Earlier this week, Russia announced it was ending its five year ban on selling S-300 defensive missiles to Iran. There’s no indication yet Iran is even going to buy any, but Israel was immediately furious, predicting doom and gloom over the possibility.
Lockheed Martin was paying attention too, and seems to have decided the S-300 hysteria could be very good for them, and their attempts to sell the pricey F-35 fighter jet, which their salesmen are assuring Israel was designed to counter things like the S-300.
The F-35 is designed to replace the A-10, a warplane from the 1970s that is much less expensive. The Pentagon has warned they’re also not as good as the A-10s, which again is about a tenth of the price.
Congress has been pushing the F-35 primarily as a manufacturing boon to some important districts, but it’s inferiority has made selling it abroad difficult. The S-300 claim, even if it is spurious, might boost those sales.
It’s particularly true with Israel, who generally doesn’t pay for its warplanes at any rate. Getting F-35s for them is more a question of getting the US Congress to buy them some, and any excuse is probably going to work in that regard.
First off Lockheed Martin should be more concerned that it has a plane that ACTUALLY can FLY in hot desert like conditions, and shoot missiles! Apparently something it still can not do! We know its the software…………….more like its a LEMON!
Iran's new S-300 missiles are Ground to Air weapons. From what we've seen of Lockheed-Martin's F-35, what is needed is Ground to Ground missiles.
Which will result in Russia offering S-400 if not S-500 systems.
A guided missile can fly several times faster then an F-35, Russia has had several years to design a guidance system to combat the F-35, surely I would not want to be sitting in the cockpit of an F-35 when an S-300 missile came to blow it out of the sky.
The last major update to the S-300 seems to have occurred in the early 1990s. There's a next-generation system, the S-400, where new guidance system design would more likely get attention.
But I still wouldn't want to be an F-35 pilot in the sky over mass S-300 installations.
The S-400 has been surpassed by the S-500, but the S-300 can be upgraded to the Antey-2500. It will definitely make for a few upset Israelis, I'm sure. Check it out here http://defense-update.com/products/a/antey-2500.h…
Revolution? — Who about now?
We live in a suicidal Empire, one so stupid as to think it can wage simultaneous war against
Russia,
China,
every terrorist on earth that it has filled with vengeance,
Ukraine,
Yemen,
Venezuela and every other liberal nation in Central and South America.
What say be start a non-violent Revolution, just to see if such a straw breaks the camels back?
Sorry, we're kinda busy trying to pay the rent that's due last week.
Unless, of course, we can do it with a few tweets and facebook posts…
"… a question of getting the US Congress to buy them some."
You mean getting the US taxpayers to buy some. Oh wait, I forgot. The Fed will just print whatever it takes. It's all free.
The F-35 was designed with limited stealth features, as an economy measure. It may be fantastically expensive now, but it still doesn't have full stealth features equivalent to the F-22.
In particular, the F-35 is vulnerable to detection by a radar off to the side. Its limited stealth is directional, to the front only. If Iran has more than one missile radar, the one off to the side would see the F-35. The radars are networked, one of the features of advanced radar systems.
An F-35 is designed to be used by the US, meaning in large numbers in mass attacks. The threats to the side are meant to be covered by other planes. It is choreographed. So as the US uses them, supported by fully stealth B-2's and F-22's and anti-radar planes the Israelis don't have like the F-18G Growler, it could do this attack. As the Israelis would use it, a few squadrons with this as the heavy hitter, it couldn't.
But sure, Lockheed will try.