F-35 Aggressors: Why now is the time for them | Best of Aviation by Pilotphotog

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Let's take a look at how F-35s are being used as Aggressor aircraft and the 65th Aggressor Squadron has been reactivated! The aggressor airplanes are flown by some of the best aviators in the world.

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Credits/Attributions:

Photography and video Credits/Attributions:

"The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."
Department of Defense
Lockheed Martin

[PilotPhotog]

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[Fraptor]

One thing you should know is, the F-35's RAM coatings are not applied onto the skin like they are on the F-22 or previous planes. It is baked into the skin which is why it's easier to maintain, cheaper and far more effective than all previous RAM coatings. It is essentially an entirely different type of skin. This new skin is what allows colored patterns to be there on the F-35 and for it not to actually lost it's stealth characteristics. Meanwhile the F-22, F-117 and B-2 could never have this done to them. Also due to the way the F-35's RAM coating is applied, they basically come out of the factory with the RAM coating on forever, so you cant actually have an F-35 fly without it's RAM coating. In order to do that they'd have to build parts and panels from scratch to not have RAM coating on it

[JCMills]

I was an F5-E crew chief for the 527th Aggressor Squadron at RAF Alconbury. I always knew that in spite of what the talking heads were saying they would need Aggressor Squadrons again. I hope the F-35's are as successful as our F-5E's were at the task.

[Ace-rpvr]

I like how people say the F-35 can only fly about as good as an F-16 like it’s a bad thing, the F-16 is still pretty maneuverable and good and competitive

[bullpupgaming]

Dont' forget Red Flag Alaska. It's Red Flag Nellis but on steriods because it spans two bases, Eielson AFB and Elmendorf AFB and covers a vastly larger air and ground space than even the NTTR.

[billynomates]

that canopy closing around 4:00. the reflection makes it look like the pilots are raised up into the cockpit. looks cool af.

[scottnj]

This video is a powerful demonstration of the effective use of open-source information synthesized into a salient and, I believe relevant commentary.👍

[aaroncasey]

Holy shit those 16s in a russian paint scheme looks really damn good. The su57 pant scheme one looked amazing with f16 angles.

[c.simmons]

It should also be mentioned that the AFRL is working to develop a high performance unmanned aggressor aircraft. Even if this initial contract doesn't go anywhere, it shows that the military would be interested in something like that and it could be developed later with some of the other UCAV programs.

[marcuspinnock]

The U.S. Navy actually do operate aggressor F-16s, the F-16N is a stripped down version with better flight performance than the F-16C

[tcam]

The navy is making/has a F/A18E/F aggressor squadron, I’ve seen them lined up sitting in a hanger. All Russian and Chinese camos and paints, they all look very cool

[bjornodin]

This was really informative! A seldom examined subject, aside from highly specialized media aimed at insiders AF, R&D etc. I appreciate the amount of work done to break such a complex subject down "Barney style" 😊

[deqnq]

real talk aggressor camo looks awesome

[Anarchy_]

Please create a video about The F-117 being used as Red Force Aircraft! Plus The Metallic Coatings on The F-117!🙏

[adamwee]

3:07 I wouldnt say the F5 is extremely manuverable. It's used in order to simulate older soviet era fighters like the Mig21 which is still in use by several countries, including China which uses a Chinese produced copy. The F 16 an go toe to toe with any 4th or 4.5 gen aircraft and dominates anything under 15, 000 feet in a two circle dogfight with a possible exception being the f-22. The Eurofighter will crush it at higher altitudes but lower to the ground the advtage shifts. It's an absolute monster, but the F5 not so much. My guess is they use tactics with the F5 similar to what the North Vietnamese airforce used which was to come in low, fire on vulnerable aircraft and run away before the blue force has a chance to bring their more modern/powerful aircraft onto them.

[jamesburdis]

it's good they kept the f16s for reds airforce as that more accurately simulates Russia as they have little to no 5th gen fighters in their airforce but the decision to cut 3rd gen aircraft such as the f5 and a4 is questionable to me because it simulates to pilots what aircraft from poorer nations would be like if a war was to break out between the us and 3rd world country

[basedmugigaming]

9:19 ngl, the F-16 with that paint scheme looks awesome

[josephsmith]

The newer wide spread adoption of the f35 is really fleshing out the system

[mikewaterfield]

One might argue now is the time for the 35 and the 22 to be aggressors. Make the war game more challenging than it is likely to be.

[phoenixgaming]

"it is hard even for the F-22 to keep an eye on the raptor"
Raptor: It's... Not... Possible...