Kadija_Man said:
It depends on the requirement doesn't it?
Most of the Euro-canards have adequate short-field and performance, along with multi-role capabilities. The Tejas lacks range and twin-engined performance but could meet most requirements, as could a lot of existing 4th gen fighters.
The F-35 has... greater stealth (providing some improved resistance to third generation SAMs...), as some nice on-board systems (but not essential ones), and the benefit of being an American product (if we value favouring American deals over currying favour with European powers or India).
There is some debate over whether low-observability or supersonic manoeuvrability will be key in dealing with the next generation of SAMs and there has been a trend towards stand-off weapons in any case. What other advantages does it have over 4+ generation types? Enlighten me.
Well, that wasn't the question that I asked, now was it?
The f-35 is the baseline to which the alternatives need to be compared to.
The alternatives need stealth, AESA radar, super-cruise, advanced ECM and optical systems, internal carriage of weapons, V/STOL.
I cannot think of an alternative which offers all those systems in the one package. Can you?
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I was under the impression that we were talking about Canadian requirements, not what aircraft are exact copies of the F-35?
V/STOL: The F-35A (i.e. the CF-35) as equivalent or even inferior capabilities to EuroCanards and even the LCA.
AESA: EuroCanards, Tejas, CF-18s all carry some form of AESA
ECM/Optics: All of the aircraft mentioned can carry fairly good optics pods, can support upgrades, and the EuroCanards tend to have pretty good ECM/defense suits.
Supercruise: The EuroCanards all have superior supercruise ability. Furthermore, sustained high speed flight requires substantial fuel reserves (even with supercruise) and for long range work over the Canadian Arctic and oceans this would push the requirement in the direction of needing unusually large (Su-27 level) ranges. So, something like a EuroCanard with saddle tanks,
So, with the exception of stealth/internal weapons, the competition is more than adequate, and in most areas superior (optics/ecm might be the only area were the F-35 would offer any advantage).
As for internal weapon stowage: It has limited utility if you have to carry drop-tanks or anti-ship missiles externally.
As for stealth: That goes back to my original post (see above) regarding benefits against third generation SAM systems (I'm not convinced it is needed for overseas deployments, I'm not convinced that F-35 levels of stealth will be able to defeat the next generation of SAMs reliably, and without prolonged super-cruise and all aspect stealth the ability to use energy to defeat SAMs or BVR attacks is much reduced - particularly a problem if you are planning on deploying small numbers of aircraft over large areas where they can't effectively support each other - the high Arctic is different from Western Germany!)