Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/773724
FO: How would you compare F-35 to other advanced military fighters? BF: It will be decades until foreign powers can build an aircraft that will match the capability of the F-35. It eclipses all other flying machines. Legacy 4 th generation fighters in the West cannot match the capabilities of the F-35 even today. FO: Earlier you have been flying as F-16 pilot. Those fighters are now used by Polish Armed Forces. Can we even compare them with the F-35A? BF: The F-16 is a magnificent fighter jet. I have 2000 flying hours in every model of the F-16 ever made. However the F-35 is a new generation of fighter and cannot be compared directly with the F-16 as a 4 th generation fighter. FO: You have also been flying CF-18 Hornet, could you compare this aircraft with F-35C? BF: The CF-18 was a great jet 35 years ago and even 15 years ago when I was a squadron commander and flew it in combat over Kosovo and Serbia. I flew it 33 year ago for the first time; it is a 4 th Generation fighter and cannot match the surface-to-air and the air-to-air threats of the future. FO: We had impression that the pilot of F-35 (frankly speaking) operates in total VR. What is the real impact on flying this fighter? BF: VR does not exist for the fighter pilot yet. But systems like sensor fusion and the Distributed Aperture System that feeds imagery into our F-35 helmet borders on virtual reality technologies. I look forward to our evolving technologies as time goes on for the F-35. DEFENSE INDUSTRY