The Rand Corporation, one of the Defense Department’s most trusted and longest running contractors, was hired by the Pentagon to carry out a computerized and simulated war between China and the US. The results were so horrifying, they were deemed classified, but were leaked to the press. What the computer models showed was that in the most likely scenario for a US-China war, the United States was soundly defeated by the Chinese military.

Most Americans will immediately and arrogantly close their ears to any suggestion that the US could lose a war to anyone. So, it’s a good thing that war correspondent David Axe and War Is Boring published the step-by-step actions each military takes to show readers exactly how and why America loses. The account, leaked to the media and published by Medium.com, shows how the blame lies squarely on one thing – the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s abysmal failure in combat.

…

According to the Rand war scenario developed for the Pentagon, the most expensive military weapon in the history of mankind is a complete and utter failure. The futuristic warplane is supposed to replace all other jet fighters in the US arsenal at a cost of $1 trillion and climbing. As one critic published a few weeks ago, that’s enough money to buy a $100,000 home for every homeless family in America for the next six generations.

The F-35 didn’t fail because of its recurring engine fires or the problems it’s still having with vertical landings and take-offs. It failed because it was designed to do too many things. And sometimes, especially in war, quantity beats quality. We used to joke as teens that you could line up the Chinese and machinegun them down all day and night and they would still reproduce faster than we could eliminate them. Ironically enough, that’s basically the tactic that leads to America’s defeat to the Chinese military in Pentagon simulations.

…

The report from Medium.com quoted Chuck Spinney, who they describe as a retired Defense Department analyst and whistleblower who one US Senator called the “conscience of the Pentagon.” Spinney explained, “What you have to understand is that problems with the F-35 are the result of pathological decision-making patterns that go back at least to the 1960s.”

A dream contract for Lockheed Martin, the F-35 is supposed to replace roughly a dozen aging US fighters and fighter-bombers produced by a half dozen different defense contractors. They include tried and true planes like the F-16 and the A-10 Thunderbolt, affectionately nicknamed the ‘warthog’.

The authors conclude, ‘Engineering compromises forced on the F-35 by this unprecedented need for versatility have taken their toll on the new jet’s performance. Largely because of the wide vertical-takeoff fan the Marines demanded, the JSF is wide, heavy and has high drag, and is neither as quick as an F-16 nor as toughly constructed as an A-10. The jack-of-all-trades JSF has become the master of none.’

How tomorrows US-China War plays out

…

The first action, they say, would be a surprise attack by China on Taiwan’s Air Forces to establish immediate control of the air. That would force the US to respond by scrambling its fighter wings based in Japan and Guam to Taiwan to protect the island from a Chinese invasion or a massive bombing campaign on its citizens and ground forces. And that’s where the computer models show the US military completely falling apart, only moments after entering combat against a less-advanced but formidable foe.

‘In the scenario, 72 Chinese jets patrolled the Taiwan Strait,’ the report described, ‘Just 26 American warplanes - the survivors of a second missile barrage targeting their airfields - were able to intercept them, including 10 twin-engine F-22 stealth fighters that quickly fired off all their missiles. That left 16 of the smaller, single-engine F-35s to do battle with the Chinese. As they began exchanging fire with the enemy jets within the mathematical models of the mock conflict, the results were shocking.’

The lesson from the simulated encounter was that the newest and most expense American joint strike fighter – the F-35, ‘was no match for Chinese warplanes. Despite their vaunted ability to evade detection by radar, the JSFs were blown out of the sky.’ The authors reluctantly conceded, “The F-35 is double-inferior.”

“Can’t turn. Can’t climb. Can’t run.”

The Lockheed Martin fighter was sold to the American people with the promise that its weapons systems were so advanced, it could shoot enemy planes out of the sky long before enemy radar even picked up the F-35s. And that’s still true. But what happens after the initial few seconds as both air forces are charging directly at each other at the speed of sound? The results were that as soon as the range closed and the F-35s lost their advantage of extreme distance, they were all shot down by Chinese fighters.

The secret Rand report for the Pentagon wrote, “Inferior acceleration, inferior climb, inferior sustained turn capability. Also has lower top speed. Can’t turn, can’t climb, can’t run.” The military analysts explained that the F-35 would function better as a long-range, mobile missile platform rather than a fighter. The computer models showed that once the jets had lost their element of surprise and launched all their missiles, remaining enemy fighters had no problem clearing them from the sky. The result was the loss of the battle and China’s successful invasion of Taiwan.