Regardless your thoughts on the F-35 program, or billion-dollar fighter jets in general, there’s still something inherently amazing about mid-air refuelling: two man-made machines, probably hundreds of miles from home, hooking up in mid-air and transferring aerial lifeblood from one to another.
These shots were taken during a dusk refuelling sortie, where the F-35B sucked from both a KC-10 and KC-135 tanker aircraft. The mission was part of the F-35’s buildup of tests to certify it for full night flight, a vital stepping stone on the long, long road to it actually becoming into service.
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Image credits: Lockheed Martin
Contact the author at chris@gizmodo.com.
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DISCUSSION
We would have a better return on our investment of dollars in developing an AMRAAM missile for use on our current fighter inventory with electro-optical sensors to detect 5+ gen aircraft then to build an untested aircraft to try and outsmart our future adversaries. If the amount that we’ve spent already spent on the F-35 program was used towards a missile it would update its facebook status in-route, tweet about its intended target and snap a selfie just before impact.