Report: In test dogfight, F-35 gets waxed by F-16

A test pilot report obtained by defense journalist David Axe of War is Boring detailed the performance of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in a mock air battle against a two-seat F-16D in January. The F-16D—based on a design developed 40 years ago and from a production run in the mid-1990s—bested the F-35 in close-range combat maneuvers.

In the report, which Axe had obtained but did not publish in full, the F-35 pilot reported that his aircraft was in a "clean" configuration for the test, carrying nothing under its wings or in its internal weapons bays. The F-16, on the other hand, was flying with under-wing external fuel drop-tanks, which in theory would have put the aircraft at an aerodynamic disadvantage.

Apparently, it didn't. "Even with the limited F-16 target configuration, the F-35A remained at a distinct energy disadvantage for every engagement," the F-35 pilot reported. That means the F-35 constantly found itself flying slower and more sluggishly, unable to effectively maneuver to get the F-16 in its sights.

Furthermore, the F-35's high-tech helmet, which is supposed to give the pilot the ability to essentially "see through" the plane with the assistance of external cameras and sensors, didn't help matters. "The helmet was too large for the space inside the canopy to adequately see behind the aircraft," the pilot reported, which made it impossible to keep visual contact with the F-16 during the dogfight.

In an interview with the CBC's The Fifth Estate in November of 2014, F-16 co-designer Pierre Sprey berated the F-35 "inherently a terrible plane, because it's built based on a dumb idea"—a multirole, multi-service aircraft. "You've compromised the aircraft horribly for three different missions, and then you've compromised it again for three different services." He said the aircraft was "astonishingly unmaneuverable" because of its ratio of wing surface to weight. "In dogfighting, it's hopeless. "While much of what Sprey said in that interview has been rebutted at length elsewhere, the F-35 test pilot report seems to offer the same conclusion.