Ian B MacLure wrote:
Arved Sandstrom wrote in
news:SlSpn.6$Jw4.5@edtnps82:

[snip]

That may be true. But given that radar stealth doesn't mean radar
invisible, flying at 20,000+ feet doesn't exactly make you safe from
SAMs. And even if the F-35 is dropping some PGM glide-bomb from 50 nm
away he's still over some other patch of ground with SAMs and their
radars.

And who says the SAMs are going to know the JSF is there until
things start going pear shaped?

Well, I suppose if all the enemy's radars are switched off and we only
fight at night, maybe the SAMs won't.

Like I said, these planes are radar *stealthy*, not radar invisible. And
that depends on angle as well - painted from the beam or not far off,
these planes presumably don't have the RCS of a mosquito.

And if that's all the plane is going to do is stand off at incredible
distances to launch ordnance, we can't have cheaper planes do the same
thing? Or just build a ****load of cruise missiles?

And weren't we discussing CAS not IDS.

IBM

The "close" in CAS is defined by how close the ordnance is blowing up to
friendlies, not how far away the ordnance came from.

AHS