Germany made a decision recently "not to buy the F-35". It was a leading European advise and consenter for having the F-35 for Nato equipment and now has turned 180 degrees going another direction opting for 4th Gen fighters built in Europe. Nato members are mystified by Germany's decision since they took German recommendations buying the F-35.
It becomes political not unlike the Erdogan's situation where Turkey opted out of the F-35 program over S-400 Russian missiles. Turkey got itself into a situation it "could not get out of". It now finds itself on the verge of having Nato get out of Turkey. Politically speaking it will be Erdogan's downfall as Turkey's president. It will be a giant "cluster" for Germany to fly typhoons in the face of an F-35 squadron. Yes US resolve and compliance is that strong in both areas of influence. Russia is testing the American allies trees to see what nuts will fall out after shaking vigorously at its base. The "never mind" routine for both countries will go badly if either Germany or Turkey wants back into the F-35 program after a political debacle is realized in the respective countries. They were warned on how the regions must be defended and now it will be stuck with a cheaper paper bag to hold the defense together with Russian influence.
Trump is not a diplomat only a straight shooter with a six-gun from the hip. Germany and Turkey didn't get the Trump memo, "do what you promise not what America does". Even though Germany's righteous indignation may have been a feel-good moment, the pain that follows may be too extreme to bare in the long run, the F-35 is that good and the costs remain reasonable when it goes to 80 million per F-35A fighter jet. Spending decisions for every large entity like Germany and Turkey take years to formulate and a quick decision is made well in advance to not buy the F-35, like dropping the F-35 programs from its playbooks becomes a disaster at the political level.
Once the F-35 reaches full fruition in forty years, the short time political doers will long be gone and war will already have happened where the F-35 successfully was used and the typhoon could not stop an S-400 system from shooting that Typhoon down over Germany (by the year 2030). However, the NATO F-35 takes out the S-400 for Germany's sake. Isn't life grand when neighbors put the fire out when the homeowner uses its bedding to smother a raging fire instead of a fire truck like the F-35.
Just saying those F-35 critics have no vision for the program. Developmental stage for the F-35will end when it retires. Mitigating warfighter risk is the F-35 program it changes as technology changes meaning a hypersonic weapon deployed will have a countermeasure with the F-35 program in place. Technology will be a plug and play feature for the F-35. Germany's typhoon option or other 4th Gen fighters are hard-wired for the long haul as the battle space changes during a conflict. Remember how a Camillion changes its cover? Or a spider comes along with a new version of poison with no human resistance embedded in its skin? That's the concurrency idea of change but it has to perform a base quality which it finds itself at this time as in any other R&D project.
The F-35 is not out of R&D nor will it ever become out of R&D and fixed design is the antithesis of the F-35 concept. It's too American looking beyond the horizon and Germany has bullet points guiding its thinking and Turkey has cultural dissonance with America to even consider the F-35 even though it has a technology stake in its making.
America will have to do the F-35 alone and leave political thinking out of the formula to succeed.
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