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

[FORBIN]

 

[Jura The idiot]

just one comment personally from me: I post news as they come and go!
15 F-35 Models Grounded Due to Wiring Issue
source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

News
Temporary Suspension of Flight Operations Announced for a Limited Number of F-35A Aircraft
September 16, 2016
at manufacturer's site

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

DefenseOne now:
US Air Force Grounds F-35s It Just Declared Ready for War

Crumbling avionics lines are the latest setback for the jet, which had been riding a wave of progress.

On Aug. 2, the Air Force said 10 F-35s at Hill Air Force Base in Utah were

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. Forty-four days later, those planes have been grounded in the latest embarrassing setback for the most expensive project in Pentagon history.

The problem: “peeling and crumbling insulation in avionics cooling lines inside the fuel tanks,” Air Force officials said in a statement on Friday afternoon. “Engineers with the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin and Hill Air Force Base maintenance Airmen have conducted inspections of eight aircraft and are currently developing procedures to resolve or mitigate the issue prior to release of affected production aircraft to the field and the return of affected operational aircraft to flight operations.”

The grounding order affects 57 aircraft, some of which belong to Norway, officials said. Fifteen of them are operational jets, the 42 others are in various states of production.

The grounding interrupts a general wave of progress for the $400 billion program, which made its

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

at the Farnborough Air Show in England this summer and has been getting rave reviews from pilots. (In 2014, an engine fire caused the previous high-profile grounding and scotched the plane’s first planned trip to Farnborough.)

This new restriction is sure to cast a shadow over next week’s annual Air Force Association convention, where military leaders were expected to praise the aircraft’s latest achievements.

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin, the maker of the plane, said the 42 jets on its production line would be fixed before they’re delivered.

“This is not a technical or design issue,” Michael Rein said in an email. “It is supply chain manufacturing quality issue. It will likely require depot-level maintenance to address the corrective actions for the 15 jets in the field.”

The problem only affects the A model of the F-35, not the Marine Corps’ short-takeoff-and-vertical landing planes or the Navy’s carrier-capable aircraft.

“The root cause of the problem was determined to be use of nonconforming material for the tubing insulation and improper manufacturing processes during fabrication of the cooling lines,” the F-35 program office said in a statement. “The nonconforming material that was used is not compatible with fuel, causing degradation of the insulation and resulting in it falling off the tubing.”

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Air Force Brat]

DefenseOne now:
US Air Force Grounds F-35s It Just Declared Ready for War

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Well the JPO, LockMart, and the Air Force "announce" these things and fix them, they don't try to cover them up. So you just keep posting the news Jura, this is a big deal and I always appreciate you posting these things, because when they are bogus, it gives me a chance to "set the record straight", now this is a serious issue, and it shouldn't happen, but these things do happen in real life.

The difference is, if this was the J-20 or PAK-FA, you probably would have never heard about it??? There is a fine line between legitimate security, and "state secrecy".

 

[Jeff Head]

@Air Force Brat , @Jura This is a serious issue for those aircraft effected.

...but they have clearly identified it as effecting a certain grup...and apparently not something effecting the whole fleet.

It will get fixed and they will learn from the mistake.

This is another part of the beat going on...and in order for it to go on, you identify issues, are open about it, and then fix them and move on.

 

[FORBIN]

Remains much fix and too fix is too much
B and C also ?

 

[Air Force Brat]

Remains much fix and too fix is too much
B and C also ?

No B and C are unaffected, this was tubing from a specific supplier, and while it is a big deal, most of those airplanes are still on the line.....for the critics?? that's why they call it I O C,,,,,, get it IOC, starting with initial.

Any smart fly-boy expects these things, the F-22 had lots of issues, but they all got worked, and the F-22 remains the "top-gun" as far as fighters go. I would add that many of these things are "cropping up" because of sequestration, and the herky-jerky military funding under the Obama Administration. The Obama military is becoming a night-mare of social engineering and sadly "chick-I-fication across the board, with an over-emphasis on absurdity and a lack of focus on building and maintaining a world class "mans fighting military".

I have no problem with women serving in the military, and having 7 daughters I expect they will be accorded every opportunity to do whatever they desire, what I have a problem with is the military being forced to decend into the social abyss, in order to meet the expectations of a bunch of pin-headed folks who want to dictate our societal norms.

The F-35 will suffer from a shortage of pilots and maintainers, and one of the prime reasons the A-10 was being "phased out" was to "phase in" the F-35, and supply it with a home team ready to play ball.

This will be handled at the "depot" level, and will require an aggressive fix, but it will be expedited, and it will be fixed right.

 

[Jura The idiot]

DefenseOne now:
US Air Force Grounds F-35s It Just Declared Ready for War

source:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

followed by as pro-F-35 piece as it gets, under the circumstances ...:
The F-35 just proved it can take Russian or Chinese airspace without firing a shot

An F-35B just

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

where its sensors spotted an airborne target, sent the data to an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense site, and had the land-based outpost fire a missile to defeat the target — thereby destroying an airborne adversary without firing a single shot of its own.

This development simultaneously vindicates two of the US military's most important developments: The F-35 and the Naval Integrated Fire Control Counterair Network (NIFC-CA).

Essentially, the NIFC-CA revolutionizes naval targeting systems by combining data from a

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

to generate targeting data that could be used to defeat incoming threats.

So now with this development, an F-35 can pass targeting data to the world's most advanced missile defense system, an Aegis site, that would fire its own missile, likely a SM-6, to take out threats in the air, on land, or at sea.

This means that an F-35 can stealthily

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, detect threats, and have them destroyed by a missile fired from a remote site, like an Aegis land site or destroyer, without firing a shot and risking giving up its position.

The SM-6, the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

for Aegis destroyers, is a 22-foot long supersonic missile that can seek out, maneuver, and destroy airborne targets like enemy jets or incoming cruise or ballistic missiles.

The SM-6's massive size prohibits it from being equipped to fighter jets, but now, thanks to the integration of the F-35 with the NIFC-CA, it doesn't have to.

The SM-6, as

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

as it is, can shoot further than the Aegis sites can see. The F-35, as an ultra connective and stealthy jet, acts as an elevated, highly mobile sensor that extends the effective range of the missile.

This joint capability helps assuage fears over the F-35's limited capacity to carry ordnance. The jet's stealth design means that all weapons have to be stored internally, and this strongly limits the plane's overall ordnance capacity.

This limiting factor has drawn criticism from pundits more fond of traditional jet fighting approaches. However, it seems the F-35's connectivity has rendered this point a non-issue.

Overall, the F-35 and NIFC-CA integration changes the game when it comes to the supposed anti-access/area denial bubbles created by Russia and China's advanced air defenses and missiles.

“One of the key defining attributes of a 5th Generation fighter is the force multiplier effect it brings to joint operations through its foremost sensor fusion and external communications capabilities,” said Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said in a

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

.

“NIFC-CA is a game changer for the US Navy that extends the engagement range we can detect, analyze and intercept targets,” said Dale Bennett, another Lockheed Martin vice president in the statement.

“The F-35 and Aegis Weapon System demonstration brings us another step closer to realizing the true potential and power of the worldwide network of these complex systems to protect and support warfighters, the home front and US allies.”

source is British

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[Jura The idiot]

followed by as pro-F-35 piece as it gets, under the circumstances ...

... OK minus September issue of AirForceMag:

(the end page of the article "F-35: Lightning Unleashed")​

 

[Jeff Head]

Despite whatever growing pains and mistakes, and depot level faults...the F-35 is going to revolutionie aircraft war fighting...and it is going to rule in the sensor fusion areana and its use, along with its stealth, manuevering, its own sensors, and its armament capabilities.

 

[Air Force Brat]

Despite whatever growing pains and mistakes, and depot level faults...the F-35 is going to revolutionie aircraft war fighting...and it is going to rule in the sensor fusion areana and its use, along with its stealth, manuevering, its own sensors, and its armament capabilities.

So all the cats worried that its not carrying this or that, and its only got six "kill" shots? that is simply NOT the case. While the new Vogue is to load everything down with air to air missiles, and build multi element pylons, in truth, most Combat Air Patrols are likely flown with two to four AAMs??? Every ounce of weight you pile on that airframe, reduces its operational efficiencies by a multiple number, fuel consumption goes up, power settings go up, its harder on the landing gear, tires, and yes, even the G-load for a given maneuver increases exponentially

We typically fly our old 172 two up, with about 1/2 fuel, there really is no point in dragging around extra weight, it particularly reduces take-off performance, and decreases safety margins.