F-35 Lightning II: News thread

Pentagon’s Renewed Vow to Build 2,443 F-35s Depends on Budgets

The Pentagon still plans a fleet of 2,443 F-35 jets, but the costliest U.S. weapons program may face cuts under the next president if defense dollars continue to be reduced, according to the Defense Department’s No.2 official.

The Pentagon’s focus “for the foreseeable future is to acquire F-35s at the highest rate affordable” even though the goal for a fleet of 2,443 of the fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp. “was established prior to the last two decades’ force reductions” and before budget caps reduced planned levels of spending through 2021, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work wrote in a letter to congressional defense leaders May 25.

The Pentagon wants to increase the purchase rate of F-35s for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps to 92 annually by 2020 from 38 last year. The number jumps to 120 a year when foreign sales are included. For this year, Congress added 11 aircraft to the 57 requested. The Pentagon said in March that the program’s projected cost for development and acquisition dropped by $12.1 billion to $379 billion.

Per-Plane Cost

That will help bring down the per-plane cost, Work wrote in an interim report under a requirement in this year’s defense budget for the Pentagon to reevaluate whether the long-standing requirement of 2,443 jets -- including 1,763 for the Air Force -- remained valid.

With U.S. defense policy putting increasing emphasis on countering a resurgent Russia in Europe and a more assertive Chinese military, Work said it’s “conceivable that we may need more F-35s than the current program” calls for.

Work’s letter comes as the often-criticized F-35 is enjoying some successes. Three of the four congressional defense committee added aircraft to the fiscal year request of 63. Air Force officials say there are no known technical obstacles to declaring as soon as August that as many as 24 jets have initial combat capability. The Marine Corp version is set to fly next month to the Farnsborough Air Show in the U.K.

Still, Pentagon officials acknowledged last month that the operational combat testing intended to evaluate whether the aircraft is combat-effective and can be maintained in the field won’t begin until 2018 -- about a year later than planned.

Marine Corps Will Get Its Second F-35B Squadron This Week

A Yuma, Arizona-based Marine AV-8B Harrier squadron will officially be redesignated Thursday as it welcomes brand-new F-35B Joint Strike Fighters.

Marine Attack Squadron 211 will be the second operational F-35B squadron for the Marine Corps, coming online 11 months after the service announced initial operating capability for the aircraft last July. It joins Yuma-based Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 in operating the fifth generation aircraft.

The Harrier is set to retire in 2026, and Hornets will fly into the 2030s. This new squadron of F-35s becomes operational as the Corps prepares to deploy its first squadron of the fifth-generation fighters next year.

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F-35A nearly combat ready

The first off-station deployment exercise for the F-35A Lightning II confirmed that the Air Force’s newest fighter jet is on track to reach initial operational capability later this year.

A declaration of IOC means the F-35A will be combat ready.

Seven F-35A aircraft and 181 personnel from Hill’s active duty 388th Fighter Wing and Reserve 419th Fighter Wing pushed the aircraft to its limits at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, during the training June 6-17.

The simulated deployment tested the F-35A against a stringent set of IOC requirements to include basic close air support, aerial interdiction and limited suppression and destruction of enemy aircraft.

“This was really the capstone event in our preparations to reach IOC and it was a resounding success,” said Col. David Lyons, 388th FW commander. “By any measure, the aircraft did well. We should be ready to declare IOC very soon.”

While at Mountain Home, Hill’s pilots and maintainers achieved a 100 percent sortie generation rate with 88 of 88 flights and a 94 percent hit rate with 15 of 16 bombs on target. Maintainers achieved 92.3 percent Mission Capable rate.

“As a longtime F-16 pilot, I can tell you these numbers are impressive,” said Col. David Smith, 419th FW commander. “The F-35 performed phenomenally.”

Hill’s F-35A pilots flew large-force exercises with F-15Es from Mountain Home’s 366th Fighter Wing and remained undefeated during air-to-air engagements against red air, or “enemy” aircraft.

The Autonomic Logistics Information System – the aircraft’s complex information technology infrastructure known as ALIS – and the mission systems software performed very well, according to Capt. Richard Palz, 34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, officer in charge.

A small team of Lockheed Martin contractors provided ALIS and logistics support just as they would during real-world deployments and their spare parts and logistics support was excellent, Lyons said.

Known for its highly advanced stealth capability, the F-35 is the world’s most advanced multi-role fighter and is designed to gather, fuse, and distribute more information than any aircraft in history. It can penetrate enemy territory that non-stealth aircraft such as the F-16, A-10, and F-15 cannot.

The Air Force’s first operational F-35A arrived to the 388th FW’s 34th Fighter Squadron here in September 2015. Hill AFB now has 21 pilots and 106 maintainers who are qualified on the F-35A.

"Since the aircraft's arrival last fall there have been too many milestones to count and we're making great progress," said Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th FS commander. "The Mountain Home deployment marks another significant milestone in validating the F-35A's capabilities as we pursue IOC."

In February, Hill F-35A pilots dropped laser-guided bombs at the Utah Test and Training Range in Utah’s west dessert, marking the first time these weapons were employed by a combat-coded unit. In May, Hill’s F-35 pilots began flying routine four-ship configurations. Hill’s fleet of F-35 aircraft has also received lightning protection and anti-ice modifications, and pilots are now using the lightweight “Gen-3” helmet.

The base is slated for three operational F-35 squadrons and a total of 78 aircraft by the end of 2019. The 388th and 419th FWs fly and maintain the Air Force’s newest fighter aircraft in a Total Force partnership, which capitalizes on the strengths of the active duty and reserve components.

US Marine Corps F-35s Cleared for Farnborough


Two US Marine Corps F-35Bs on Tuesday completed validation flights with the UK government, clearing the jets to perform at Farnborough International Airshow next week.

During a validation flight, the UK Ministry of Defence confirms that an aircraft’s flight profile meets regulations and approves it for the show. The two jets took off around 2 p.m. from RAF Fairford and flew to Farnborough, landing back at Fairford after about 20 minutes.

The F-35Bs will do practice runs for the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) on Wednesday, said Lt. Col Richard Rusnok, one of the Marine Corps F-35B pilots in town for the air shows.

The Air Force F-35As, which will fly only at RIAT, conducted their flight validation at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia before the jets flew across the Atlantic Ocean last week, said Maj. Will Andreotta, F-35A heritage flight team commander and an F-35 pilot.

One of the A-variants conducted a practice flight Tuesday morning, Andreotta said. A different F-35A will run through the same profile Wednesday morning, and the F-22s will practice Thursday.

“It’s our first time flying in the UK so they have different rules. We’re doing actually a new profile here that we don’t do [in the US],” he said. “So today was one of those days to go out there and kind of look at the overall lay of the land, see where the show line is, where the crowd lines are. Obviously safety is our priority while we’re over here.”

During heritage flights, the aircraft typically conducts three maneuvers. The pilots first conduct an “arcing” or “banana pass,” which gives the crowd a view of the top of the jet, then do a “flat pass” where the aircraft flies straight and level. In the US, the pilots fly over the crowd before breaking formation and landing, but because flying over the crowd is prohibited in the UK, the pilots will instead repeat either a flat or arching base, Andreotta said.

The F-35As will be joined during the heritage flight by an F-22 and a P-51 Warbird but will not be practicing in the UK with the other aircraft before the demonstration at RIAT, said Master Sgt. Samuel Smith, F-35 heritage flight team chief.

“It’s our eighth air show, so we've actually done this quite a few times,” he said.

The hard reality of imposing a 'network connected to the apron' fighter onto basically a WW2 airfield with HAS is starting to surface. Many of you reading this are network savvy, imagine hi bandwidth Wi-Fi to each plane or ripping up the hardstandings for cable. How the hell anyone imagined that could operate in an equal adversary situation is beyond me, but then the USAF hasn't operated in that environment since 1946.

One of the problems perhaps when decisions on new planes are made by ex-cockpit staff as opposed to anyone with ground crew experience. The latter never making it up that far the promotion greasy pole.

Now that the beleaguered F-35 joint strike fighter is, according to official statements, flight ready, the US Air Force is faced with a new problem: upgrading bases abroad to accommodate the aircraft.

The Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath, England, is preparing to accept a fleet of 54 F-35s by 2020, with the first batch to be stationed overseas. While the plane has seen its share of troubles, including software glitches, faulty engines, and flight performance issues, Col. Robert Novotny’s chief worry is the base itself.

"For me the concern I have when I look at Lakenheath is not the F-35," the commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, stationed at the base, told Defense News. "For me the concern I have is: Are we going to be able to build enough stuff fast enough?"

The upgrades include maintenance requirements needed to accommodate the plane’s unique features.

"There is some construction that needs to be done for the communication bandwidth requirements that we don’t have here, and there are some infrastructure improvements, power wise, because there’s going to be a lot of demand on the power system," he said.

New housing and living facilities will also be needed for some 1,200 new military personnel needed for the fleet.

But while the RAF needs to spend roughly $200 million in making upgrades to base facilities, Novotny isn’t sure the money will be provided in time. Additionally, he expressed concern that a number of other military bases in the region are also in need of upgrades, and Lakenheath may not get priority.

"We’ve had about three or four formal meetings with folks from the United States and the [UK] Royal Air Force and Ministry of Defense. These are big meetings. The engineers come in, we’ve looked at our power requirements, we’ve looked at our connectivity requirements. We’ve looked at our space on the flightline," he said. "And so we’ve done quite a bit of design."

It may be a while before plans come to fruition, however. The estimated completion date has already been pushed back to 2022, two years after the first F-35s are scheduled to arrive.

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160707/1042556329/f-35-uk-base-upgrades.html

Another suspect source but seems a pretty straight article. To me, this is the F-35s biggest problem once it is airborne. More positive stuff tho' at link

But the F-35 has one other serious liability, Kofman said—adding that U.S. Navy pilots are skeptical about single-engine designs. The F-35’s single Pratt & Whitey F135 engine—while immensely powerful, producing about 43,000lbs of thrust—also runs extremely hot. Unlike the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, where the exhaust its F119 engines are flattened to reduce their infrared signature, the F-35 does not have any substantive measures to reduce the visibility of its exhaust from the enemy. The Russians—who build excellent infrared sensors—could use the F-35’s thermal signature to develop a weapons quality track to engage the stealthy new jet. “It’s probably has the hottest engine on the face of the planet,” Kofman said.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-f-35-lethal-velociraptor-or-easy-pray-russia-or-china-16873

Now for a much more positive article on the F-35, not so much about it as a fighter but as a flexible and ubiquitous intelligence gathering asset.

Much ado has been made over the F-35's Automated Logistics Information System (ALIS) backend cyber support infrastructure. It's supposed to do everything from controlling the F-35's worldwide parts supply chain to mission planning and debriefing. This system, among the F-35's most troubled components, could be viewed as the jet's cyberspace Achilles' heel. Alternatively, it could be a huge asset, when you consider the potential it holds for electronic intelligence gathering on an unprecedented scale.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4291/could-the-f-35-become-the-biggest-electronic-intelligence-collection-system-ever-devised

Next Challenges For F-35: Logistics And Data-Sharing


F-35 proves it can deploy outside the U.S., but now the program must manage a global network of maintenance and data sharing.Two years after an engine fire thwarted the F-35’s planned debut in the U.K., the jet has proved it can deploy overseas, with appearances at three major European air shows in the last two months. Now it is up to the policy makers to tackle the thorny logistics of operating a fifth-generation fighter program across 12 different nations, each with unique infrastructure and security requirements.

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Marine F-35B takes part in Red Flag 16-3

For the first time, the United States Marine Corps will be participating with their F-35B during the three-week Red Flag 16-3 exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

With the Marine Corps bringing this multi-role, next generation fighter, this year’s 16-3 iteration of Red Flag marks a historic moment in the Air Force’s premier air combat training exercise.

Working with multiple branches, the F-35B, assigned to the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, which is part of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and based out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, will be an intricate part of the demanding exercise that provides aircrews with multiple and intense air combat sorties in a controlled training environment.

“Red Flag is a military integration, getting to work hand-in-hand with the Air Force, Navy, and Army that are all out here,” said Sgt. Jason Gilbert, VMFA-121 mechanic. “Just bringing all of the U.S.’s combat air forces together to show we are one team, one fight. We can get this done.”

Since the F-35 program is operational and rapidly accelerating the opportunity to work in a joint environment is a valuable aspect of this Red Flag for the Marines, as well as their only opportunity before being based at Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan.

“For us this is our one opportunity to integrate in multi-service before being based in January of 2017,” said Maj. Brendan Walsh, VMFA-121 operations officer. “Red Flag also provides us the opportunity to integrate and train in a multi-service, contested environment.”

The training provided during Red Flag has been a smooth endeavor with the Marine pilots and maintainers eager to take full advantage of the opportunity.

“I think it’s a very fortunate opportunity for the Marine Corps to be a big player in this Red Flag with the F-35s,” said Gilbert. “It gives our pilots the opportunity to show the F-35 is the best jet out here. The Air Force works a lot the like the Marine Corps, so participating in Red Flag has been pretty smooth.”

With this participation in Red Flag it is an opportunity for the Marines to showcase the differences of the F-35B from legacy Air Force tactical fighter fleets with its air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities.

“The difference between the Marine F-35 and the Air Force F-35 is that the Air Force version does conventional takeoffs and landings whereas the Marine Corp F-35 has the ability to do a short take off and a vertical landing,” said Gilbert.

This capability of being able to land vertically grants the Marine fighters unique abilities that the other models of the F-35 cannot do.

“The vertical landing and takeoff not only give the opportunity to base ourselves on amphibious ships, but also expediting sites that we can construct and conventional aircraft cannot use,” said Walsh.

With the F-35 becoming a linchpin for future coalition operations, the chance to bring the air frame to Red Flag and participate in a multiservice exercise has proven to be a valuable one for the Marine fighter unit.

“This Red Flag has been a huge success for our Marines,” said Walsh. “We look forward to the upcoming weeks and showcasing the capabilities of our airframe.”

The US Air Force announced the F-35A has reached initial combat readiness

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2051493.html

A bit more cold water

Pentagon's top weapons tester doubts F-35A capabilities 24 August, 2016 BY: Leigh Giangreco

A recent memo from the Pentagon’s top weapons tester throws cold water on the US Air Force’s initial operational capability announcement earlier this month, which declared the Lockheed Martin F-35A equipped with Block 3i software could provide basic capabilities.

Instead, the director of Operational Test and Evaluation argues in a scathing 9 August memo that many significant limitations remain on the aircraft.

“The program is actually not on a path toward success, but instead on a path toward failing to deliver the full Block 3F capabilities for which the Department is paying almost $400 billion by the scheduled end of System Development and Demonstration (SDD) in 2018,” Michael Gilmore writes. “If used in combat, the F-35 in the Block 3i configuration, which is equivalent in capabilities to Block 2B, will need support to locate and avoid modem threats, acquire targets, and engage formations of enemy fighter aircraft due to outstanding performance deficiencies and limited weapons carriage available.”

Meanwhile, the F-35 Joint Program Office remains confident that the capability gaps will be fixed on the aircraft in time and under the current budget parameters. In an email statement, Lt Gen Chris Bogdan, executive officer of the joint programme office, stated development and technical challenges are to be expected, but that the office is acting on DOT&E's recommendations. Lockheed Martin F-35 spokesman Mark Johnson concurred with the JPO, stating SDD will complete in late 2017.

"There were absolutely no surprises in the recent memo from the DOT&E," Bogdan says. "All of the issues mentioned are well-known to the F-35 JPO, the U.S. services, international partners and our industry team.The JPO continues to provide DOT&E with our full cooperation and unfettered access to information."

Much more at https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/pentagons-top-weapons-tester-doubts-f-35a-capabilit-428786/

Turkey expects first F-35 delivery in 2018, plans more orders

Turkey expects to take delivery of its first Lockheed Martin Corp F-35A fighter jets in 2018 and has decided to order a second batch, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries said on Oct. 28.

It did not say how many more of the fighter jets it planned to order but two U.S. officials familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the second batch would comprise 24 jets.

The Undersecretariat said it expected the new orders to be delivered in 2021 and 2022. Its statement was released after a meeting of its executive committee chaired by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.

Lockheed is building three variants of the F-35 for the U.S. military and 10 countries that plan to buy the jets: Britain, Australia, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

A Lockheed representative said the company is "honored" by Turkey's continued commitment to the F-35 program which was further demonstrated by the decision by the DIEC on Oct. 29.

The U.S. portion of the program alone is expected to cost $379 billion. A total of 3,000 of the jets are to go into service around the world in coming years.

Turkey had placed its first orders in 2014 with two jets and has added another four to that in 2015, according to the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries website. It aims to eventually purchase a total of 100, it said.

Turkey expects first F-35 delivery in 2018, plans more orders

Airman wrote:Turkey expects first F-35 delivery in 2018, plans more orders

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Airman you are from Turkey, can you tell us what is overall opinion of these airplanes and their acquisition among Turkish folk?

PapaDragon wrote:

Airman wrote:Turkey expects first F-35 delivery in 2018, plans more orders

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Airman you are from Turkey, can you tell us what is overall opinion of these airplanes and their acquisition among Turkish folk?

Turkish people generally doesn't follow the defense industry. Defense industry followers in Turkey supports the F-35 purchase but we have a problem about F-35. America doesnt give us the F-35's source code. We need this code to use Turkish made weapons on the F-35 and other things.

Turkey, like other partner nations, has complained about the United States refusal to share the software source code for the F-35.[182][183] On 24 March 2011 Turkey announced it is placing its order for 100 jets on hold due to the ongoing source code refusal issue. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said that the negotiations for access to the F-35 source codes, including codes that can be used to control the aircraft remotely, had not yielded "satisfactory results" and that under these conditions Turkey could not accept the aircraft. wrote:

Lockheed Martin and Roketsan made a deal to develop the SOM-J Missile for the F-35 Program. So We can use SOM Cruise Missile on the F-35. However, We are still wanting this code but America doesn't want to give us.

Result: We mostly support F-35 purchases.

Airman wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:

Airman wrote:Turkey expects first F-35 delivery in 2018, plans more orders

........................

Airman you are from Turkey, can you tell us what is overall opinion of these airplanes and their acquisition among Turkish folk?

Turkish people generally doesn't follow the defense industry. Defense industry followers in Turkey supports the F-35 purchase but we have a problem about F-35. America doesnt give us the F-35's source code. We need this code to use Turkish made weapons on the F-35 and other things.

Turkey, like other partner nations, has complained about the United States refusal to share the software source code for the F-35.[182][183] On 24 March 2011 Turkey announced it is placing its order for 100 jets on hold due to the ongoing source code refusal issue. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said that the negotiations for access to the F-35 source codes, including codes that can be used to control the aircraft remotely, had not yielded "satisfactory results" and that under these conditions Turkey could not accept the aircraft. wrote:

Lockheed Martin and Roketsan made a deal to develop the SOM-J Missile for the F-35 Program. So We can use SOM Cruise Missile on the F-35. However, We are still wanting this code but America doesn't want to give us.

Result: We mostly support F-35 purchases.

Are you not worried about the "backdoors" built in to US airplane software? Some 2-3 years ago, a very credible report came out from Egypt that the software built in to their F-16's had numerous backdoors which made them vulnerable to sabotage. A possible scenario would be that if the Camp David Accords were to collapse, and with a potential Egypt-Israel conflict on the horizon, that those backdoors could be used to give the Israelis a distinct advantage, hence that is the reason why the Egyptian Air Force has ordered several dozen modern derivatives of the Mig-29 to hedge their bets.

Yes, I'm worried. However, we don't have a choice.

We have the F-16 and F-4's source codes. So we can use Turkish made weapon on those aircrafts. An Engineer from Aselsan said ''We developed National Software for the F-16 and F-4s. If the Software is not under your control, sometimes you can not hit the targets you want.''

We are still using USA GPS system. I think that's an another problem for us. We are working on a Turkish made satellite navigation system. Called ''Regional Positioning and Timing System Project''

The United Kingdom has been chosen by the US F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to become the repair hub for European-based Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth multirole fighters, the UK Defense Ministry said Monday.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/military/201611071047150537-uk-f35-service/

George1 wrote:

The United Kingdom has been chosen by the US F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to become the repair hub for European-based Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth multirole fighters, the UK Defense Ministry said Monday.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/military/201611071047150537-uk-f35-service/

So much for Brexit.

another F-35 catches fire this time in mid flight

http://www.businessinsider.de/marine-f-35-fighter-fire-2016-11?r=US&IR=T

An F-35B Joint Strike Fighter caught fire while in-flight during a training exercise last month, according to a report from Hope Hodge Seck of Military.com.

The incident was listed by the Naval Safety Center as a "Class A Mishap" — the most serious mishap class — which means that there was $2 million or more in damage. The Safety Center's report said the fire occurred in the aircraft's weapons bay on Oct. 27, and was followed by an "uneventful landing."
etc etc etc

First ever F-35 Hot-loading

AN/ASQ 239 EWS

Dr. Michael Gilmor report on F-35 project for US Congress:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035572-DOT-amp-E-AF-IOC-Memo.html#document/p4/a316106

FLIR Systems thermal imaging vs F-35

From the testings, notice at 3:49 during launch, pilot helmet is the detail you should look at

Militarov wrote:

FLIR Systems thermal imaging vs F-35

Interesting hot spot by the pilot's feet.