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

[Air Force Brat]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Very Nice catch, and very illustrative of what the brat has related about the fit and finish of the F-35, so clean you could eat off of it, just gorgeous, inside and out!

 

[Jura The idiot]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The Pentagon announced how it plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 40 to 50 years sustaining and maintaining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Europe for decades after it enters service.

Heavy airframe maintenance work will go to Italy with the United Kingdom providing back up support, and heavy engine work will go to Turkey, Norway and The Netherlands, F-35 program manager Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan told reporters Thursday.

The regional alignments are part of what the Department of Defense calls regional Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade, or MRO&U, capability for F-35 airframes and engines.

The maintenance and sustainment work will examine and repair engines, update weapons systems as new technology emerges, replace components as needed and, in some cases, perform heavy repair work on the F-35 airframes throughout the expected service life of the aircraft, Bogdan explained.

“The maintenance and repair capabilities that we will be standing up allow us to keep the airframe and the airplane weapons system up to speed with the threats. These are necessary to keep a weapons system relevant and flying for forty to fifty years,” Bogdan said.

Overall, the nine countries participating in the F-35 program are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Bogdan said decisions about F-35 sustainment and maintenance for Asia will likely be announced next week.

The F-35 joint program office, or JPO, made a variety of site survey visits across Europe and made particular recommendations to the Department of Defense regarding where these maintenance and sustainment capabilities should be established.

“The JPO made recommendations to the Department of Defense. Can the partner build and grow the capability that we need in sufficient time? Do they have the technical and management wherewithal to run this operation? What would be the cost of running this operation?” Bogdan explained.

Regarding engine work, Turkey will perform the initial capability, also in 2018. Norway and the Netherlands will provide additional support about two-to-three years after Turkey does initial work.

Also, Turkey, Norway and the Netherlands will compete for additional workload above and beyond a guaranteed minimum, Bogdan explained. Determinations regarding work will be made according to the countries’ ability to produce quality work, stay on schedule and provide competitive costs.

“We did the analysis and made a recommendation to the department that all three partner nations are capable of doing the work, had plans for growth and were technically capable of doing the work,” Bogdan told reporters.

F-35 initial heavy airframe capability will be provided by Italy in 2018. Should additional work be required, the UK will do the work, Bogdan added.

“DoD looked at many different elements when they made this decision. Italy invested nearly a billion dollars in building a FACO (Final Assembly and Check Out facility). It is hard for anyone else to match that. That is a cost that the rest of the enterprise does not have to bear now. Italy is fully committed to this program. They are a stable and very important partner for a long time,” Bogdan added.

The facilities in Italy will be specifically configured for heavy airframe work, he added.

“Light and medium is modifications that don’t alter the structure of the airplane – when you talk heavy maintenance you are getting down to the structure of the airplane that carries loads,” Bogdan said.

Geography, operational factors and cost considerations were all part of the calculus regarding how the JPO made determinations.

“There is still much work to be done on the F-35 global sustainment posture. We will provide work to partners who provide us the best value for doing that type of work,” Bogdan said.

These maintenance assignments do not preclude the opportunity for other F-35 Partners and Foreign Military Sales customers, including those assigned initial airframe and engine capabilities, to participate and be assigned additional future sustainment work, to include component and system repairs, as the fleet grows and F-35 global presence expands, JPO officials said.

“This is the first of many opportunities we will have to assign F-35 global sustainment solutions,” said Bogdan. “As international F-35 deliveries increase and global operations expand, support provided by our international F-35 users becomes increasingly more important.”

 

[HMS Astute]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

​

 

[ahho]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

​

In my opinion, this sounded more like corporate espionage. The engineer may have discovered other uses for "method to develop titanium" and try to get hired in China as a lead engineer or consultant for a company.

I would say, a better method of stealing information is buying a prepaid smartphone with internet connectivity, then send the information to the master spy

 

[Equation]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

In my opinion, this sounded more like corporate espionage. The engineer may have discovered other uses for "method to develop titanium" and try to get hired in China as a lead engineer or consultant for a company.

I would say, a better method of stealing information is buying a prepaid smartphone with internet connectivity, then send the information to the master spy

Either way...the F-35 requires some Chinese brains to make it happen. If it fails, like so many naysayers they blame it on "Chinese junk" and when it succeeds they say that China could NEVER do it.

 

[HMS Astute]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

How is the F-35 compared to Rafale in terms of avionics, radar and other electronic systems?

 

[A Bar Brother]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

How is the F-35 compared to Rafale in terms of avionics, radar and other electronic systems?

Equal in some aspects, better in some and not as good in some.

 

[HMS Astute]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Equal in some aspects, better in some and not as good in some.

Based on my experience, many Indians hate the F-35 and Typhoon, but they love the Rafale (cos they're getting it) and Su-35...

It would be appreciated if you could point out pros and cons without being biased..

 

[A Bar Brother]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Based on my experience, many Indians hate the F-35 and Typhoon, but they love the Rafale (cos they're getting it) and Su-35...

It would be appreciated if you could point out pros and cons without being biased..

As a matter of fact, I like the F-35 more than the Rafale. But I like some of the features that the Rafale has that the F-35 doesn't.

When it comes to electronics, the first would be radar.

The F-35 has the bigger radar. But Rafale's radar has already achieved FOC. Their technological base is very similar, both use GaAs, but the F-35's radar will have more functions. Rafale's radar currently does not have those functions, like a communication datalink and ECM.

As far as EW is concerned, both the F-35 and Rafale are equally capable in most SIGINT and ELINT functions. However Rafale carries an internal jammer which can jam frequencies throughout the relevant spectrum while the F-35 uses the radar for jamming only in the X band.

IRST: The Rafale had an MCT based IRST which the AdlA deemed to be inferior to foreign analogues like Pirate. They are waiting for an upgraded version made of QWIP. Actually, the latest tranches of Rafale don't have IRST. It is primarily meant for air to air engagements. The F-35 has an EOTS that is made of QWIP and is superior to the one on Rafale. It is primarily meant for targeting ground targets. Rafale also carries a TV Camera which is good for visual identification of air targets up to 50 Km. But they say the F-35 has a 360 degree camera, though I'm not sure if it is good for up to 50 Km or more.

One good advantage for the F-35 is that it doesn't need to carry additional pods like Litening and Reccelite. The Rafale does.

Both are to have SATCOM. Operational AdlA units don't have SATCOM, but IAF version and newer AdlA versions are expected to come with it.

MAWS/LWS: Both have very similar capability, but the Rafale's DDM-NG is restricted to just two sensors while the F-35 has 6. So, the F-35 has true 360 degree capability while the Rafale's DDM-NG is slightly less than 360 degrees because the wings obstruct the FoV.

Cockpits are very similar. Just that the F-35 has its HUD in the helmet, while the Rafale has a widescreen HUD. Both have glass cockpits and HOTAS. Both are equipped with OBOGS. Both have Martin Baker ejection seats. Both have Direct Voice Input capability, speech recognition. F-35's cockpit is newer and could be better configured. A big advantage Rafale has over the F-35 is the presence of a two-seat air force version. A second pilot is a really good advantage to have.

Both aircraft have HMDS, though the AdlA have not opted for it.

The Rafale's datalinks are an improved Link 16 and is inferior to the F-35's MADL.

Both use Mode 5/S IFF and similar communication systems. NATO aircraft, the both of them.

Rafale's primary mission computer or MDPU is quite similar to the F-35's computers. Both are modular and upgradable.

Am I missing anything else?

Both aircraft have their advantages and disadvantages. Even though most of the systems are similar, the only big con for the F-35 is that it is delayed quite a bit. Due to the delay, the Rafale is ahead of the F-35 on the development curve. So, by the time the F-35 achieves FOC with the above mentioned systems, the Rafale would have started flight testing new GaN based radar/EW, smart skins, new IRST, new datalink etc. A lot of it being developed today. So, whatever advantages the F-35 has over the Rafale today, when it comes to electronics, will be negated within the next few years with the introduction of the F3R and the tranches after that.

 

[Air Force Brat]

Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread

Based on my experience, many Indians hate the F-35 and Typhoon, but they love the Rafale (cos they're getting it) and Su-35...

It would be appreciated if you could point out pros and cons without being biased..

Well we prolly don't need to single out the Indians, lots of folks love to hate the F-35, and prolly the Typhoon as well. I would suggest that avionics and radar are similar on all three, but the F-35 has a much more detailed censor fusion set over-all with the HMS cued to that system in a very detailed manner, you should recognize friend or foe, have an idea what they are and where they are at in the F-35? I believe they say unmatched?? "situational awareness", it is a big deal if true.