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

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mankyle

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There are some lights and shadows in the adquisition of the F-35 by the UK. Some important questions have been discussed in the parliament.

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They talk about the impossibility of integrating MADL in the Apache, Typhoon and QEII carriers which means that one of the main advantages of the F-35 gets diminished.
They also talk about bandwidth capabilites of the QEII carriers, which is completely inssuficient at this moment to accomodate an F-35 fleet (ALIS system would use all available bandwidth of the carrier. Let's remember that the US navy has increased bandwith capabilities in the LHD/LHAs to operate with the Bravo bird). A crownest Helo equipped with MADL would be a HUGE force multiplier for the carriers.

They also talk about costs, the smart helmet...

It is very long and some questions are very well thought. It seems that operaring a F-35 based carrier fleet is going to be:
A) more expensive than planed
B) more difficult than planed
C) and unless the US lets the UK access to the MADL system to integrate it in the carrier, typhoon and othe birds in the UK fleet, communication between the F-35 and other militar assest will have to rely on the Link 16 which is like a turtle compared to the hare the MADL is.
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
according to FlightGlobal
UK outlines IOC target for F-35s
The UK remains on target to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) with the Lockheed Martin F-35B in late 2018, with its personnel training and testing activities gathering pace.

Eight of the 11 short take-off and vertical landing aircraft so far accepted by the UK are now supporting training at the US Marine Corps' MCAS Beaufort facility in South Carolina, with the activity involving 140 of its personnel. "By the end of this year it is planned that the UK will have 14 of these jets," the Ministry of Defence says.

The Royal Air Force's 617 Sqn will be reformed in the USA early next year, before bringing nine jets back to the service's RAF Marham base in Norfolk by mid-year, says Air Cdre David Bradshaw, the UK Lightning force commander. The unit should secure IOC for deployable land-based duties by the end of 2018, he confirmed during the DSEI exhibition in London earlier this month.

In advance of the jets' arrival a new integrated training facility is beginning to take shape at RAF Marham, which will eventually accommodate four linked full-mission simulators for the F-35B.

Bradshaw says training activity on the UK's F-35Bs will be divided equally between live flying and synthetic-based instruction. He attributes this balance to improvements in simulation technology, and "restrictions in the live environment, such as security – not wanting to give away tactics, techniques and procedures".

Meanwhile, initial aircraft carrier flight trials are scheduled to take place off the US East Coast involving the Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth "in the autumn of next year", Bradshaw says. Maritime IOC is expected for the F-35B by the end of 2020, coinciding with the vessel's entry into service.

Simulator-based training will also be possible aboard the RN's two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers. The vessels have design space to accommodate a pair of deployed mission rehearsal trainers, each of which has two cockpits, enabling a four-ship formation of pilots to conduct mission rehearsal.

Build-up of the UK Lightning force will continue with the arrival at Marham in 2019 of the 207 Sqn operational conversion unit, followed by the establishment of a second frontline squadron – 809 NAS – in 2023.

"All squadrons will have a mix of both RAF and RN personnel," Bradshaw says. "This is very different to the [BAE Systems] Harrier force, which evolved over time, rather than being joint by design from the outset." Assistant chief of the air staff Air Vice-Marshal Mike Wigston says the MoD expects its joint Lightning force to eventually be comprised of 60% RAF and 40% RN personnel.

The UK has so far ordered 48 of its planned eventual fleet of 136 F-35s, and 18 of the aircraft should have been accepted by the end of next year.

BAE also recently hosted a multinational training activity at its Samlesbury site in Lancashire, during which F-35 pilots from the UK, Italy and the Netherlands rehearsed possible joint scenarios involving other aircraft types and ground forces, via desktop simulators. The company describes the activity as having included the provision of "digitally-aided" close-air support, using the F-35's variable message format datalink.
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Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Aug 30, 2017
Jura said:
Jun 20, 2017
and
Air Force Lifts Flight Restrictions on Luke F-35As

30 Aug 2017
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but Pilot Breathing Issues Prompt Changes To F-35 Mask, Vest

Sep 18, 2017
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The U.S. Air Force is making changes to
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flight equipment to make breathing easier for pilots, as the Pentagon continues searching for a root cause of five hypoxia-like cockpit incidents in the new fighter at an Arizona Air Force base this summer.

First, the Air Force reduced the weight of the F-35 flight vest by about 10 lb. by eliminating “redundant” survival equipment, Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, commander of the 56h Fighter Wing at Luke AFB, Arizona, told Aviation Week in a Sept. 18 interview at the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber conference here. The vest originally weighed about 15-17 lb., so cutting survival equipment to a minimum reduced weight on a pilot’s chest significantly, he said.

“When you step out to the jet in 110-degree weather you absolutely feel [the change], and then under Gs you feel it as well,” Leonard said.

In addition, the team found that some masks had faulty exhalation valves, which caused the valve to “stick” during exhalation. This made exhaling much more difficult, Leonard said.

The Air Force has replaced all of the pilots’ exhalation valves, and instituted extra pre- and post-flight procedures to make sure each valve is operating correctly, Leonard said.

The Air Force also has asked the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to install a cotton ring around the valve to avoid any moisture buildup—for instance, sweat—that might be causing the valve to stick. In addition, the team is looking at possibly redesigning other components with different materials to prevent the problem in future, Leonard said.

While the faulty valve did make breathing harder, it may not be directly linked to the five hypoxia-like incidents that caused the Air Force to temporarily ground the Luke F-35s this summer. Eleven pilots had faulty valves, but none of those pilots were involved in those specific incidents, Leonard said.

“So that’s not to say that wasn’t contributory, just at the time we didn’t know it was an issue,” Leonard said. “As a safety precaution we basically looked across our entire fleet.”

Identifying a root cause of breathing problems during flight is tricky, because so many physiological conditions have overlapping symptoms. Hypoxia—lack of oxygen—is often confused with changes in cabin pressure, contaminated air, or even too much oxygen (hyperventilation). Psychological factors also can induce changes in pilot breathing.

In this case, before the team discovered the faulty valve some pilots were attributing the difficulty they were having exhaling to a completely separate issue, Leonard said. The F-35, unlike most Air Force fighters, actually provides positive oxygen pressure—4 lb. of PSI—to the pilot through the mask to avoid contamination and help pilots breathe easier under high-G environments.

This “overpressure” means that instead of having to pull in air during an inhale, “in the F-35 to some small degree you can just almost open your mouth and you get air,” Leonard explained.

“What happens is if the cockpit got contaminated with air and you had neutral pressure you could actually get some of that contamination into your mask,” Leonard said. “So that’s an improvement on the F-35 where it actually pushes air into your mask, so if you had a contamination it wouldn’t go into the mask itself.”

The team concluded that the positive pressure to the mask did not contribute in a physical way to the five hypoxia-like incidents at Luke that occurred earlier this summer.

However, the fact that pilots believed the positive pressure was causing labored breathing may have contributed to the problem from a psychological standpoint, Leonard said.

To combat this, the team at Luke has focused on educating pilots about the aircraft, their flight equipment, the different physiological conditions, how to control their breathing during flight, and how to identify their own unique hypoxia symptoms, he said.

In terms of possible technical causes, the 711th human performance wing is examining the F-35’s Onboard Oxygen Generation System that supplies breathing air to the pilot from bleed air off the engine. That investigation is ongoing, Leonard said.
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Jeff Head

Jeff Head

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FORBIN said:
Four ship in action ! 4 F-35B
16 pics here !
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View attachment 42123
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This is how a US President uses his forces to show strength to a potential adversary.

These 14 aircraft flew over the coast there near North Korea.

The F-35s and B-2s are US strong air power, accompanied by F-15s from SKOR and F-2s from the Japanese, they represent air power that the North Koreans would not be able to defense against in the air...and with the stealth aircraft there in any numbers, they would do SEAD duties until there were no more ground defenses to take on the air power there.

The N Koreans know this and hopefully it will help persuade them to stop menacing their neighbors.

The true solution will be for China to pull the N Koreans back from this madness of shooting ballistic missiles over the top of their neighbors nations.

Anyhow, here' show they looked:

USAF-ROKAF-JSDAF-01.jpg USAF-ROKAF-JSDAF-02.jpg USAF-ROKAF-JSDAF-03.jpg USAF-ROKAF-JSDAF-04.jpg
 
FORBIN

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Jeff Head said:
This is how a US President uses his forces to show strength to a potential adversary.

These 14 aircraft flew over the coast there near North Korea.

The F-35s and B-2s are US strong air power, accompanied by F-15s from SKOR and F-2s from the Japanese, they represent air power that the North Koreans would not be able to defense against in the air...and with the stealth aircraft there in any numbers, they would do SEAD duties until there were no more ground defenses to take on the air power there.

The N Koreans know this and hopefully it will help persuade them to stop menacing their neighbors.

The true solution will be for China to pull the N Koreans back from this madness of shooting ballistic missiles over the top of their neighbors nations.

Anyhow, here' show they looked:

View attachment 42144 View attachment 42145 View attachment 42146 View attachment 42147
Click to expand...
Exactly :cool: for Rocket Man...fat Kim :D
 
FORBIN

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
The take-off to Iwakuni whis is on other side of the Tsushima Strait, Japan sea very close of the South Korea since very long time USMC have fighters based there also EA-6 deployed.

 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
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Pentagon’s F-35 deep dive to drive lower costs on block buy deal
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The Pentagon’s director of defense pricing is helping the F-35 joint program office nail down a better deal on a block buy, the program head said Monday.

Earlier this year, Shay Assad, the official charged with scrutinizing the price of weapon programs, announced that his office would conduct a “deep dive” to find the “true cost” of the joint strike fighter. The effort would focus on delayering the supply chain and incentivizing second-tier suppliers onward to invest their own money to make production more efficient.

In an exclusive Sept. 18 interview with Defense News, Vice Adm. Mat Winter said Assad has already started making recommendations to the joint program office, or JPO, that are influencing contract negotiations, particularly the block buy that will encompass lots 12, 13 and 14.

“He’s a smart guy; he comes with credibility,” Winter said. “He’s got some other folks helping him, and they’re going to Lockheed, Northrop Grumman [and] BAE. They’re going to the big guys first, and then they’re going to start permeating down into the supply chain.”

“He continues to provide valuable information to the [program executive officer] to better inform my production negotiations with Lockheed Martin Aero,” Winter said. “You can read into that however you want. I can’t give you any more details on that right now” he added, although he acknowledged that the work is “helping to shape the block buy proposal.”

Lockheed is set to submit its proposal in the spring or summer of 2018, but Winter wants to see it faster, he said.

Jeff Babione, Lockheed’s executive vice president for the F-35 program, said the company plans to present its block buy proposal early next year, and although he is optimistic on the timing, it will take a lot of work to finalize negotiations for three production batches.

“I think it would be naïve to think that that’s not going to take a lot of time just to look through the information, but it’s a great aspiration, and my commitment to [Winter],” he said. “What were doing with the block buy, while it’s not unusual for other programs, it’s certainly different for F-35, and as you know, every time we try to do something new for F-35, we find opportunities to snag a little bit.”

Lockheed and the JPO have already come to an agreement allowing the company to make economic order quantity buys with an understanding of how Lockheed would recover the funding when the block buy contract is finalized. The company has already begun to put orders in for about 450 airplane’s worth of components, Babione said.

“That is very encouraging. That will allow us to save a significant amount, just by allowing our supply chain to aggregate their buy,” he said. “We’re looking to put on order about $1.2 billion worth of material that will then be part of the block buy.”

Babione expressed some reservations about the work Assad’s team is doing, and although he maintained Lockheed would support the Pentagon throughout the process of the review, he stated that a “balanced and logical” approach is needed. Delayering the supply chain too much could compound risks at a critical time when Lockheed is ramping up its production rate, and disruptions could potentially result in delayed aircraft deliveries.

“We need to be careful on how we allocate the work so that we don’t increase the risk. We’ve just spent the last six, seven years getting the supply chain put into place so they can build the products that we need,” he said.

“We can’t do cost savings at any cost, and I’m not saying that’s what Mr. Assad will do, but I would say how this will go is still in front of us,” Babione added.

In the month that Assad’s team has been working with Lockheed, he has indicated that he would like to see more subsystems of the F-35 to be procured as government furnished equipment — meaning that the Defense Department would contract directly with the subcontractor and then hand those items over to Lockheed Martin.

Generally speaking, the Defense Department has procured ejection seats, radar and communications gear as GFE on other aircraft, but “specifics for F-35 I think are to be determined,” Babione said.

Increasing the use of GFE can be a smart move, but the department and Lockheed need to work together to make sure value is being added, he said.

“It’s more than just buying something. We count on these companies to integrate and manage their supply chain, and if we’re not careful, we could end up disrupting that and it could potentially increase the cost of the products and services,” Babione said, adding, “Or worse, we don’t get a part delivered, and now the customer doesn’t get an airplane.”
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