Lightnings.

[Papa9571]

The F-35B variant was in danger of missing performance requirements because it weighed too much

[C]

[quote]The F-35B variant was in danger of missing performance requirements because it weighed too much

[Woodlouse2002]

shrinking the weapons bay

Brilliant. :-?  :-/

[Chris_F]

shrinking the weapons bay

Brilliant. :-?

[Woodlouse2002]

Does the JSF have provision for external weapons stores?

[Chris_F]

Does the JSF have provision for external weapons stores?

It does.  Obviously this would impact radar cross section.  I believe the F-22 also has external stores provisions, but I'm not sure of that.  It does make the JSF a better "swiss army knife" kind of plane since it'll be able to load up on a wider array of stores on the external pylons.  For example I could forsee external drop tanks used to get to a conflict area, dropped to reduce RCS for entry in to hostile territory.  I could also forsee the plane being used in low RF threat environments (for example, Iraq or Afghanastan today) with external stores.

If you believe the buzz around this forum all that stealth stuff is useless technology anyways so why not just always use the external pylons?  Makes sense I guess, IF this community is correct and stealth is just another way of sucking tax payers' money out of their pockets.  :)