Maneuverability is Irrelevant

That's the latest pitch for the F-35, as noted by Stephen Trimble.

They even have a video showing how their new whiz bank sensor fusion means that you can see everywhere all the time, so maneuverability does not matter, because they have the Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO-DAS).

You have to love this quote at around the 3½ minute mark, "maneuverability is irrelevant. Instead of mutual kills, the F-35 simply exits the fight, and lets its missiles do the turning."

Shades of the no gun versions of the F-4 Phantom II, and how well those worked.

Watch the video, and I'll note how this is disingenuous afterwords.


First, note that with distinctly limited space in the weapons bays, the F-35 is pretty much limited to the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the AIM-9Z, the latest Sidewinder, both of which are smaller, and so have inferior kinematics (range and end game maneuverability) to their Russian and Chinese counterparts, particularly when they start off with an 180° turn with an over the shoulder shot, so shooting the aircraft behind you is not all that likely, since by the time that they are in your missile envelope, they have already fired.

This is particularly true of the Sidewinder, which was never designed with thrust vectoring, and is smaller (5" diameter as vs 6" diameter), and is using an older motor not designed for thrust vectoring. The Over the shoulder AMRAAM actually has a new larger motor using the space available from a reduction in the size of its guidance electronics.

Of course, at the ranges where the AMRAAM outperforms the Sidewinder, you probably want to turn and put the nose on target to improve the envelope anyway.

Improved situational awareness is a good thing. Most pilots get shot down by a threat that they never see, but once the guy is in your 6 o'clock, you are hosed.