The F-35 can do everything better than any other plane. It's weapons are better, it's senors are better, and it's communication and situational awareness is much better. Thanks to the stealth, it has better survivability.

The only area it has some disadvantages in performance are the acceleration and maneuverability. Which is a small disadvantage, it still accelerates incredibly fast, just slower than a lighter plane, which is just physics. But it's not a slouch by any means. Plus the maneuverability is still being worked on, it's all fly by wire and they can do some really magic things with those systems once it's all tuned. They haven't started pushing it to the limits yet from what I've heard. (and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this whole "our plane sucks" thing was another tactic of spreading misinformation).

Here's the other thing. The F-16 can out maneuver and out accelerate the F-35. But every Russian fighter can out accelerate and out maneuver the F-16, anyway. Yet the F-16 always comes out on top. Why is that? Superior sensors, weapons, comms and tactics.

The F-35 is the best plane to achieve air superiority, because not many pilots have a death wish. Air combat is about survival, not about kills. Even in the Gulf war, the Iraqi's didn't want to fly against the F-15s because they knew they'd get just get shot down. They never even took off. So imagine how they would feel against a plane that can't be detected, let alone locked onto. A plane that can lock onto you and fire without you knowing. Not a good feeling knowing that at any moment you could explode without warning.

The A-10 is bullet proof, but not missile proof. It's a sitting duck against shoulder mounted IGLA's. Only the cockpit is bullet proof BTW which is great for the pilot, but not so great for the rest of the plane

I agree that the F-35 for the current war is overkill, but electronics and technology keeps getting cheaper day by day, and in 10 years time, even the current enemies will start buying more sophisticated systems. It's better to be prepared. As being reactionary like in WW2 and Vietnam was quite costly to the lives of allied forces. The F-35 will probably be in service for another 30 years, so it needs to try to meet as many requirements as it can for that time period, until the next plane comes out shooting lasers instead of missiles.

Also close air support these days is already done mostly by soft skin planes like the F-16. So not much difference there. Apart from the expense I guess. It's not low and slow either. You have a plane fly at such speed and high altitude the people on the ground never even know about it.


If you feel like it I'll give you a game of DCS World some time. It's a free flight sim (also used to train US national guard and other nations too). It really demonstrates the value of good sensors and weapons over flight performance

Now when it comes to being a waste of money, only time will tell. I guess either way it's win win though, because if there is no conflict that needs this plane it's only a good thing. And if there is a conflict we have the plane ready. But for the time being it really does seem like it's a waste of money. A lot of money, especially in a time of debt.

Scary, but all of those people that were sitting ducks on that side street right by that hugeass building are a bit luckier than the people on the other streets where there was nothing to slow down the speed and force of the tsunami.

As a Rider, to me this is a great vid because it illustrates that you can be as prepared as you want but the dangers still exist.

Drivers don't see motorcycles - It's a fact!
A cyclist can take all the precautions in the world but they are still sitting ducks out there.

When I ride - I hold by one simple rule.
All other vehicles are trying to hit you - don't give them that chance.
This means: NEVER ride in a blind spot
Always assume that car at the intersection is going to pull out in front of you.
Peripheral vision is reduced in a helmet, take the time to look properly.
Always Ride with traffic, cars are not pylons to weave through.
Hold your lane - ride on the inside (not the shoulder side) of the road.
Avoid tunnel vision, like in a car, always watch everything - you need ten times the alertness on a bike!

And yes, we all know it was fake - no one claimed it wasn't - Funny? maybe not, but it still makes a point.
As a non-German speaker, maybe this is one time where language barrier enhances the video, we don't get caught up on unimportant things like diction and just see the message!

When the punt returner is waiting to catch the ball, you can't hit him until he makes contact with the ball. He's too much of a sitting duck, just standing in one place and staring at the ball coming his way. Add to the fact that he intentionally hit high, leading with his shoulder pad, and it becomes more nasty.

On the other hand, if that same hit would have been delivered as the returner was catching the ball, it would've been a good hit. It seems like a meaningless distinction, but once the rule is in place, the returner isn't expecting to get hit until he catches the ball, so he's vulnerable to cheap shots like this one.

wouldn't this thing be a sitting duck if it tried a low speed maneuver like this and left a sky full of diesel smoke or whatever comes out of those rocket wing thrusters.

We can't be sure about that. Snipers are known to do strange things. The sniper at fallujah(i think) for example: killed one soldier, and held his fire until they evacuated him. Then he just up and left.

>> ^SDGundamX:
The news is claiming this was a sniper attack, but given that it was a single shot and no further shots were fired (when everyone is standing around in the open like sitting ducks), I'm inclined to believe this was just a stray bullet. I think the news crew realized it too, due to the nonchalant reactions they had to the incident. If they seriously thought they were under fire, like the BBC crew they would have jumped in the van and gotten the hell out of there immediately.

The news is claiming this was a sniper attack, but given that it was a single shot and no further shots were fired (when everyone is standing around in the open like sitting ducks), I'm inclined to believe this was just a stray bullet. I think the news crew realized it too, due to the nonchalant reactions they had to the incident. If they seriously thought they were under fire, like the BBC crew they would have jumped in the van and gotten the hell out of there immediately.

I should mention some of the other targets featured in Krewe d’Etat: Army Corps of Engineers,: the Pop Tarts (i.e., Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears . . . ), Hillary Clinton, sitting ducks (Bush, Cheney . . .), melting polar caps, Louisiana Road Home program, golden boy Bobby Jindal, David Vitter’s side dish, Rosie O’Donnell vs. Donald Trump (and the other folks from “The View”), NASA’s martini hour, the New Orleans assessors vote and Mayor Ray Nagin.

hey, iffn ya have ever read the ramblings before, we are in agreement as to the didactic adherence to semantics....would be happy as a clam, if all commercial cattle slaughter as we practice it today was over-(have to raise em on my own to keep the mushrooms a-plentiful) Don't even buy much meat m'self.....

Hell, if it weren't for truckers, you'd all be butt-naked and starving.....
Yeah, we've lost are way with regards to our connection to the soil, one of the many reasons we are sitting ducks for whatever comes down the pike.....

That guy with the skull-busting air-gun at the front of the operation??? Loads a good karma he's sacrificing for a paycheck, eh???