US Military Aircraft Industry: Can a New Stealth Bomber Make Up for America’s Crappiest Warplane? -- by David Axe

A new Stealth Bomber

Government officials and aerospace executives have met in secret. Engineers have drawn up blueprints, crafted components, and assembled prototypes, all under strict confidentiality agreements. Lobbyists are prowling the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, smiling, shaking hands, exerting influence.

For the first time in more than three decades, the Pentagon and America’s aerospace industry are uniting to build a big, expensive, high-tech stealth bomber. And that’s a huge deal for the U.S. military as it tries to compensate for another warplane program that has gone outrageously off the rails.

Thirty-four years after aerospace giant Northrop Grumman snagged a lucrative contract to build B-2 stealth bombers for the Air Force, the Pentagon is getting ready to pick a new bomber. The contest, which senior military officials will decide mere months or even weeks from now, pits two teams representing every remaining major warplane-maker in America.

Read more: Can a New Stealth Bomber Make Up for America’s Crappiest Warplane? - The Daily Beast

Military Aircraft Industry: The F-35 (JSF) Will Never Beat The Eurofighter - by David Cenciotti

Eurofighter pictured better in combat and cheaper than the JSF

The F-35 will be, when available, a very capable aircraft: its stealth design, extended range, internal carriage of stores and a variety of integrated sensors are definitely the ingredients for success in modern air-to-ground operations.

However, when time comes for air dominance, some other ingredients like thrust to weight ratio and wing loading tend to regulate the sky. And in that nothing comes close to a Eurofighter, except an F-22 which has very similar values. The F-35 thrust to weight ratio is way lower and its energy-maneuverability diagrams match those of the F/A-18, which is an excellent result for a single engine aircraft loaded with several thousand pounds of fuel and significant armament.

But it also means that starting from medium altitude and above, there is no story with a similarly loaded Eurofighter.

Eurofighter superb engine-airframe matching, in combination with it’s High Off-Bore-Sight armament supported by Helmet Cueing, has already and consistently proven winning against any agile fighter.

It is a fact that while the Typhoon can do most of the F-35 air-to-ground mission, vice versa the F-35 remains way far from a true swing role capability.

The Eurofighter has also flown actual combat mission in the Middle East which were regarded as very successful.

Cost of the operational Eurofighter is €87 million ($117 m) per plane   -  versus €124 million ($167 m estimated) for the still experimental F-35 JSF.

Read more: The F-35 Will Never Beat The Eurofighter - Business Insider