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

Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
according to defensetech.org Tests on F-35 Ejection Seat Modifications to Conclude
Two equipment modifications designed to make the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s ejection seat safe for use by lightweight pilots will wrap up testing by the second week of September, a source with knowledge of ongoing efforts told Military.com.

Air Force officials acknowledged last fall that
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
from flying the F-35A over fears that ejection with the plane’s hefty $400,000 helmet, weighing in at more than five pounds, could result in serious neck damage.

Officials with the F-35 Joint Program Office are seeking a lighter helmet that may be introduced early next year, according to
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
reports, but also moving forward with proposed changes to the Martin-Baker US-16E ejection seat designed to protect pilots’ necks and lessen the impact of ejection.

The two modifications under consideration are a “lightweight crew sequencer switch” that will slow parachute deployment by milliseconds after ejection, and a head support panel between ejection seat risers, Martin-Baker spokesman Richard Johnson told Military.com.

“Both have performed very well in tests,” he said.

Testing on the equipment should be complete around Sept. 9, the source told Military.com. Martin-Baker executives are expected to brief the Joint Program Office and the Air Force as soon as the next week on the results of testing and to discuss a plan to retrofit existing F-35s with the equipment changes. If all goes well, those modifications will be standard in new-production F-35As by 2017.

Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Aug. 2 that the Air Force was still considering the possibility of swapping out the existing seat with a replacement, but added he was encouraged by early reports on the Martin-Baker fixes.

“I think they’ve made very good progress in solving the challenges that they had,” Carlisle said. “And it appears, at least at first blush, they may have gotten to the full envelope in a representative manner, with some modifications to the seat. I’m awaiting that data. I haven’t seen it all yet. But it looks very good.”

Johnson said Martin-Baker maintains its ejection seat is the right one for the aircraft.

“We’re taking the Air Force’s concerns seriously and we’re certain that following completion of our test that the Martin Baker seat will be more than acceptable,” he said.
Click to expand...
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
according to Bloomberg Singapore Puts Off Decision on Whether to Buy Lockheed’s F-35
Singapore has put on hold a decision to buy as many as 12 of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jets, according to information from the Pentagon’s program office.

The island nation’s permanent secretary of defense development informed the U.S. in mid-June that it was delaying final steps toward purchasing four of the fighters by about 2022, with an option to buy eight more, according to the information presented to Pentagon officials last month as part of their regular reviews of the costliest weapons program.

While Singapore gave no indication of when it might revive efforts to buy the F-35, the U.S. continues to encourage the Asian city-state to buy the fighter. “We welcome Singapore’s interest in purchasing the F-35 aircraft,” President Barack Obama said in opening remarks at a White House press conference last week with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

In December 2014, Singapore submitted a “letter of request” to the U.S. formally seeking information on purchasing the F-35, and it followed up in early 2015 by indicating it wanted the most complex model, the F-35B. Intended for short takeoffs and vertical landings on unimproved airstrips, the F-35B was designed for use by the U.S. Marine Corps and has already been ordered by the U.K. and Italy.

Data Link, Radio
The U.S. made a policy decision earlier this year allowing Singapore to integrate a data link and radio that it developed into its jets if purchased, according to the Pentagon’s F-35 program office.

Singapore isn’t a primary participant in the $379 billion F-35 program. The Pentagon plans to buy 2,443 jets for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, while foreign partners currently plan to buy 612. Belgium, Poland, Finland, Spain also might include F-35s in future competitions, the Congressional Research Service said last month.

Singapore has “been uncertain on the F-35 for years,” said Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst for the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. “As a ‘security cooperation partner’ they were never as fully committed as the primary partners,” he said in an e-mail. “They have a large and very new fleet of F-16s and F-15s, and the threats they face don’t really call for a plane in the F-35 class” so “any F-35 sale to Singapore was viewed as a relatively long-term proposition.”

The Singapore ministry of defense said in an e-mailed statement that “as a small country with no strategic depth, Singapore will always need superior air capabilities to protect its interests and borders.” It cited a statement by the island’s defense minister in 2013 that “our current fleet of fighter aircraft are adequate for our defense needs and the F-35 is still under evaluation."
Click to expand...
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
FORBIN said:
Serials of Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor

A total of 195 pre-production and production, 8 retired and lost remains 187 F-22s.
Click to expand...
As of this date, the US now has the following numbers of 5th generation aircraft:

F22A.jpg
F-22A Raptor - 187 aircraft (USAF)

F35A.jpg
F-35A Lightning II - 100 aircraft (USAF)

F35B.jpg
F-35B - Lightning II - 62 aircraft (USMC)

F35C.jpg
F-35C Lighting II - 20 aircraft (US Navy)

That's a total of 359 operational 5th generation aircraft.

The US will be adding 40 F-35A aircraft per year until 2019, and then 60 per year thereafter. The USMC and USN will also be adding aircraft each year.

China has nine (maybe more) prototype or LRIP 5th generation aircraft still testing.

Russia has five prototype 5th generation aircraft still testing
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
it's SDF here so
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

I thought I could hear Air Force and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
around the world smiling when the new
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
said today that comparing the F-35 to the Chinese
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
“is almost an irrelevant comparison.”

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, said
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, is “about a family of systems and it’s about a
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
— that’s what gives us an asymmetric advantage.” Instead of comparing the J-20 to the Joint Strike Fighter,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, it made more sense to compare the J-20 to the F-117 he flew years ago. When he piloted the F-117 into combat, he pushed the wonderfully named “stealth” button and all his antenna withdrew and his seat dropped down to make the pilot a smaller target. The plane had no connectivity with other aircraft once it went into combat.

“That’s why when i hear about F-35 vs. J-20, it’s almost an irrelevant comparison,” Goldfein said. There’s been enormous amounts of speculation about the Chinese J-20 and J-31 but relatively little comment by American officials. The
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
about China offered this: “PLAAF leaders believe stealth aircraft provide an offensive operational advantage that denies an adversary the time to mobilize and to conduct defensive operations.”

Perhaps the most troubling news from today’s State of the Air Force briefing here concerned the difficulties the service is having retaining
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. Air Force Secretary
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
said the service faces a 700-pilot shortfall by the end of this year and that will rise to 1,000. That includes, most crucially,
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, to whom the service will be offering an increased retention bonus of $35,000, an increase of $10,000.

What’s causing the shortage? The most powerful factor is increased hiring by airlines, but the other factor is the service’s difficulties in training enough pilots fast enough. The service plans to build two new training centers by the end of 2016, James said. While the service has had pilot shortages before, this time it’s particularly challenging because the Air Force is the smallest it’s ever been, and it’s been flying combat and transport missions for 26 years straight, starting with the 1991 Gulf War and the “no fly” patrols that followed.

James reiterated her concerns about a long-term Continuing Resolution, which Congress may well pass given lawmakers’ fixation on their own reelection and the presidential reelection. It will, as Breaking Defense readers know, mean no starting new programs and no approval for upgrades. That would put paid to 60 new starts and upgrades to programs including those planned for
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, James said. It would also, perhaps pressingly for combatant commanders, mean that production of JDAM smart bombs would be limited to the quantities bought in fiscal 2016, “which we feel is unacceptable” given the rate they’re
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
, the secretary said.

Overall, a CR would mean $1.3 billion less for the Air Force in 2017 than requested. The Air Force was already claiming to be
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. But can Congress act?
Click to expand...
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Air Force Brat

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Jura said:
no news but interesting; you may just click inside the link:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

to see Timeline: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Milestones
Click to expand...

As you read the F-35 "bullet points" you see AviationWeeks anti F-35 bias, that "negative- nabob" has generally had to back track, as most of their predictions of F-35 failure have been "burned through" by aggressive program management to honestly and head on admit and resolve each and every hurdle.

The F-35 has been a very "aggressive" program, adding capabilities that weren't even on the radar at the F-35s inception, it has become quite an airplane in a very practical sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top