Comments by "Titanium Rain" (@ChucksSEADnDEAD) on "Is The F-35 Program Worth $1 Trillion Dollars?" video.

The F-15 and F-16 have already proven themselves as able to limp back to a runway with a wing gone/half a wing ripped off. The F-35 uses even more body lift than those so it's most likely very surviveable if the body can compensate for assymetric lift. The hydraulic system is even more resilient by isolating each control surface so that getting shot doesn't mean the entire hudraulic system is drained, only the one hit.
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And the A-10 has already been replaced. The F/A-18, F-15E, F-16 and B-1 took over the CAS role with the A-10 only getting a small percentage of missions.
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@jamesburleson1916 we already know what happened, the A-10s suffered so many losses that they had to be grounded. Tank columns will be protected by SAMs and AAA, not to mention soldiers carrying manpads which have proven deadly to A-10s. A fighter escort will mean nothing, unless they're carrying bombs and missiles to deal with those threats. At which point why send A-10s anyway?
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The F-16 is a great fighter, and in Israeli hands performed the daring deep bombing raid of a nuclear facility. The F/A-18 has already shot down aircraft on the way to drop bombs. We live in the multirole age now.
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And then the S400 eats a HARM as soon as it turns on.
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@getstuffed2391 he's right, since 2014 that the A-10 only gets 11% of CAS missions. It's already been replaced for the most part.
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@Stimpy&Ren if you need to take small arms fire to acomplish a job, you've already lost. Also, the F-35 uses body lift which means like the F-16 and F-15 it can probably lose most of a wing and still fly, and it's electronic bus commanding independent hydraulic systems means it's even more resilient than the A-10 dual hydraulic sustem. But again, there's no need to get in small arms fire range to drop payload because pods see better than the human eye.
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@getstuffed2391 "laser guidance doesn't work above clouds" - the solution you claim to not be effective is needed for the A-10 too. The friendly fire incident when the A-10 fired on British troops happened because the A-10 did not have a ground controller directing the pilot so he opened fire on what "seemed" to be enemies. If your allies are pinned down you want to be able to designate targets or else the A-10 will fire on you too.
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@Stimpy&Ren "You need to fly low over a hostile area" - the A-10 improvements over the years say otherwise, considering it was outfitted with weaponry and pods that allowed to stay further away from threats. The weapon the A-10 used to be a tank killer in 1991 was the AGM-65 Maverick as the gun was not reliably killing tanks in one pass and trying to get close was dangerous to the aircraft. "I doubt that every sniper will be taken out with a 80 000 dollar missile." - If you need an A-10 gun run to deal with a sniper you've already committed to massive waste of dollars. A carl gustav, 50 cal machine gun or even a couple of 7.62 machine gun will either make the sniper deader than the Dodo or make him seriously rethink his life choices.
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@Stimpy&Ren Doesn't look like you know much about aviation other than clips. Ask yourself what matters more, saving the troops or giving a good air show? I'd rather have better aircraft with better technology and better weapons arriving sooner and that actually prioritize saving people over giving an air show, than being seen or making anyone cheer. It's combat, not a freaking parade.
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@Stimpy&Ren "The F-35 cannot survive on a combat field" - Why? "Stealth loses its meaning when you deal with ground troops that shoot on visual ques" - How many F-15s and F/A-18s shot down by ground troops with gunfire? "Against fighters and long range SAMs" - SAMs are literally the biggest threat against aircraft. In Vietnam the American pilots had good kill ratios in air to air but suffered massive losses from SAMs. The 1973 Arab-Israeli war also proved that an integrated air defense is deadly to aircraft. "not when dealing with direct fire." - Why would be F-35 get within range of direct fire? Also, the F-35 has body lift which mitigates damage to wings, and hydraulics are independent and controlled by electronic bus so that the system won't get bled dry if you hit it. It seems to be even more survivable than current aircraft.
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