[mattmanB182]

Originally Posted by kozzm0

Some of the info was heisted via computer espionage, or something like that... but not all of it. It had something to do with lax security because of multiple countries having access to the information.

But in the case of the plane above, ALL the plans were stolen, in one of the biggest spy operations of the 20th century. That should be enough of a dead giveaway. If anyone gets mad when they figure it out, at least it's not an obscure prototype, and it is a different plane from the plans.

I think the f-35 plans may as well have been stolen, I believe it's an ill-conceived plane. The US DoD is always banking on multirole planes, the f-18 is a good one but the JSF as a plane that can do everything ends up with flaws in every department. In particular, the US has plenty of big carriers and it's not so vital to have a VTOL plane that can also fight, by adding the VTOL they had to weaken its fuselage to make the weight specs. So it's vulnerable to hits and flak, as currently designed, and it has no answer to the orbital-vectored thrust of the 4.5-generation Russian planes and upcoming PAK-FA.

They expect air combat to be all about beyond-visual range and avionics in the future, they thought the same thing in the 60's and it didn't work. Except when it's not a big war.

[crouches waiting for the swarm of f-35 defenders to attack]

Why would the F-35 have defenders? Its garbage, they only want it because its far cheaper than the F-22.

I am biased because I love the F-22. A shame that our inept leadership cancelled the thing.