r mills thanks for alerting me to this article John Hardy not a Turnbull fan shared.
I find this most interesting:
The Air Force proudly released a video of the first time an F-35A test fired its cannon in flight. Now we know that the simple action of opening the small door causes the plane to turn slightly because of the door’s drag, possibly enough to cause the cannon to miss. The DOT&E memo reports that these door-induced aiming errors “exceed accuracy specifications” which will make it quite difficult for pilots to hit targets. And since the Air Force’s F-35 only holds 181 rounds—as opposed to 511 for the F-16 and 1,100 for the A-10—every bullet will count.
I wonder if the USAF can overcome this shortcoming by using an externally mounted gun pod? But doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the internally mounted cannon?
Originally shared by John Hardy
As it stands now, F-35 would need to run away from combat, have other planes come to rescue.
Well, that was $1.4 trillion well spent. $24 billion of that from the Australian Department of Defence.
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