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

[Jura The idiot]

Saturday at 6:32 PM

Yesterday at 9:38 PM
and according to AirForceMag
While F-35 Incidents Still Mysterious, Return to Flight Expected Soon

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now Luke Air Force Base to resume F-35 flight ops after oxygen deprivation incidents

After an 11-day pause, the 56th Fighter Wing on Wednesday will resume local F-35A Lightning II flight operations, officials said Monday evening.

All F-35A flight operations at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona were canceled June 9 after five incidents in which pilots experienced symptoms similar to hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation.

Flight operations will resume Wednesday, although no specific root cause for the physiological events was identified during recent visits from experts and engineers from the Joint Program Office, Lockheed Martin, the Air Force Research Laboratory and other organizations, said Maj. Rebecca Heyse, a spokeswoman for Luke Air Force Base, in a statement.

"However, specific concerns were eliminated as possible causes, including maintenance and aircrew flight equipment procedures," Heyse said.

The decision to resume flight operations at Luke Air Force Base comes as the Air Force showcases the F-35 at the Paris Air Show.

When flight operations resume Wednesday, five criteria will temporarily be applied as technical and human performance data is gathered, Heyse said.

They are:

• Avoid the altitudes in which all five physiological events occurred.

• Modify ground procedures to mitigate physiological risks to pilots.

• Expand physiological training to increase understanding between pilot and medical communities.

• Increase minimum levels for backup oxygen systems for each flight.

• Offer pilots the option of wearing sensors during flight to collect airborne human performance data.
  
  

"Our active duty, reserve and international team has worked tirelessly to better understand the physiological events," said Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, the 56th Fighter Wing commander, in a statement. "This is a complex challenge that necessitates multidimensional solutions across a series of steps to get back to a full operating capability. We are confident that this initial step with the criteria our team developed will allow us to return to flying F-35s safely and to continue building the future of airpower."

source is AirForceTimes

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[FORBIN]

Oxygen

Finally! the ThunderHoggeII "takes the dogs out"! He let her loose, but I assure you, there is more where that came from, once they open up the envelope, it will be "Raptor Light" , well its already Raptor Light, but you get my point, it is full of that LockMart sweetness, low speed rapture, just like I told you!

This F-35A display shows an expanded envelope of the aircraft’s capabilities over the last display.

Again better for block 3F with new software as we know but actual can do better again or the maximum he can do now ? normaly he want aabout a F-16 for turn rates, clim rate etc... last are in the higher category and F-22 the best with normaly after T-50, maybe J-20 with others engines.

I am not a specialist for it seems very good at low speed in more without vector thrust but decent but not also nervous than last fighters, turn less fast seems ...

 

[Air Force Brat]

Oxygen




Again better for block 3F with new software as we know but actual can do better again or the maximum he can do now ? normaly he want aabout a F-16 for turn rates, clim rate etc... last are in the higher category and F-22 the best with normaly after T-50, maybe J-20 with others engines.

I am not a specialist for it seems very good at low speed in more without vector thrust but decent but not also nervous than last fighters, turn less fast seems ...

Heh! Heh! No you,re not, but I am. This was an excellent flight demo! Not an F-22, maybe not SU-35 with OVT?

 

[Air Force Brat]

Oxygen




Again better for block 3F with new software as we know but actual can do better again or the maximum he can do now ? normaly he want aabout a F-16 for turn rates, clim rate etc... last are in the higher category and F-22 the best with normaly after T-50, maybe J-20 with others engines.

I am not a specialist for it seems very good at low speed in more without vector thrust but decent but not also nervous than last fighters, turn less fast seems ...

Presently limited to 7G, next block will clear her to 9+G. Raptor rated to 9.5G. This display did demonstrate tremendous pitch Rate! And very rapid Pitch and Roll transitions.

 

[FORBIN]

Heh! Heh! No you,re not, but I am. This was an excellent flight demo! Not an F-22, maybe not SU-35 with OVT?

You reassure me Buddy

 

[Jura The idiot]

Finally! ...

got something for you:
Dunford Touts F-35 as ‘Not Just a Better F-18 or Bomb Truck’

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said Monday that the F-35 is “not just a better F-18” but a “transformational” aircraft that will change the way the U.S. conducts war.

“The short answer is it’s a critical program,” Dunford said of the

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in response to questions at a National Press Club lunch.

“I believe it is not just a better F-18 [

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] or a better bomb truck,” he said, but rather a transformational platform “both in its ability to deliver its ordnance as well as its ability to serve literally as a server in the sky.”

“It is going to transform the way we fight,” Dunford said, despite well-documented continuing cost overruns and engineering problems that have slowed its deployment.

The general said the cost overruns are less of a problem than they had been.

“Frankly, the cost overruns — a bit of that is history because over the past 18-24 months, I think people would agree, and Congress certainly, I think, supports this perspective — that the program manager has done a great job of getting a lot of those cost overruns back in control,” he said.

He noted that the vertical takeoff Marine

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was

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in July 2015 on his watch in his previous post as

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commandant. It was the first F-35 squadron declared “capable of worldwide deployment, and it has subsequently

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,” he said.

The F-35 will be a main feature for the U.S. at the Paris Air Show this week, as the U.S. attempts to give NATO allies confidence in the aircraft’s future role in the defense of the alliance.

Two of the

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‘s

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version are part of the U.S. contingent at the biennial air show, along with a

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, a

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, a

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, a

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, an

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, two

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, and a

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.

“The impact of air superiority provided by our F-35s is integral to supporting our warfighters and NATO allies,” Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said in a statement. “Showcasing our cutting-edge aircraft technology is one of many ways we ensure ready forces while deterring threats from the outset.”

source is DoDBuzz

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[Jura The idiot]

Yesterday at 7:42 AM

Saturday at 6:32 PM

now Luke Air Force Base to resume F-35 flight ops after oxygen deprivation incidentssource is AirForceTimes

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and this is interesting (altitudes etc.)
PARIS: USAF investigates localised F-35A oxygen issues

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The US Air Force is continuing its investigation into oxygen issues on its F-35As at Luke AFB, Arizona, including examining why the problem appears to be confined to one air base.

Luke AFB’s F-35As have been grounded since 9 June, after five pilots experienced “hypoxia-like symptoms” over the previous month. The air force began surveying pilots’ confidence at Luke when the incidents began in May and later expanded the survey across all USAF F-35 pilots, Col Todd Canterbury, director of the USAF F-35 Integration Office, told reporters on 19 June at Paris air show. Canterbury emphasised during his briefing that the service is not calling the incident a hypoxia problem, but rather a physiological event that could include hypoxia, hypocapnia or even hyperventilation.

In its examination, the air force looked at the aircraft’s low-rate initial production numbers as a possible common thread, Canterbury says. But the service found that Nellis AFB, in Nevada, Hill AFB, in Utah and Luke AFB have LRIP 6, 7 and 8 aircraft. Pilots at Luke AFB are operating Block 2b and 3i software.


"It’s too early to identify a root cause," he says. "But they specifically looked at production lots, they looked at software variants, all the components have software pieces, they drilled all the way down to oxygen control, drill all the way down to maintainers that maintain that system to see if there was a procedure that they didn’t comply with, so that’s the granularity that they’re really drilling down to."

Canterbury appeared to step away from prescribing a fix for the aircraft’s on board oxygen generator system (OBOGS), even after officials at Luke voiced concerns about the OBOGS’ robustness last week. Although the USAF’s pilot survey identified some areas where the service could focus its technical expertise, Canterbury is cautious over funding a fix before the root cause is found.

"It’s far too early to identify any single technical area where we can pour resources to get those fixed," he says. “We don’t want to chase rabbits and waste taxpayer money on that."

In the meantime, the commander at Luke AFB can make local decisions to increase pilot confidence and decrease their vulnerability to oxygen issues, such as implementing an artificial speed restriction, he adds.

"We know exactly what altitudes that this instance happened," he says. "So if they simply stay out of that altitude regime for a little while, [it will] build their confidence."

 

[Jura The idiot]

thought I might share this view which I now found in Twitter (it's captioned in Japanese though:

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)

 

[Jura The idiot]

"... UK ... Numbers right now are exactly where they’re expected to be and inline with the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

2 F-35B in LRIP run 3, 1 F-35B in LRIP run 4, 1 F-35B in LRIP run 7, 4 F-35B in LRIP run 8, 6 F-35B in LRIP run 9, 3 F-35B in LRIP run 10, 2 F-35B in LRIP run 11, 2 F-35B in LRIP run 12
6 F-35B in LRIP run 13, 8 F-35B in LRIP run 14 and 7 F-35B in LRIP run 15. This brings us to 42 in 2023.

The next year and next run brings us to the total of the first batch of aircraft, 48."

according to £135m infrastructure contract awarded to support F-35 fleet
June 21, 2017

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[Jura The idiot]

now I read
Here’s The Video Of The First Aerobatic Flight Demo Of The F-35: Does It Showcase Exceptional Maneuverability Or Quite The Opposite?

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Lockheed Martin Test Pilot Billie Flynn just performed his first F-35A Flight Demo At Paris Air Show. Did he “crush years of misinformation about what this aircraft is capable of doing” as promised?
Set against a brilliant French sky with puffy cumulus clouds Lockheed Martin’s star test pilot Billie Flynn thrilled the crowd at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, France today as he wheeled and tumbled his F-35A Lightning II through an aerobatic demonstration some critics claimed was nearly impossible.

The performance included low speed, high angle of attack maneuvers, tight turning, numerous rolls and maximum performance climbs that would silence the critics who said the F-35 could not dogfight and “

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“.

While the F-35’s advanced sensor and integration avionics are designed to win the fight long before the “merge”

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, this demonstration aimed to show the controversial Joint Strike Fighter can hold its own in a knife-fight with the Sukhois, MiGs, Chengdus, Shenyangs and other likely adversaries.

At the 2:00 mark in the video test pilot Flynn positions the F-35A at show left and performs a high-alpha, ultra low speed pass, standing the Lightning II on her tail and dancing across the Paris sky as the aircraft’s twinkle-toed elevators maintain stable flight on a boiling cushion of thrust from her growling Pratt & Whitney F135 engine. It is a spectacular sight. Enough to silence the skeptics? Hard to say. Most probably not enough, considered what people are used to see when a 4th Gen. aircraft or the F-22 are able to do during an airshow routine.

Returning to lower altirude in the demonstration box, Flynn performs a maximum performance, high-G turn with afterburner similar to what we’ve seen with many other demos. This version of the flight demonstration does not feature the open weapon bay doors as with the F-22 demo we’ve seen many times. One of the F-35A demo routines does include a pass with the weapons bay doors opened.

Honestly speaking the new PAS 2017 routine seems to be more dynamic than expected. But in terms of instantaneous and sustained turn rates the F-35 does not seem to match the performance of the famous super-maneuverable Sukhois, Eurofighter Typhoon, Gripen or Rafale (to name but few).

Still, the unique features of the JSF are its stealth design, sensor fusion capabilities and unmatched SA (Situational Awareness): that is to say all the ingredients for success in modern air-to-ground operations. Comparing the F-35 to an F-22, Typhoon or even F/A-18 in terms of energy-maneuverability is probably wrong and misleading.

So, let us know what are you thoughts after watching this demo:

a) do you think it’s more than enough considered that the aircraft will probably never be engaged in a Within Visual Range dogfight?

b) it’s rather disappointing because super-maneuverability

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?

You judge.