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

Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Hush! Hush!
"Italy’s governing Democratic Party has come under fire for sticking with the program and appears to want give the aircraft a low profile with elections due by the first half of next year."
Italy rolls out first F-35B assembled outside US
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The first F-35B to be assembled outside the U.S. was rolled out in Italy on Friday at a ceremony at the country’s assembly line, attended by the country’s top military brass.

The aircraft, BL-1, will fly for the first time in late August and is due to be delivered to the Italian ministry of defense in November, Lockheed Martin said in a statement. An Italian pilot will then fly the jet in early 2018 to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for “Electromagnetic Environmental Effects certification,” Lockheed Martin said.

It will also take a role in pilot training in the U.S., an Italian source added.

The next Italian F-35B aircraft is scheduled for delivery in November 2018.

Italy has already delivered seven F-35A aircraft from its Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility at Cameri in northern Italy, three of which are now flying from the Italian Air Force’s Amendola Air Force base in southern Italy. The other four are participating in pilot training at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.The three now in operation have flown more than 100 hours from the base, including tanking with the Italian Air Force’s B767 tankers and sorties alongside Italian Eurofighters, M-346 jet trainers and the Air Force’s new Gulfstream Airborne Early Warning aircraft.

Two more F-35As are expected to be delivered from Cameri to Amendola this year, one in July, and the other in the fourth quarter. Another milestone: an F-35A assembled at Cameri made the type’s first transatlantic crossing in February last year.

Cameri — which is the only F-35B assembly line outside the US — is due to produce 30 F-35Bs for the Italian Air Force and Navy and 60 F-35As for the Italian Air Force, as well as 29 F-35As for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

Lockheed Martin said there were now 800 staff at the facility, which is owned by the Italian government and operated by Italian state defense firm Leonardo, partnered with Lockheed Martin.

In 2014, the 101 acre base was named by the U.S. DoD as its F-35 Heavy Airframe Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade facility for the European region.

Despite such milestones, the head of Italy’s aerospace industry association, Guido Crosetto, said earlier this year the U.S. had “broken promises” made to Italy about its share of maintenance work when it opted to hand a hefty share of work to the U.K.

Spending on the F-35 also remains a sensitive political issue in Italy, which is still struggling to recover from the 2008 global financial crisis. Italy’s governing Democratic Party has come under fire for sticking with the program and appears to want give the aircraft a low profile with elections due by the first half of next year.
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FORBIN

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
The 3th capable to host F-35B after Wasp, America on 9 and under budget good for taxpayer :):rolleyes:

F-35B ready USS Essex returns to sea

U.S. Navy’s Wasp-class multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) returned to sea on May 3 after completing her phased maintenance availability.

During this availability, USS Essex (LHD-2) was fitted with equipment needed to deploy the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Essex is the third big-deck platform to feature the upgrades and will operate the F-35B is the world’s first supersonic short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) fighter which will become the new standard across the amphibious fleet.

USS Essex began the post-deployment planned maintenance availability in March 2016 at General Dynamics’ San Diego, California, shipyard.

“More than two years of detailed planning and close coordination with both uniformed and civilian partners has enabled Essex to begin sea trials a day ahead of schedule and under budget,” said Essex’s commanding officer, Capt. Brian Quin. “It has been a complete team effort to do all this so well.”

Sea trials are held after any large PMA period involving major construction or reconstruction of a ship. During this time, the ship’s systems and equipment will be tested and evaluated. These evolutions include anchor drop tests, steering tests and testing of the ship’s aqueous film-forming foam system, which is one of the ship’s fire-fighting sprinkler systems.

“These sea trials are imperative to ensure the quality of work during the PMA is beneficial and to identify any potential issues to be addressed upon our return to San Diego,” said Senior Chief Intelligence Specialist Dwayne Edmonds.

Along with testing the ship’s equipment, this time at sea is used to test the ship’s crew. Sailors will conduct and be evaluated on a series of assessments, including firefighting, boat recovery man overboard drills, and weapons qualifications.

The 844 ft (257 m) long USS Essex (LHD-2) was built at Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and commissioned on October 17, 1992. Essex returned from a seven-month deployment to the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operations (AOO) in December 2015 to start her phased maintenance availability.

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Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
FORBIN said:
The 3th capable to host F-35B after Wasp, America on 9 and under budget good for taxpayer :):rolleyes:
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This is GREAT news. Another LHD/LHA ready to deploy with the new 5th generation, supersonic, stealth aircraft!

The beat goes on!
 
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Apr 26, 2017
Jura said:
LOL!
No plans for F-35 to fly at Paris Air Show
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then Apr 28, 2017
Air Force Brat said:
... it would be a pleasure to see the A model's debut at this summer's Paris Air Show. I'm excited to see someone actually "Beat On" and A model, I can't wait to see the A doing "Fighter Tango"!
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and now
Scratch that — the F-35A will go to Paris Air Show after all
The U.S. Air Force’s F-35 will make an appearance at the Paris Air Show this summer despite weeks of statements to the contrary from Defense Department officials, the service announced May 6.

The decision to showcase the F-35 at the Paris Air Show appears to be a last minute one, perhaps inspired by the "A" model’s first-ever training deployment to Europe this April.

A few weeks ago, officials from the F-35 Joint Program Office stated that there were no plans to show the F-35 at Le Bourget Airport this year. Preparations to bring the joint strike fighter to Farnborough International Airshow in 2016 — the aircraft’s first appearance at a major European air show — began about half a year in advance.

The Air Force said participation in the air show would give the service yet another opportunity to demonstrate its combat air power capability.

"The F-35A strengthens partnerships and improves regional stability," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said in a statement. "We welcome the opportunity to further demonstrate the revolutionary capabilities of this aircraft."

Eight operational F-35As from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, are currently located in Europe for training and exercises with NATO partners. So far, the jets have conducted exercises with U.S. and U.K. aircraft at RAF Lakenhealth in England, as well as making out and back stops to Estonia and Bulgaria. It was not immediately clear whether those F-35s will simply stay in Europe for the air show or whether they will return back to the United States first.

The Air Force also hasn’t disclosed how many F-35s will show up at the event and whether the "A" models will conduct a flying demonstration. However, the decision to show the aircraft is a publicity coup for manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Although France has no plans to buy the joint strike fighter, the show provides another venue to drive interest in the aircraft and showcase its capability to other potential foreign customers.

It’s also a win for SIAE, the French aerospace organization that puts together the Paris Air Show, which has been campaigning hard to get the United States to bring the joint strike fighter. The organization sent its first invitation to the U.S. government in September 2016, urging it to conduct an F-35 flight demo, and it has raised the issue multiple times in meetings with U.S. officials, according to Christophe Robin, the communications director for GIFAS, the parent organization of SIAE.

The F-35's exhibition will mark the first time a U.S. stealth aircraft has been showed at the event since the B-2 touched down in Paris for an apperance in 1995.

The Aerospace Industries Association celebrated the Air Force’s decision to send the F-35 to the event.

“International air shows provide the U.S. aerospace and defense industry with an important opportunity to showcase American manufacturing preeminence, bolstered by critical international partnerships, to create the unmatched technology of systems like the F-35,” an Aerospace Industries Association statement read. “They are also critical events for high-level representatives from the U.S. government to interact with their peers around the world and maximize common security, foreign policy and economic interests.”
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Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Yesterday at 8:06 PM
Jura said:
Apr 26, 2017

then Apr 28, 2017
and now
Scratch that — the F-35A will go to Paris Air Show after all
source:
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related:
F-35 to make Paris air show debut
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n a rapid reversal, the US Air Force plans to take the stealthy Lockheed Martin F-35 to the Paris Air Show after all.

Only two weeks after the Joint Programme Office declared the F-35 would not make a debut appearance at the international marketing event, the air force announced on 6 May that the stealthy strike fighter will participate in the Paris air show next month.

The F-35's debut at Le Bourget comes a year after the short-takeoff-vertical-landing F-35B variant appeared at the Farnborough air show.

The USAF still can't confirm whether the F-35's participation in the Paris air show will be limited to a flying display, or whether the stealthy combat jet will be featured in the static park. Last year, the F-35B only flew over Farnborough, but took-off and landed from RAF Fairford.

The Paris appearance will mark an momentous event for both the F-35’s legacy and the broader history of US stealth aircraft abroad. No stealth aircraft has appeared in the Paris air show static display since the F-117 in 1991. The Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber paid a brief visit at the 1995 event. Fourteen years later, the Lockheed Martin F-22 was scheduled to attend, but the USAF canceled the appearance, citing availability of the aircraft.

The USAF announcement comes as the F-35A makes its first international deployment. Eight F-35As flew to Europe to train with NATO allies as part of a long-planned effort within the European Reassurance Initiative.

“Participation in the Paris Air Show will further demonstrate the ability of the Air Force, and our international partners, to deliver a broad range of combat airpower to any mission set,” the USAF release states.
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