Joint Strike Fighters 'Clubbed' in Computer War Game

A U.S. air-warfare simulation pitting F-35 Joint Strike Fighters versus the latest Russian Su-35 heavy fighters resulted in a clear victory ... for the Russians. "The JSF had been clubbed like baby seals by the simulated Sukhois," one Australian opposition politician said, quoting a source close to the simulation.

It's not clear just how much Australian domestic politics have skewed the reporting on the exercise's results. Regardless, the sim could boost U.S. Air Force efforts to keep alive the F-35's big brother, the air-combat-optimized F-22 Raptor. The Pentagon wants to cap the F-22 at 183 planes and buy around 2,500 JSFs. The Air Force insists that it needs perhaps twice as many F-22s regardless of the JSF purchase. The F-22, the Air Force says, is an air-defender, while the JSF is designed more for carrying bombs.

The Royal Australian Air Force is slated to be an early customer in the $340-billion JSF program, which is facing small Congressional cuts this year. The F-35 has been a real hot-potato issue in Australia, a country surrounded by rapidly developing air powers, including China and India, that all fly new Sukhois. Canberra had asked the Pentagon to let it buy F-22s, but U.S. lawmakers said no. Due to delays with the F-35, Australia bought a squadron of F/A-18F Super Hornets, but is hoping to trade them in when the JSF is ready around 2015. All this fighter maneuvering has heaped fuel on an increasingly contentious Australian political scene. Basically, the current government supports the F-35/Super Hornet combo. The opposition still wants F-22s.

So how reliable are these reported simulation results? "This is based on a computer game, computer modeling of the aircraft," an Aussie defense spokesman said. "This is not real life."

Even so, don't be surprised if the U.S. Air Force uses the sim when it comes time to fight for more F-22s. The Raptor factory will be open for business all through 2009, and there's even money in the current defense budget to keep the production line warm after the last batch of 60 planes is finished. Some time next year, the new presidential administration will have to decide whether to buy more Raptors or plow the money into JSFs, instead. Expect fireworks.
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