Why Did Germany Decide To Buy The F-35?
Germany wanted to show to the USA that it was an obedient colony, with no significant industrial future or will to independence and, as such, should be treated as part of the US empire, and thus, defended. Obama and Trump had accused Germany to be a “free loader” in matter of defense, as the US paid for nearly everything to defend Germany. Not so say the German Socialist-Green coalition: see, we make industrial hara-kiri and pay for the F35 with our blood.
By exclusively buying the F35 Germany and similar bonsai armies wanted to remind the USA and their own dimwit rabble that Germany’s suzerain and lord was located in Washington, DC. All the countries which embraced the F35 embraced US political, industrial, military and technological superiority, and are anxious to exhibit their obsequiousness, lack of worth, and complete submission to US potentates.
Alternatives to the F35 existed indeed. This story is a long one. The Rafale already defeated the F22, literally and figuratively. When Obama realized this, he canceled the F22 program (the F22 basically can’t bomb, whereas the Rafale does this expertly; now if, on top of that the Rafale shot down the F22 and its sensitive stealth skin…)
Objectively, the Rafale F4.1 is demonstrably a much better plane… and the Rafale has been extensively war tested in Afghanistan and Africa. The Rafale is nearly in all ways superior to the F35… except for the F35 B, the vertical take-off version of the F35, which is unique, and for the US Marines. The F35B is definitively an amazing and well-conceived plane, which enables it to turn many ships into aircraft carriers. Only the US Marines ordered it.
The Rafale is much better conceived than the F35 for all other missions: the F35 is a one trick pony supposed to avoid some particular radar frequencies… not all of them, and not infrared… Extravagant passive stealth on some frequencies is both the F35’s advantage and its disaster.
After all, the F35 is an imitation of the Rafale fighter-bomber in the overall idea of being able to do all missions. The stealthy Rafale was the first “omnirole” plane… The Rafale bombs, even atom-bombs, penetrates, and intercepts. The F35 does the same, but more oriented towards bombing… Which it doesn’t do very well (its bombs and missiles, carried inside are too few).
Of course the F35 could be used in “beast mode”…carrying plenty outside its own stealthy skin… But then the F35 is not stealthy anymore, and, handicapped by bad composites and angular geometry, not as fast as the Rafale which can supercruise in beast mode at 1.5 mach…. While still being stealthy as the Rafale has active stealth (Thales is so good in war electronics, Russian tanks and British Navy use it…).
The main difference between F35 and Rafale is that the former is exclusively passive stealth, whereas the latter is a mix of that with active stealth. So the aerodynamics of the Rafale are not compromised…. whereas those of the F35 are. Both programmes are very old, and the US thought at the time that passive stealth was superior. It’s not, except in a slow moving plane.
This is no theory: Rafales and Mirages were used at the onset of the Libyan war, against fully performing anti aircraft defenses (before systemic AA suppression). The Rafales covered for the Mirages (which are not stealthy).
Rafale (left, upside down) can handle 11gs in emergency (so a pilot weights a ton). Both planes have the same overall dimensions, although the F35 is heavier: 13 tons empty versus 10 tons for the Rafale. The g limit of the F35 is 9g. The F35, on the right, due to its bath tub approach to aerodynamics from passive stealth, has the worst aerodynamics of modern Western fighter bombers. Corrupt Europeans say in a double entendre: no problem, with the F35 we can “network”… with Washington. The Rafale has a maximum takeoff weight of 24.5 tons and can carry more than 14 tons, including 9.5 tons of external fuel and armament.
According to the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation in 2021, the F-35 program costs a total of $1.7 trillion across its lifecycle.
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Germany is supposed to help develop the “6th generation” Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS / SCAF) which is led by France in general and Dassault in particular (maker of the Rafale; the Typhoon/Eurofighter is made by Airbus). To visualize the effort, the F35 research and development was 55 billion dollars. The FCAS/SCAF research and development is supposed to be 100 billion. It will be the next generation Rafale. However, forking over billions to the US military industrial complex is antagonistic to the FCAS/SCAF (especially as the US is developing an equivalent, 6th generation plane… So Germany is basically sending money to that new US plane…)
Choosing the F35 was pretty much an act of allegiance of Berlin to Washington, and betrayal of Paris. And so it is throughout the democracies (AUKUS was more of the same, when Australia abruptly chose inferior US nuclear subs rather than the superior French ones it was contracted to purchase).
Even supposedly neutral Switzerland moved by the star spangled banner, kneeled to Washington, kissed the ground and embraced 36 F35s. Switzerland also purchased five Patriot missile defense systems from Raytheon Technologies, which defeated the Aster/Mamba/SAMP/T system from France’s Eurosam…. Which is superior to the Patriot in several ways… It doesn’t end there: the NASAM, a closer ranger air defense system is integrated with Patriot and F35. And all can be turned off from Washington in a software update. So supposedly ex-neutral countries such as Finland are now arms of the Pentagon (but Finland has only an embassy in Washington, not “representatives”).
Tellingly, in a Freudian slip, the only clear advantage that the Swiss found to the F35 was that…”the F35 networked in a superior way”. Let’s all network with Washington: US makes planes, Europe sells vacations, luxuries and chocolate… to US tech workers. Let’s see how far that sort of independence goes…
The last laugh would be if Trump or an alter ego came back to the White House…
Switzerland and Finland had declared air defense as a priority operational requirement and other contenders such as the Dassault Rafale, the (Swedish) Saab Gripen, and the (Airbus) Eurofighter Typhoon were found by careful Swiss and Finn studies, superior to the F-35 in terms of aerial combat capabilities (and the Rafale engaged in ground combat for thousands of hours; F35s, by Israel, a tiny bit). All are European planes. Moreover, the latest version of the Rafale, F4.1, has everything the F35 has in terms of electronics and awareness, including a fancy helmet. So this is another case of transparent corruption, similar in spirit to buying all the fossil fuels to tyrant Putin. The US is a democracy, but a greedy one with limited awareness on the responsibilities its power should imply.
The US amply proved, in the early years of WWI and WWII, and the Suez Canal/Hungary Invasion crisis, that, in its search for greater supremacy, it will ally with the fascists and treat Europeans as it did who it used to call the “Redskins“.
The US amply proved, in the early years of WWI and WWII, and the Suez Canal/Hungary Invasion crisis, that, in its search for greater supremacy, it will ally with the fascists and treat Europeans as it did who it used to call the “Redskins”, just good enough for slaughter.
The USA’s deep psychology, tied to its deep state, in particular that of its ravenous plutocratic universities, has demonstrated that its ultimate aim is to take over Europe. Wittingly or unwittingly is besides the point. It will happen, and it has found collaborators in all the anxious F35s’ European purchasers… while perfectly valuable home grown systems are left to die from lack of financing and interest.
Meanwhile Europe can launch only two rockets to space in the rest of 2023… While Elon Musk, Tesla and Twitter superman, launches rockets cheaply to space every few days, having already landed more than 100 of the said rockets… A feat the next European rocket models will be unable of… And a feat which lowers considerably the cost of access to space…
Industrial policy does matter for access to space, any space… Russia knows this, China knows this, India knows this, Japan knows this, the US knows this. The French used to know this. And still do a bit… But the F35 purchasers pretend they do not, and that the market decides… When the F35 they purchase was actually a massive government program (1.7 trillion dollars, so far…)
Are European policies too dumb for tears? Or are European politicians too corrupt to fathom?
Patrice Ayme
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 