to hit a target that isn’t going anywhere is a bit of an anti-climax to the first US Air Force air strike using the F-35A, almost 20 years after the aircraft was selected for development.
Absent an explanation, and a rationale, the two-week wait before the air strike – whose result has not been released – suggests that it was unforeseen, which prompts speculation that it may have caused by a maintenance issue.
Sending two aircraft to drop a single bomb isn’t an impressive feat to recount, especially as in the absence of any opposition requiring the aircraft’s claimed “stealth,” any aircraft could have dropped the same bomb at a far lesser cost.
In fact, the Air Force went out of its way to demonstrate that stealth was not needed for the mission by fitting Luneburg reflectors to each wing, and by carrying Sidewinder missiles on the outboard weapon stations, which multiply their radar cross-section and thus make the aircraft very visible on radar.)
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articl ... -cave.html
"There I was. . ."