Internet bench racing of aircraft always focuses on "dogfighting". Dogfighting has no purpose in in winning the war. Striking the enemy ground targets without engaging in dogfights is successful. Do that and pretty soon there won't be any enemy fighters in the air to worry about.
Modern combat is not at all the same thing as WWI/WWII "turn and burn" stuff or what gets depicted in Star Wars.
"Turn and Burn" was already out of favor with US pilots in WWII.
If the F-35 enters into a turn-and-burn in a 3-1 situation the pilot has already failed.. if he gets out of the situation alive he's getting chewed out.
They have all kinds of training & procedures around different scenarios and those don't involve flying straight at the enemy and then getting into a turning match.
We haven't seen the deployment of a drone which can threaten manned aircraft yet. That's going to be fascinating to watch.
I'd envision "kamikaze" drones being the most feasible thing to be effective first. Basically much smarter missiles. A vision of a swarm of something that looks like a DJI phantom threatening fixed wing aircraft is pretty much fantasy right now though. Too slow, not enough weight capacity, range & loitering time & service ceiling too low, etc.. the only way I seem them being useful is 1000 of them in a dense cloud around a target.. like stationary mines in the sky hoping to be struck by attackers like a bird strike.
Modern combat is not at all the same thing as WWI/WWII "turn and burn" stuff or what gets depicted in Star Wars.
"Turn and Burn" was already out of favor with US pilots in WWII.
If the F-35 enters into a turn-and-burn in a 3-1 situation the pilot has already failed.. if he gets out of the situation alive he's getting chewed out.
They have all kinds of training & procedures around different scenarios and those don't involve flying straight at the enemy and then getting into a turning match.
We haven't seen the deployment of a drone which can threaten manned aircraft yet. That's going to be fascinating to watch.
I'd envision "kamikaze" drones being the most feasible thing to be effective first. Basically much smarter missiles. A vision of a swarm of something that looks like a DJI phantom threatening fixed wing aircraft is pretty much fantasy right now though. Too slow, not enough weight capacity, range & loitering time & service ceiling too low, etc.. the only way I seem them being useful is 1000 of them in a dense cloud around a target.. like stationary mines in the sky hoping to be struck by attackers like a bird strike.