Pentagon Downplays Reports That The F-35 Cannot Win In A Dogfight

Look out, Maverick. Oh, sorry, you can't turn your head. Ars Technica

ABC News: Military: Don’t Worry If F-35, Most Expensive Fighter Jet Ever, Can’t Dogfight Well

The makers of one of the most expensive weapons programs in history went on the defensive today, saying a recent report on the F-35 fighter jet’s failures in old-school dogfighting against a decades-old, much cheaper legacy fighter “does not tell the whole story.”

The report in question, posted on the national security news website War Is Boring, was based on an internal five-page brief in which an F-35 test pilot wrote a scathing criticism of the next-generation jet’s abilities in a January dogfight with an F-16, one of the planes the F-35 is designed to replace. Essentially, the pilot reportedly wrote, the F-35 was no match for the F-16 in close-up, high maneuvering fighting -- whether the F-35 was trying to get the F-16 in its sights or trying to evade the F-16’s mock weapons.

Update #1: F-35 project team says bad dogfight report “does not tell whole story” -- Ars Technica
Update #2: Pentagon says damning report of F-35 troubles ‘doesn’t tell the entire story’ -- Washington Post

Previous Post: Apparently The F-35 Cannot Win In A Dogfight (Update)

WNU Editor: One way for the Pentagon to discount this report is to have another "dogfight exercise" and to invite independent experts to see and assess it. But for some reason my gut is telling me that such an exercise is not going to be conducted right now or in the foreseeable future .... and that is telling in itself.