Where would they get such a ‘high tech invisible UCAV’ fleet?

And one other thing, this F-16 getting damaged is the other side getting VERY lucky...it happens, and thank God it wasn’t a hard kill.

Not sure if anyone has told you, but single engine fighters have been doing CAS well for a long time...its more about altitude and precision than armor. The A-10As took a lot of damage in the Gulf War, where the enemy had a decent air defense system, how do you think A-10Cs will hold up against modern AD threats?

...And the other obligatory statement: F-35 can’t out-BFM F-16D, pls cancel.

those anti-stealth radars can’t guide weapons though, and if you light a radar off you’re most likely eating an ARM or SDB...also, LRASM is stealthy, might do something against their ships*...

the F-35 can shoot back with something that has a Pk over negative 1, though...

“No, you are assuming the “enemy” will never make any technological advances and that the F-35 is invisible to radar. (...)”

“Maneuverability is probably more important now than ever. The ability to launch a missile and get outside your enemy’s WEZ is critical to surviving a BVR fight.”

Can we please stop with the F-35 hate already? Ok, it may or may not be able to do HABFM at high AOA (ATM...), it doesn’t carry 6 Slammers/2 heaters internally like duh Raptor (Yet, IIRC they might have 6 A120s internally at some point, maybe ten years down the line?), and it won’t clean my dishes. Its a *strike*…

Ok, so the plane is still in development and certain systems are not working right yet...whats the big deal? Aircraft development takes a lot of time and money, especially for a jet thats going to do so much out of the box.