I was thinking along the opposite lines: the F-35 has been a giant shitshow designed to get foreign militaries to waste efforts trying to "duplicate" it.
It'd be even more hilarious if the Chinese stole the plans to the F-35 and produced it verbatim. They'd realize they would have wasted a great deal of espionage and manufacturing effort on producing the lamest fighter ever.
The F35/F22 AESA phased array radar is still as far as I'm aware, the best in the world. It was considered so sensitive, that the US wouldn't even let the UK use it. There isn't a closer military partner with the US than the UK, so that says how much the US values some of the components like that.
Upfront disclaimer. I'm a veteran of OIF II (2003-2004 during the Fallujah Offensive) who flew the Shadow 200 aka one of the unmanned aerial vehicles you speak of. I was a 96U, which has been renamed to a 15W[1]. That picture is one of the teensy UAVs, not one of the bigger ones like the Shadow, Hunter, Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk, etc.
The UCAV/UCAS (aka UAV fighter jets for dogfighting) is still a very new concept and hasn't been proven in a battlefield environment yet. In fact, the USAF cancelled the X-45 UCAV demonstrator project even after it succeeded at pretty much everything they asked of it. The technology to really do some of these things has only matured in the past 5 or less years, and having it in milspec fielded gear in another 10 is possible, but still quite ambitious.
As someone who has 480+ combat flight hours flying missions all over Iraq, I call BS on your comment.
My idea was that the next major conflict will be of "If I produce dumb drones faster than the other side can shoot them down I win" type. Quantity has a quality of its own. And with 3d printing turning a carrier into UAV factory is not impossible. Make them semi-autonomous and it will be formidable.
Perhaps, but weaponized lasers are an affordable deterrent to just that. The navy was the first to field them. They were worried that Iran would simply swarm their big battleships in a carrier strike group with dozens upon dozens of small speedboats + suicide bombers, or remotely piloted. Some lasers that are taught to focus on burning out the engine make short work of that.
The anti-small swarm lasers are already in active duty on a few newer Naval warships. In the 10 years time you mention for a possible ww3, not only will airborne lasers be viable, they'll be commonplace. So again, no I don't think that's really going to be a big issue.
Also, if your idea did happen, it would be awful hard to defend a floating UAV 3d printing factory in the ocean. The US is slowly losing air superiority over the rest of the world, but there isn't a navy that would come close to even matching the might of the blue water US navy in 10 years, not by a long shot. Even China struggles with that.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 34.4 ms ] threadIt'd be even more hilarious if the Chinese stole the plans to the F-35 and produced it verbatim. They'd realize they would have wasted a great deal of espionage and manufacturing effort on producing the lamest fighter ever.
The Buran was basically a money pit for the USSR.
If it has a pilot inside - it is obsolete. A good 30-40% of the plane's weight goes to ensure the pilot mostly survive.
The UCAV/UCAS (aka UAV fighter jets for dogfighting) is still a very new concept and hasn't been proven in a battlefield environment yet. In fact, the USAF cancelled the X-45 UCAV demonstrator project even after it succeeded at pretty much everything they asked of it. The technology to really do some of these things has only matured in the past 5 or less years, and having it in milspec fielded gear in another 10 is possible, but still quite ambitious.
As someone who has 480+ combat flight hours flying missions all over Iraq, I call BS on your comment.
[1] http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job...
Things like this are what I'm referring to: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/boeing-drone-laser-we...
The anti-small swarm lasers are already in active duty on a few newer Naval warships. In the 10 years time you mention for a possible ww3, not only will airborne lasers be viable, they'll be commonplace. So again, no I don't think that's really going to be a big issue.
Also, if your idea did happen, it would be awful hard to defend a floating UAV 3d printing factory in the ocean. The US is slowly losing air superiority over the rest of the world, but there isn't a navy that would come close to even matching the might of the blue water US navy in 10 years, not by a long shot. Even China struggles with that.