July 24, 2019
Forget the Media: Here's What 31 Air Force Pilots Love About the F-35
Don't believe the hype.
by John Venable
Bringing all the tactical sensors of the F-35A into a single display (sensor fusion) is still not optimized, and most pilots complained of “ghosts†or multiple displayed contacts for the same threat.
Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk†Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, this week declared the F-35A fighter jet ready for combat. While many pundits and politicians have questioned the worth of this jet, the only people who know the ground truth are the pilots themselves.
A total of 174 U.S. pilots currently have been trained to fly Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II. The Heritage Foundation interviewed 31 of these former F-15C, F-15E, F-16C, and A-10 pilots. Each expressed a high degree of confidence in the F-35A, their new fifth-generation platform.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/forget-media-heres-what-31-air-force-pilots-love-about-f-35-68897
