According to an airforce technology website, the F-35B is designed as a strike fighter to replace the F-18 while other variations were designed to be air to ground aircraft to replace the F-16 and the A-10.
Popular Mechanics magazine had an article a while back about the future of the American airforce. They said that the F-22 was supposed to maintain air superiority while the F-35 would attack ground targets. This leads to my question. Why was the F-18, a strike fighter, and the F-35, another strike fighter, chosen to be the air superiority fighters of the USMC while the Chinese gets the J-10, an air superiority fighter designed to combat the agile F-16 and Mig-29. It also seems somewhat strange to have an airforce plane be the US bomber as the side is called the USMC and not simply the USA. If Dice and EA wanted to follow the idea of it being the USMC, then perhaps the strike eagle shouldn't be there. The JSF is capable of mounting all sorts of weaponry. To me at least, the idea of a Strike Eagle launching in theatre is just strange. If they wanted a two seater aircraft for the USMC (which is non-existant in the real marine corps), then perhaps the Tomcat would be more appropriate as it would actually be launched in theatre.
Anyways, my long rant stems from the fact that the JSF SUCKS in dogfighting compared to the J-10 and the Mig-29. I mean, if you are going to take an airforce fighter like the F-15E, then why not take the F-16 for air superiority. If they could code the Zeros and the Corsairs to take off horizontally from the carriers in 1942, would it be that hard to get the F-18's to take off from these carriers?
Popular Mechanics magazine had an article a while back about the future of the American airforce. They said that the F-22 was supposed to maintain air superiority while the F-35 would attack ground targets. This leads to my question. Why was the F-18, a strike fighter, and the F-35, another strike fighter, chosen to be the air superiority fighters of the USMC while the Chinese gets the J-10, an air superiority fighter designed to combat the agile F-16 and Mig-29. It also seems somewhat strange to have an airforce plane be the US bomber as the side is called the USMC and not simply the USA. If Dice and EA wanted to follow the idea of it being the USMC, then perhaps the strike eagle shouldn't be there. The JSF is capable of mounting all sorts of weaponry. To me at least, the idea of a Strike Eagle launching in theatre is just strange. If they wanted a two seater aircraft for the USMC (which is non-existant in the real marine corps), then perhaps the Tomcat would be more appropriate as it would actually be launched in theatre.
Anyways, my long rant stems from the fact that the JSF SUCKS in dogfighting compared to the J-10 and the Mig-29. I mean, if you are going to take an airforce fighter like the F-15E, then why not take the F-16 for air superiority. If they could code the Zeros and the Corsairs to take off horizontally from the carriers in 1942, would it be that hard to get the F-18's to take off from these carriers?
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