Question: in a contested air-space, if a F35 goes up against a Grippen / Swede aircarft who wins?
Australian trials showed that the F18 was no match for the F35. They made the good decision of buying the radar jamming version of the F18 Super Hornet to back up the F35. I don't think it's in Canada's best interest to buy yesterdays technology. Heck we wait sooo long to buy kit we better buy as close to cutting edge as we can. I want our Pilots to have the best available and not be at any disadvantage with a "near peer" opponent.
Sorry for hijack.
Rich
USN doesn't just fly F18, the carrier group has AWAC on station all the time, and the Growler is part of the team to spook the enemies defence.
It makes no sense to talk about just one aircraft. F18 with AWAC and Growler work as a team, F18 needs a bunch of other support to carry out its mission . The idea of F35 is to use less to do more. It is down to the number of sorties one can launch, reaction time of enemies defence, enemies defence coverage and who gotta fire the weapons first. An attacker that cuts reaction time by 20% means the defenders has 20% less time to react - once the weapon is dropped shooting down the aircraft is already too late. A 20% reduction in SAM coverage means enemies need to put more SAM system in place - the number of SAM is not infinite so this creates other holes else where ( run some Growler to spook one approach, and the main force goes to attack the less defended holes) As you can see, it is down to resource allocation in the big picture, like any war is all about. At a lower tactical level, it is stealing time from the enemies who gotta fire the weapons first, or before it is too late.
Canada doesn't have AWAC nor Growler type aircraft. Canada on its own has zero capability to fly in a contested airspace on its own. Most likely, with a CF18 or other non-stealth aircrafts, the only use of Canada is being the bait in an attack. Ie, countries with F35 will run the main attack force, people with non-stealth aircrafts and old electronics like CF18 will be the physical bait ( in place of Growler that uses electronic spooks) aka sacrificial lambs.
If Canada is just content with keeping the aircrafts in Canada and just do peace time interceptions, whatever aircraft is fine. In a real conflict without AWAC help from the US, the attacker will take down all the interceptors BYVR - whether it is Gripen, F18.....and the CAF will never have enough aircrafts and missiles in inventory to with stand more than one or two waves of bomber attack. And with hypersonic nuclear cruise missile, it is probably futile to even scramble from land. yes, that's another thing, buying aircrafts without a healthy missile inventory is useless too,
