F-35: Why Pilots Love This Stealth Fighter Like No Other

Yes, I know. Yes, I know. knives are out again F-35. 

It is truly sad. 

No matter what benchmark The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter hits, F-15EX fan club or Boeing supporters just won’t quit. 

We need to get our heads going on the F-35. so importantBelow is an interview I conducted in 2021 with a pilot who understands what it takes to survive in the air. 

Bottomline: Let’s listen to the warfighters in the skies before we make bad calls on what they need. They might be killed.

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In 2021, I had the opportunity to speak with David Berke (retired Marine Corps officer and combat veteran) about his thoughts on the F-35.

As a F/A-18 pilot. He was deployed twice from USS John C Stennis for combat operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He was an instructor pilot at TOPGUN for three years. He is dual-qualified in both the aviation and military sectors. F-16 Fighting Falcon and served the role of Training Officer, the senior staff member responsible for conducting the operations. TOPGUN course. He then served as an ANGLICO Forward Air Controller supporting the Army’s 1st Armored Division during extensive urban combat operations in Ramadi, Iraq in 2006. He was the Marine chosen to fly the F-22 Raptor having served as an exchange officer at the Air Force’s 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron as the Division Commander. He was the first operational pilot to fly in the United States and become qualified in the discipline. F-35B, serving as the Commanding Officer of the Marine Corps’ first F-35 squadron from 2012-2014.

Berke earned his master’s degree in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a concentration in Strategic Studies and is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. 

Kazianis: There is a lot of talk about the F-35 in the sense that it can act not only as a potent weapon of war but also as a sensor out in the battlespace acting as an aerial quarterback.

Please explain how it works. What is the U.S. military’s advantage?

Berke: You already know that the question about F35 being unique was a good one. It’s the representative 5th generation fighter. It’s going to be the most prolific 5th generation aircraft, not only that we have, but throughout the world. And yes, there’s a lot of discussion about China and Russia and other nations which are clearly actively developing the same technology and the same designs.

What’s unique about the F-35 isn’t just one thing, especially when you compare it to like an F-15 or older generation aircraft like the Phantom. A lot of people initially point to stealth, which of course is a unique characteristic, but stealth by itself isn’t really what separates the F35. It’s one of several things, and to be honest with you, probably the most noteworthy component, the most noteworthy piece of an F35 making it unique is actually the information capacity, and there are two different things to discuss there. First is the breadth of information that’s out there. It is able to handle a wide range of RF spectrum information (electro-optical and infrared), laser, and other RF information.

So by itself it already operates sort of more broadly and widely than most other aircraft, but even those that have, you know, external sensors and pods that give them those type of strict spectrum capabilities– what separates the F35 and what makes it truly unique is the ability to fuse and share that information.

So what that really means is we’ve got all this amazing sensor information capability in one F-35. It’s linked to numerous other F-35s in the network, and it doesn’t just pass information back and forth. It actually combines that information to enhance and increase the fidelity of that information, and then shares that other aircraft in the link, offboard sensors that are airborne, offboard sensors that are on the ground, users in a whole bunch of different ways, and we could really spend a lot of time talking about the information capacity of the 35, but that’s truly the component of the several different components that make it such a unique aircraft.

The question about how the F-35 isn’t just individually a really capable weapon, but a sensor that operates out in the battlespace that acts not just as an information gatherer, but a quarterback of other systems that are out there and how it initiates not just the communication, but also the decision-making process, both airborne and on the ground is such a unique advantage that the F35 brings that no other aircraft can bring.

So first of all, what’s great about the F-35 partially because of its self capability, is it can operate in really difficult environments. You’ve heard the term anti-access aerial denial- basically what that means is places where the enemy or multiple enemies don’t want us to operate. Now we have a platform which can direct us to where the threat is, rather than vice versa.

What it also does, as it’s operating in those highly contested pieces of the battlespace, it can share information and help other platforms both in the air and on the ground make decisions using the information from the F-35 that they might not normally get ’cause they can’t operate in those same places, so it’s a massive advantage that doesn’t just benefit other platforms and other F-35s, it benefits all decision-makers connected to the network because of that sensor suite and the information it brings and how well it can share and disseminate that information outside of those areas that normally we simply can’t operate in.

It is a true airborne platform, which has a significant impact on all other warfighting capabilities that we bring to the table.

Kazianis: It is not possible to create a weapon as sophisticated as the F-35 or its stealth package on a tight budget. Also, it can’t be built quickly. There has been a lot of discussion over the cost of the F-35 in terms of development, manufacturing, and maintenance.

However, there has been very little media coverage about how much costs have dropped as more F-35s were built. Could you please explain how you were able to reduce costs over time?

How have you improved the efficiency of your manufacturing processes?

Berke: The question about the F-35 in a comparison between the capability and cost is a question we’ve been grappling with for a long time. I was fortunate to be among the first F-35B, and operational F-35 pilots worldwide, and saw first-hand the incredible capabilities of the F-35B fleet and the 5th generation.

I was also extremely fortunate because I was one of the few Marines to fly the F-22 Raptor. I then went on to fly the F-35 after flying the Raptor, our first 5th-generation fighter, and I was a very happy man. So for almost seven or eight years, I had this really neat exposure to the fifth generation world…and what I was able to do is bring context to the operational capability that came with obviously a very high cost.

This is not a cheap program. Now it doesn’t surprise me in the least bit that we’ve seen in recent years, as the program has really gained a lot of steamThis capability has increased dramatically and production has improved and become more efficient. As a result, costs are falling. It is what we had hoped for, but it is just as important to note how much cheaper this plane is than people expected.

The real question is what does the cost comparison to the capability and that’s where the cost advantage really comes from, not just the price has come down so dramatically that it’s competitive with any other platform out there, but the amount of capability it brings, the amount of opportunity it brings is significantly higher than any other platform, any fortune fighter being developed right now.

So as we look and we wrestle with these questions of these significant costs, and yes, these are expensive platforms to build, it’s not just cost in and of itself, it’s that cost comparison to the capability.

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It is affordable due to the fact that the platform has a far greater capability than any other platform. It really is a cost-effective, highly capable platform when you add these two factors together.

About the author Harry J. Kazianis @Grecianformula is the President and CEO at Rogue States Project, which is a bipartisan think tank on national security. He has held top positions at the Center for the National Interest (the Heritage Foundation, the Potomac Foundation and other think tanks and educational institutions that focus on defense issues. He served as a member on the Russia taskforce for U.S. Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz, as well as a similar taskforce in the John Hay Initiative. His ideas were published in the New York Times and Washington Post, Wall Street Journals, Newsweek, CNN, CNBC and other outlets. He has a Harvard University degree in International Relations. He is also the author of The Tao of A2/AD which examines Chinese military modernization. Kazianis is also an expert in defense journalism having been the Editor-In Chief at The Diplomat as well as Executive Editor for The National Interest.