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

[Jura The idiot]

at first I wanted to post this in
Australian military news and discussion
but I changed my mind
First RAAF pilots qualifies on F-35

AUSTRALIA'S first fully qualified F-35 Lightning pilot admits this controversial new aircraft takes his breath away.

SQUADRON Leader Andrew Jackson, 37, started out flying elderly Macchi jet trainers, then graduated to the RAAF's classic Hornets and Super Hornets.

Since January, he's been learning to fly the advanced new F-35, making his first flight in January and now qualifying to fly F-35s and also to instruct new RAAF F-35 pilots. With 30 hours in his logbook, he says this aircraft and the opportunities it offers are equally awesome and exciting. "It's awesome to have a challenge and do something new...for the RAAF ground-breaking. It's been quite comfortable as well, based on how the aeroplane flies," he says in a phone interview from Eglin US Air Force base in Florida. "For the RAAF it's a new dawn. It's exciting to be a part of that." Australia plans to acquire up to 100 F-35 aircraft but so far there's just two, both still in the US in the training pool at Luke US Air Force base in Arizona - Squadron Leader Jackson's next stop. Later in the year he'll be joined by Squadron Leader David Bell, Australia's second qualified F-35 pilot and instructor. There Australian and other international pilots will learn to fly F-35s. Squadron leader Jackson said the F-35 isn't that different to flying a classic Hornet or Super Hornet. What's very different is the aircraft's advanced radar and other sensors which gather information and present it to the pilot in a manner unlike any earlier aircraft. "It just makes for a very different experience. You are now looking at the overall battlespace. You have a much greater picture of what's going on outside your aeroplane than you ever did flying a legacy type," he said. More than 100 F-35s are now flying but the aircraft isn't yet able to go to war. That comes in the next few months when the US Marine Corps declares initial operational capability, with a squadron of 10-16 F-35B aircraft capable of conducting combat operations. Marine F-35s will have a basic ability to drop bombs and launch missiles with capabilities steadily increased as software is developed. Squadron Leader Jackson said this aircraft was really still in its infancy. "Obviously the jet we will end up taking home in 2018 is going to have more of the capabilities turned on," he said. Despite the controversy surround F-35, including high costs, technical challenges and delays, he's got no doubt Australia made the right decision. "I have a fairly good idea of the threats we expect to face. The capabilities on the aeroplane are quite incredible. I am fully confident we have purchased a good aeroplane," he said.

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Air Force Brat]

Squadron Leader Jackson characterizes the F-35 as being in its "infancy", the brat calls it a "toddler", this is no doubt the proper mindset to understand this aircraft, and where it is developmentally, it is learning and growing even as we speak. It will be quite an airplane, I'm rather proud of it, and glad we stuck it out, even though we lost the Raptor in the process, all of our partners flying this aircraft will together bring a whole new dynamic to a very dangerous world!

 

[strehl]

Nice video of F35B ops on Wasp without narration or background music. Just jet noise and wind. If this video has been posted before please delete. With 252 pages this topic is too long to sift through.

 

[Jeff Head]

Nice video of F35B ops on Wasp without narration or background music. Just jet noise and wind. If this video has been posted before please delete. With 252 pages this topic is too long to sift through.

The Brits ought to be loving this.

Soon they will be doing the same type of operations off of the QE.

 

[thunderchief]

Squadron Leader Jackson characterizes the F-35 as being in its "infancy", the brat calls it a "toddler", this is no doubt the proper mindset to understand this aircraft, and where it is developmentally, it is learning and growing even as we speak. It will be quite an airplane, I'm rather proud of it, and glad we stuck it out, even though we lost the Raptor in the process, all of our partners flying this aircraft will together bring a whole new dynamic to a very dangerous world!

Aerodynamically and mechanically plane is completed or almost completed . It is what it is . Avionics could change, but this is also true for other aircraft . Therefore, don't expect miracles or quantum leaps.

 

[Air Force Brat]

Aerodynamically and mechanically plane is completed or almost completed . It is what it is . Avionics could change, but this is also true for other aircraft . Therefore, don't expect miracles or quantum leaps.

That's what I love about you bro, the only Dude on the Sino Defense whose analog Mark I gray matter has more "crust" on it than mine, in an analog fashion you are right.

But, the F-35 is "learning" how to fly, I'm rather certain you haven't seen the Raptor "tailslide", as the Raptor fails from the sky rapidly accelerating in reverse, the nose is the only thing not moving, as every control surface fights to maintain control. When the Raptor reaches 50kts in reverse, recovery is initiated, as the F-35C slides down approach on short final to the carrier at 145kts, landing flaps control the glidepath almost "organically" like a goose coming in for a landing on a pond changes or "conforms" the shape of its wing to create or dump lift, making the most minute adjustments as it comes in and flares for a landing on the water.

Honestly, the F-35 is being pushed and expanded into its flight envelope, just as the "pizza pie" is tossed, flipped, pulled and tossed again by the maestro as he prepares his crust for all the goodies, so the F-35 is being "shaped" aerodynamically to squeeze every last bit of lift and controllability out of this FCS and this airframe. She has a lot of tricks in the book, and the FCS will continue to "tailor" this aircrafts flying characteristics as "flight test" opens up new fields of data?

 

[Jura The idiot]

The Brits ought to be loving this.

...

perhaps they should as their Ministry of Defence in "Major Projects Report 2014 and the Equipment Plan 2014 to 2024"

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

says

Current forecast cost to completion (£m)

(this means until December 2018: p. 62, Appendix Four)
for

Lightning II Fighter or attack aircraft

£5,036

(more than five billion pounds)

 

[Jura The idiot]

to me, Pentagon’s Inspector General sounded unhappy about the engine (in the document dated April 27, 2015), for example p. 7 of 68:

Based on those nonconformities, we identified systemic findings in the following areas: program management oversight, critical safety item compliance, continuous improvement, risk management, supplier management, and software quality management.

(it says there're 61 "nonconformities", and those "areas" seem to be described in Finding A -- F in the document

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Jura The idiot]

that's interesting:
Rockwell Collins’ FireStorm™ targeting system certified for use with F-35 Lightning II

Edwards AFB April 21, 2015 - A current and qualified Forward Air Controller (FAC) from the United Kingdom, using the Rockwell Collins FireStorm Integrated Targeting System, was the first to successfully guide an F-35 Lightning II aircraft digitally using a complete air strike mission thread in both a ground test and live flight.
The flight test was conducted at Edwards Air Force Base, California, F-35 Lightning II flight test facility in coordination with the integrated project team from the U.K. F-35 Office.
“The FAC approached the test from a practical standpoint and was able to use the system under simulated tactical conditions,” said Tommy Dodson, vice president and general manager of Surface Solutions for Rockwell Collins. “The test was also significant because FireStorm is currently fielded by the British Army, and has now been proven to be interoperable with the F-35.”
The Rockwell Collins FireStorm Integrated Targeting System is a lightweight and modular Joint Fires system that provides proven digital connectivity with virtually all coalition aircraft, field artillery systems and command-and-control center battle managers. FireStorm systems are in operation around the world, and in use by five NATO countries.

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Jura The idiot]

Yes, Navy Secretary Mabus stated last week that the F-35 was the Navy's last manned manned fighter, thankfully Air Force Secretary Welsh doesn't buy that? ...

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

handled it

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Surprise! The pilots who run the Air Force don’t share

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, which Mabus two weeks ago said “should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly.”

“I would disagree with that flat, absolute assertion,”

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, replied when I read him Mabus’s statement about the F-35 at an Air Force Association briefing but substituted “Air Force” for “Department of the Navy.”

“The essence is not

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, the essence is where your decisionmaking is going to be made,” Hoog said. Unmanned aircraft and other robotic vehicles are getting more capable, he conceded, “But the bounds of what an unmanned aircraft, missile, submarine or ship can do, or tank — this isn’t just about airplanes; unmanned anything – are limited by the technology constraints of

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, decisionmaking, target ID, the nuances of contextual elements of the battlespace. So it’s not a black and white answer.”

The answer, Hoog suggested, will be determined by the larger question of how the Air Force can provide air dominance in the future – a question Air Force chief of staff

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

has assigned to a new Capability Collaboration Team he unveiled in March. The way to achieve “Sixth Generation Air Dominance,” Hoog said, “May not be an airplane. Instead of looking at the platform, we have to

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.”

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!