.......The point of the GPS coment was that many people not just me but people of every rank both active and retired from both the US and other militaries worry that with our reliance on Some technologies we may have developed a weakness.
Many more people believe through direct observation, that it's the reliance on those critical advanced technologies that give us the overwhelming battlespace dominance we (we being The West) clearly have at the current time.
Many thought technology was a weakness before the Gulf War too. We're too reliant upon it. It's too expensive, reduces our assets qualitative advantage too much and may lead to a weakness.
Then the most advanced military force on Earth, completely annihilated the 4th biggest land Army in the world, supported by one of the most advanced and "tightest" IADS and one of the largest airforces in the world, in a matter of weeks and suffered a stunningly minimal number of casualties doing so.
It was the biggest wake-up call in military history. Something that Russia, China and others haven't failed to notice, but clearly some in the West have...
That AND just a random thought about how no one seems to be able to function without being plugged into a ipod, Ipad, cellphone or some other such device.
You just read to much into it.
And it's getting worse, yearly. Indeed the military is probably somewhat behind in this regard but it's catching up quickly.
Imagine the advantage an individual soldier on the ground will have when the JSF or UAV circling overhead is streaming real-time EOTS video footage straight to the smartphone device strapped to his non-firing hand, whilst his enemy is hiding in his foxhole/cave/defile on the other side of the hill not receiving the same information?
If you can't see the benefit this technology provides, then please don't ever go to war against a modern Western power...
And wouldnt using active EW from a stealth platform be counter productive in many ways?
Well the good thing about electronics, is that they have the ability to be turned on and off as the situation at hand requires, by the simple expedient of flicking a switch. Or do you imagine that emitter systems are constantly blaring out electrons 24/7, with no control over these emissions whatsoever?
It is true that if a jammer, communications or radar system emits electro-magnetic energy, then potentially that energy may be detected and perhaps the target may be tracked.
But EW is such a complicated field that simplifying the matter so much is a waste of time. If that were the case that a "stealth" couldn't emit at ALL, then they would be unable to be equipped with a radar or any transmission capable communications equipment. Clearly they are fitted with such capabilities, so there must be another answer...
The F-35 will have active and passive EW capabilities throughout it's service matched to it's intended role. The full capabilities of which aren't going to be revealed for decades yet, if ever
Like i said my grip isnt the tactical superiority of the F-35 but the over all idea of getting few and few airframes because of cost (both in development and construction-though now it seems to be mostly R&D) which means less and less flexability.
Same in ships, APC's, and other assets.
That isn't soley technologies fault. Declining budgets, lack of a real threat for most countries AND the increasing effectiveness of military platforms are the reasons.
Despite this, the threats are improving and therefore our capabilities have to as well.
Australia is planning on spending $16billion on it's acquisition of F-35 fighters. This will give us up to 100x F-35 fighters.
No doubt we could acquire many more F-16's for this money. However if they aren't capable of doing the job we need or surviving in the battlespace that we envisage operating in, then it's hardly a wise investment is it?
We drive armoured Bushmaster IMV's in Afghanistan. They cost more than $500,000 a piece. We could buy many more Landrovers for the same amount of money, but we'd pay in blood then instead of dollars...
Having large amounts of a capability isn't always the best option, if that capability will be blown out of the sky before it can achieve the effects you want from it.
