F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread

[Air Force Brat]

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View attachment 24700​

...and the beat goes on.

Yes Sir!

 

[FORBIN]

Fan art but make sense coz Israel have yet customized almost all her fighters and very possible F-35I get more fast FT.

Get a look !

...

An F-35 different:

Israeli F-35 participate in the program including the production of 811 pairs of wings by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). In addition, Elbit Systems supplies the pilot's helmet visor. As against the Hebrew State refused part of the international maintenance program. The country will revise that subsystems abroad.

Note also that the Israeli F-35 will be significantly different with a unique communication system in the cockpit. IN addition, Israeli F-35 will have a second data link system, known as the "Ravnet-300" and produced by the company Rafael Defense. This system is comparable in some respects to system "Link16" NATO standard works much faster and allows multiple applications. But Israeli go even further, with the replacement of electronic-warfare system ASQ-239 "Barracuda" by BAE Systems. This request was not accepted by Washington, but there are very clear indications that the stealth fighter comes in Israel, can be equipped with an electronic-warfare system designed in the country and is based on the extensive IAF operational experience in the Middle East.

Recall :

The F-35 will allow the State of Israel maintain air supremacy and its technological qualitative edge in the region, particularly in terms of deterrence, but also in cases of pre-emptive strikes. By cons, because of the reduced number of F-35, the backbone of the air combat will be maintained with the F-15 and F-16 modernization

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[Air Force Brat]

Fan art but make sense coz Israel have yet customized almost all her fighters and very possible F-35I get more fast FT.

Get a look !
View attachment 24716

Yep, and those who maintain the F-35 will have anything to fear from the 4+ SU-35 really do not understand the tremendous technological advance this aircraft brings, not only to A2G, but to A2A as well. In light of Gen "Hawk" Carlisles statements, the F-35 may indeed be more "stealthy" than the F-22?

 

[FORBIN]

the F-35 may indeed be more "stealthy" than the F-22?

Nah a little less good RCS remains very correct the back have always a more big RCS in general about 1 dBm.

F-22, Frontal RCS 0,00018 m2 Back 0.001
F-35, 0,00143 ; 0.01

The first design used by F-35A demonstrator was a little better for RCS.

Su-35 get a RCS of 3 m2, much less good as Rafale, Typhoon.

 

[Air Force Brat]

Nah a little less good RCS remains very correct the back have always a more big RCS in general about 1 dBm.

F-22, Frontal RCS 0,00018 m2 Back 0.001
F-35, 0,00143 ; 0.01

The first design used by F-35A demonstrator was a little better for RCS.

Su-35 get a RCS of 3 m2, much less good as Rafale, Typhoon.

Heh! Heh! Heh!, well Bro Forbin, we're not going to back into them sir, and truth be told they will never see us, until its far to late, you can run, but you will only die tired! LOL

 

[Air Force Brat]

Heh! Heh! Heh!, well Bro Forbin, we're not going to back into them sir, and truth be told they will never see us, until its far to late, you can run, but you will only die tired! LOL

I would suggest you read the article that Master Jura posted about the F-22??

 

[Jeff Head]

Fan art but make sense coz Israel have yet customized almost all her fighters and very possible F-35I get more fast FT.

Get a look !
View attachment 24716

Very nice. I love the possible IDF colors!

 

[Brumby]

Air Force F-35 Buy Trimmed? While Navy Model Boosted

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WASHINGTON:

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from budget cuts and it looks as if he knew what he was talking about.

The story out this afternoon is that five Air Force

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will be cut from the fiscal 2017 budget request. Mackenzie Eaglen said at a Brookings Institution event Monday that the F-35 program was simply the biggest source of cash in the room and should be cut to help fund

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. Since the Marines will deploy their

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to Iwakuni, Japan early next year, it may be that the Pentagon leadership made the decision that air assets in the Pacific were substantive enough to trim the Air Force buy for balance.

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is reporting — from one source, so exercise caution — that the Air Force will request 43 F-35As, down from the previously planned 48. The Air Force had planned to boost its purchases to 60 in 2018. J.J. Gertler, aviation expert at the Congressional Research Service, estimates that trimming that buy to

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.

But this cut is not happening in a vacuum. A senior defense official told us last week that the Navy will accelerate

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in 2017, so it’s unclear what effect the Air Force decision will have on Lockheed Martin’s overall production numbers.

The Navy planned to buy four F-35Cs, designed to take off and land from aircraft carriers, in 2017, with that doubling to eight the next year. If the Navy pulls forward three or four of the Cs, we’re back pretty much to where we were in terms of numbers. The Navy and Marine versions are more expensive than the F-35As so it’s unlikely we’ll see that much of an increase — presuming the cut was driven by money.

The odds of the cut being driven by money are pretty good. After all, the Pentagon won’t have

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. But budgets are awfully complicated.

 

[Brumby]

USAF considers defensive lasers for future fighters

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The dawn of the combat laser era might begin in 2021 when the US air force hopes to begin demonstrations of a podded electric laser system for fifth and sixth-generation fighter jets that can destroy incoming missiles, not just steer them off course.

Today, the air force research laboratory started gathering market information under an advanced technology demonstration programme known as SHiELD, or self-protect high-energy laser demonstrator.

According to the request for information notice, the project seeks to integrate a “moderate power” electric laser into a protective pod for supersonic combat jets, including fifth-generation jets like the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22 as well as future fighters and bombers.

“SHiELD seeks to expand moderate power (tens of kilowatts) laser weapon operation into the supersonic regime by demonstrating system performance under transonic flight, and acquiring aero-effects data under a supersonic environment relevant to current and future tactical aircraft,” the notice states.

“Advanced laser options under investigation are those with size and weight appropriate for integration as part of a complete laser weapon system into an aerodynamic integrated pod-like structure carried by a tactical aircraft.”

The laser pod would be significantly more powerful than current-generation self-protection capabilities like Northrop Grumman’s directional infrared countermeasure (DIRCM) system. It’s added power could burn or otherwise disable infrared and radar-guided missiles at high speeds.

Military scientists hope to validate the laser pod in a laboratory environment (technology readiness level four) by 2017 and be ready for prototype demonstration by 2021, the notice says.

The air force has long sought to introduce airborne laser weapons, but the technology remains elusive. Lockheed Martin has explored laser weapon options for the F-35, and US special operations forces want to install a laser gun on the new AC-130J Ghostrider gunship by 2020.

Instead of chemical lasers that were favoured for the defunct Boeing YAL-1A airborne laser testbed, air force and industry officials now see electric-powered lasers as the best way forward.

Either here or in F-22 thread. My bet is in the F-35 because probably easier to find test platform and funding.

 

[Brumby]

Unready for War: America’s F-35 Gets a Bad Report Card

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Last July, the United States Marine Corps declared their short takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter operational. However, a new Pentagon operational test and evaluation report shows that the jet is far from ready. Even at the time, many had suspected that the service’s initial operational capability (IOC) was more hope than reality—now there is data to back that up.

In his

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, the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Dr. J. Michael Gilmore summarized:

“The program terminated Block 2B developmental flight testing in May 2015, delivering Block 2B capability with deficiencies and limited combat capability. The Marine Corps declared IOC at the end of July 2015. However, if used in combat, the Block 2B F-35 will need support from command and control elements to avoid threats, assist in target acquisition, and control weapons employment for the limited weapons carriage available (i.e., two bombs, two air-to-air missiles). Block 2B deficiencies in fusion, electronic warfare, and weapons employment result in ambiguous threat displays, limited ability to respond to threats, and a requirement for off-board sources to provide accurate coordinates for precision attack. Since Block 2B F-35 aircraft are limited to two air-to-air missiles, they will require other support if operations are contested by enemy fighter aircraft. The program deferred deficiencies and weapons delivery accuracy (WDA) test events from Block 2B to Block 3i and Block 3F, a necessary move in order to transition the testing enterprise to support Block 3i flight testing and Block 3F development, both of which began later than planned in the program’s Integrated Master Schedule (IMS).”

According to Gilmore’s report, the problems with the Block 2B software were so difficult that those technical hiccups were transferred to the subsequent Block 3i software, which the U.S. Air Force needs for its initial operational capability date later this year. The Block 3i was originally intended to be a simple port of the Block 2B software to avionics hardware onboard newer F-35s, but the deficiencies were so severe that the Air Force refused to accept the code as is.

“The Air Force insisted on fixes for five of the most severe deficiencies inherited from Block 2B as a prerequisite to use the final Block 3i capability in the Air Force IOC aircraft; Air Force IOC is currently planned for August 2016 (objective) or December 2016 (threshold),” states the DOT&E report.

“However,” Gilmore’s report adds, “Block 3i struggled during developmental testing (DT), due to the inherited deficiencies and new avionics stability problems. Based on these Block 3i performance issues, the Air Force briefed that Block 3i mission capability is at risk of not meeting IOC criteria to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) in December 2015.”

While Gilmore’s report is gloomy—it’s still a fact of life that the F-35 is here to stay. Despite the jet’s many problems and myriad schedule slips, the Pentagon is accelerating the program and launching a block buy even before testing is complete. In recent days, the Pentagon has ordered a reluctant U.S. Navy to convert its Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike aircraft into an

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while accelerating F-35C purchases. As ever, the $400 billion F-35 Goliath awkwardly stumbles forward.

A not too complementary piece on the F-35 program. Generally, I don't have any problem with negative reports because they tend to tell me things that are more insightful than typical PR release. Personally I think the best thing they can do for the program is to take a hit and re-baseline the IOC dates to allow program management to fix the problems the right way. Without addressing the problem correctly, it is simply kicking the bucket down the road. Such problems are fixable, they just need to be detached from the political process.