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

[TerraN_EmpirE]

It's the Marines version... I am still looking for the Bayonet mount

 

[Jura The idiot]

Mar 15, 2017

Nov 28, 2016
and according to FlightGlobal Canada sends letter of request to US for interim F/A-18s
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but
Ottawa should cancel Super Hornet acquisition, say senators 12 May, 2017

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Canadian politicians have recommended that the country cancel its proposed acquisition of 18 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, describing the plan as a "political decision" that fails to serve either the air force or taxpayers.

In November 2016 Ottawa signalled its intention to buy the Super Hornets as an interim measure while it carried out a competition to decide on a long-term replacement for its aged fleet of CF-188s.

It had previously planned to buy 65 Lockheed Martin F-35s for the Royal Canadian Air Force, but backed away from the Joint Strike Fighter last year on cost grounds.

But a Canadian senate committee on defence believes that the country should walk away from the stopgap measure.

In its report Reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces: a plan for the future, released in early May, the committee says the move will be costly – between $5-7 billion – "and will limit our air force's ability to be fully interoperable within NORAD and NATO".

It cites a letter written by 13 former senior RCAF officers which argues that the acquisition of such a small fleet – sharing only limited commonality with its current fighters – will be needlessly costly.

"The government's decision not to proceed with the procurement process for a new fighter fleet and purchasing an unnecessary and costly interim capability will leave the taxpayers with a significant burden and [RCAF] with a duplicate support system that will cost billions of dollars in equipment, training, and technical know-how.

"This burden would be eliminated if the government were to move forward with the selection of the F-35."

Additional costs would be incurred through continued operation of the current legacy Hornets well into the 2030s, it says.

It calls on defence ministry to "immediately" begin a contest to select the CF-188's replacement, with a decision to made by 30 June 2018.

Although the next-generation fighter programme will be the most expensive acquisition for Canada, the committee has an extensive shopping list for modernisation of all three branches of the armed forces.

New aerial refuelling tankers, martime patrol aircraft, unmanned air vehicles and helicopters are all proposed in the report.

Defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan recently indicated that it was vital to secure funding to modernise the RCAF's fleets of AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorants and Bell Helicopter CH-146 Griffons or face losing them to obsolescence issues.

However, the committee calls for a bolder approach. It recommends replacing all but 40 of the service's 95 Griffon utility helicopters – which are based on the commercial Bell 412EP – with a "non-civilian aircraft" as well as 24 attack helicopters.

It believes the air force requires a utility helicopter "with more lift capacity" which is not based on a civilian rotorcraft, following operational experience with the Griffon.

"It was deemed to be ineffective to support significant military needs, especially during deployment in Afghanistan," the report says.

The strategy would appear to narrow the field of potential alternatives down to either the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk or, less likely, the NH Industries NH90.

Attack helicopters are needed, it believes, in order to protect the RCAF's fleet of 15 Boeing CH-147F heavy-lift rotorcraft, "one to protect each Chinook while on deployment".

But, in addition, it also recommends expanding the Chinook fleet from 15 to 36 examples of the tandem-rotor type.

Ottawa is currently in the "options analysis phase" of its Cormorant mid-life upgrade initiative, which is expected to cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion and keep the CH-149s in service until 2040.

The committee says this capability should be bolstered by the modification and reactivation of the nine VH-71 airframes it acquired from the USA for spare parts; both helicopters are based on the UK-built AW101.

Priority should also be given to the replacement of the air force's Airbus A310-based CC-150 Polaris tankers. "These aircraft are already some 25 years old," it notes.

Although there are already plans to replace the current maritime patrol fleet of Lockheed CP-140 Auroras – a decision on a new Canadian Multi-purpose Aircraft is scheduled for 2025, with deliveries running from 2026-2036 – the committee underscores that this effort should be an "essential component" of the air force's renewal, with the new platform in place by 2030.

One of Canada's many long-running and as yet undelivered programmes centres on UAVs, with its JUSTAS surveillance effort dating from at least 2012. So far, no platform has been identified as meeting Ottawa's requirements.

The committee recommends that the government "expedite" the acquisition of UAVs "which includes sufficient options towards meeting the individual needs of the three services" before the end of 2018.

In addition, it should buy "multi-purpose systems" which can both secure Canada's borders and deliver "an armed capability to support Canadian armed forces operations".

Canada's problematic procurement process – widely regarded as an example of worst practice – is one of the reasons for the country's equipment issues.

But a separate report from the committee, issued last month, hopes to address this. It calls on the government to "fix Canada's shambolic military procurement system", giving the country's defence department responsibility for all its acquisitions. At the moment that is handled by the Public Services and Procurement Canada body.

"Continuing [with] this broken system is unacceptable," the report says.

 

[FORBIN]

It's the Marines version... I am still looking for the Bayonet mount

Yes Sir ! oui Monsieur

The Salty Dogs of VX-23 made aviation history May 8 when they completed airborne gunfire testing for the USMC F-35B STOVL variant

 

[Jura The idiot]

Apr 3, 2017

Sep 19, 2016
and here's the latest:
USAF completes last tests for F-35 ejection seat

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now US Air Force removes weight restrictions on F-35A pilots

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The U.S. Air Force has lifted flight restrictions on lightweight F-35A pilots and will not pursue qualifying United Technologies’ ACES 5 ejection seat — a major win for Martin-Baker and its US16E pilot escape system, which is used in all variants of the F-35, officials announced Monday.

The service made the decision to remove flight restrictions on May 15 following the development and testing of fixes to the US16E ejection seat — including new settings for lightweight pilots and a head support panel — and changes to the Rockwell Collins-made helmet to reduce its weight, said Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, director of the Air Force’s F-35 integration office.

No pilots under 136 pounds have moved through the F-35A training pipeline since 2015, when testing showed unacceptable levels of risk of head or neck injury for lightweight pilots.

“Combined, these changes reduce the risk to lightweight pilots in both high- and low-speed ejections and make the F-35 ejection safest one of the safest in our entire inventory,” Pleus told reporters, adding that the aircraft will now be open to pilots anywhere between 102 and 245 pounds.

“We’ve done rigorous testing of all the new configurations, and it’s clear that the combination of our lighter helmet, the delay in the opening speed of the parachute and the cradling of the pilot’s helmet with a head support panel have significantly improved the safety of the seat.”

The service is currently modifying its existing fleet of aircraft with a new lightweight seat switch, which modifies the speed of parachute release depending on the pilot’s weight, and a head support panel. It can move 14 aircraft through the modification process per month, Pleus said. At that rate, the service will finish retrofitting its current inventory of about 107 planes in around December or January.

The new lightweight helmets are currently in pre-production and will move into production this fall. To reduce the weight from 5.1 to 4.6 pounds, Rockwell Collins has removed some of the strapping on the inside of the helmet. Also, instead of wearing a clear visor and sun visor at the same time, pilots will switch out their visors depending on the mission.

Both the seat and helmet modifications will need to be in place before a lightweight pilot can begin training in the aircraft. The Air Force intends to place its first lightweight student in training by the end of 2017, and they could begin flying as soon as 2018.

One question hovering around the F-35 program is whether the Air Force will decide to replace the Martin-Baker ejection seat with another option. All variants of the joint strike fighter incorporate the US16E seat, but the Air Force has different airworthiness restrictions than the other services, Pleus pointed out. So while the Air Force imposed flight restrictions on its own pilots, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps did not raise similar concerns.

The Air Force made its first move away from the Martin-Baker seat last summer, when Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official, asked the F-35 joint program office to provide details on the cost and schedule implications for qualifying United Technologies’ ACES 5 seat.

The F-35 JPO never produced that information, but the Air Force is satisfied with the current pilot escape solution and will not pursue the ACES 5, Bunch told reporters today.

“I was asked today, am I going to write a letter that will rescind the need to get additional information [on ACES 5], and that currently is my plan,” he said.

Martin-Baker applauded the Air Force's decision to lift weight restrictions. The first F-35 with a modified ejection seat flew May 4, the company said in a news release.

“This has been the most scrutinized and intensively tested ejection seat in history. We are extremely pleased that we have successfully met all the specified physiological head and neck load requirements as demonstrated during the ejection seat test program," said James Martin, the company's CEO.

Pleus said he had briefed all F-35A pilots on the changes to the pilot escape system.

“I can assure you that they are confident stepping to their aircraft. I personally have flown in this seat and believe with these modifications this is the safest seat I have ever had a chance to fly in,” he said.

In its 2016 report, the Defense Department’s independent testing office criticized the changes to the helmet — specifically that the single visor left pilots having to swap equipment as weather or light conditions changed. The report noted that there was no storage space onboard for the second visor, and Pleus acknowledged that the Air Force was still working on a solution to that particular issue.

“We don’t actually know what the size of that new single visor is going to be — in other words, how big of space it’s going to take up in the cockpit,” he said. “As our test pilots continue to fly with these basic pre-production helmets, they will continue to modify the tactics, techniques and procedures for where you’re going to put the external visor … and we’ll create some sort of a storage solution that removes any opportunity for foreign object damage.”

 

[Jura The idiot]

"The helmet was made lighter by removing one of its visors and some internal webbing. So far, the Air Force doesn’t know where pilots will store the extra visor."

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[Jura The idiot]

and
F-35A Ejection Seat Now Works for Lightweight Pilots, Officials Say

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mentions the other two variants:

The weight restriction for the

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F-35 ejection seat has been lifted, service officials announced Monday.

“The lifting of this requires two changes: one to the seat, as well as a reduced weight helmet,” said Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, director of the service’s

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program’s integration office.

“Combining these changes reduce the risk to lightweight pilots in both

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,” said Pleus, a former

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pilot who soon will head to a new post at Air Combat Command.

In 2015, the Air Force put a moratorium on pilots weighing less than 136 pounds in the F-35A over high-risk injury concerns — the combination of the fast-deploying ejection-seat chute and a lighter-weight pilot could lead to fatal neck injuries, the service said at the time.

Pleus didn’t say how many pilots were impacted by this issue, but in 2015 at least one female pilot was reportedly prevented from flying the plane as a result.

The cost of retrofitting both the seat and the helmet “will be borne [by] industry,” Joe DellaVedova, F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman, told Military.com.

The ejection seat can now serve any pilot weighing between 103 and 245 pounds,

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. The service currently has 107 F-35As in the fleet; 14 jets will be retrofitted per month. The final updates should be complete by January, Pleus said.

The lighter helmet design paired with delaying “the opening speed of the parachute and the cradling of the pilot’s helmet with a head support panel have significantly improved the safety of the seat,” he said.

Pleus said the service is retrofitting the fleet with a “lightweight seat switch and head support panel” and beginning production of the lightweight helmets.

The US16E ejection seat is manufactured by Martin-Baker.

During the weight restriction problems, the Air Force mulled switching to another seat manufacturer. Last summer, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, petitioned the Joint Program Office to look into cost and schedules for using United Technologies’ Advanced Concept Ejection Seat 5, or ACES 5, model.

Bunch on Monday said he is rescinding his letter to JPO and UT to look into that plan.

The new lighter helmet — the Gen-III Light

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— is in pre-production, but will go into full production this fall, Pleus said. The external visor was removed to meet the weight criteria.

“We will now have a clear visor and a dark visor that will be interchangeable in flight,” Pleus said, instead of the clear visor and the sun visor moving up and down. Some internal strapping in the helmet has also been removed to reduce weight.

“We will have our first student in that training by the end of this year, and we’ll begin flying by the beginning of 2018,” he said of the modified seat and helmet combo.

The Air Force is the only service to have the weight restrictions issue. While the seats are identical throughout the Air Force,

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and

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, each has its own evaluations system — “airworthiness criteria,” as Pleus called it — and small tweaks to the seat.

The Marine Corps’

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-model seat, for example, “has an instantaneous ejection seat in case the airplane were to quit during a hover, which would automatically eject [the pilot] out,” Pleus said.

“That capability is in every version of the seat, [but] the Air Force’s version is turned off, as well as the [Navy’s

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] carrier version,” he said.

 

[timepass]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=390222527814914

 

[Jura The idiot]

instead of looking at Turkey Yesterday at 8:39 AM

let me add two things:

#1 Mr. Erdogan by now knows who wanted to get rid of him last Summer;

#2 Turkey is needed not just to buy plenty of F-35s, but (I facepalm) manufacture vital components for the Marvel: Jul 23, 2016

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describes a great business plan

 

[Jura The idiot]

May 9, 2017

Yesterday at 8:06 PM
related:
F-35 to make Paris air show debut

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and Details on F-35A trip to Paris Air Show begin to emerge

Two F-35As will go to the Paris Air Show this June, but they won’t be flown by U.S. Air Force pilots, a service official said Wednesday.

One F-35A from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and another from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, are currently slated to conduct flying demonstrations at Paris Air Show, said Col. David Lyons, commander of the 388th Fighter Wing. Hill AFB’s 388th Fighter Wing is home to the first operational F-35A squadron, while Luke AFB is a major joint strike fighter training base.

Lyons added that the two jets will be flown by test pilots from F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin during their stint in Paris, but was not able to comment on why airmen would not be piloting the aircraft.

Plans for the F-35’s first appearance in Paris are finally coming together after a slow start. In April, officials from the F-35 joint program executive office said the aircraft would sit out from the show, held every other year at Le Bourget Airport in France. But on May 8, the Air Force reversed course, announcing its intention to send aircraft to the event.

The U.S. military has been hesitant to show its stealth aircraft in Paris since the early '90s, when the Pentagon grew worried about alleged espionage involving the F-117. Since then, the Air Force has conducted a B-2 flyover in 1995, but otherwise has kept its stealth jets from appearing at the show. A scheduled F-22 visit was canceled in 2009.

An Air Force spokesman said there were no specific concerns about the aircraft flying in the show.

“We have processes, procedures and networks in place to ensure that we can fly where we want to fly and when we want to fly, and we’re not concerned about it,” he said.

The Air Force does not always rely on pilots from its operational squadrons to conduct demos at air shows. For instance, its heritage flight team flew F-35s at the Royal International Air Tattoo in England last year.

source is DefenseNews

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[Jura The idiot]

what gives?
Germany asks U.S. for classified briefing on Lockheed's F-35 fighter
Wed May 17, 2017 | 11:01am EDT

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The German Air Force this month sent the U.S. military a written request for classified data on the Lockheed Martin Corp (

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) F-35 fighter jet as it gears up to replace its current fleet of fighter jets from 2025 to 2035.

The letter, sent by the Air Force's planning command and seen by Reuters, makes clear that the German government has not yet authorized a procurement program and is not committed to any particular aircraft to replace its current warplanes.

It said the defense ministry would carry out "an in-depth evaluation of market available solutions, including the F-35, later this year," with a formal "letter of request" to be issued in coming months.

Germany's interest in the F-35 - the Pentagon's most advanced warplane and its costliest procurement program - may surprise some given that it is part of the four-nation consortium that developed the fourth-generation Eurofighter Typhoon, which continues to compete for new orders.

The Eurofighter is built by Airbus (

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) as well as Britain's BAE Systems (

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) and Leonardo (

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) of Italy.

Germany will need to replace its current fleet of fourth-generation warplanes - Tornadoes in use since 1981 and Eurofighters - between 2025 and 2035. The F-35 is considered a fifth-generation fighter given stealth capabilities that allow it to evade enemy radars.

Berlin's letter also comes amid growing tensions between the West and Russia over Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, with NATO officials saying that Russian naval activity now exceeds levels seen even during the Cold War.

Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and Italy - key NATO allies of Germany - are already buying the F-35 fighter jet to replace their current aircraft, and other European countries such as Switzerland, Belgium and Finland are also looking at purchasing the fifth-generation warplane.

Germany's gesture may be aimed at strengthening its hand in negotiations with its European partners over the scale and timing of development of a next generation of European fighters. Any moves to buy a U.S. built warplane could run into political resistance in Germany, which has strong labor unions.

But military sources say buying the F-35 could make sense for Germany given steady declines in the cost of the U.S. jets, and technical challenges with the Eurofighter.

EIGHT-HOUR BRIEFING

In the letter, the Air Force said a small team of air force officers was gathering data to prepare for a detailed analysis of alternatives for a new warplane.

The group was working closely with the ministry's "Task Force Future Air Combat System," which aims to make a recommendation for a political decision in mid-2018, the letter said.

"In order to understand (the) F-35's cutting-edge technologies, the German Air Force is requesting a classified brief of the F-35's capabilities in general and especially concerning sensor suites, information management and operational capabilities," the letter said.

The letter said a video conference suggested by U.S. officials in Bonn would help speed up the process.

A source familiar with U.S. weapons programs said the classified briefing requested by Germany would likely last around eight hours.

Since Germany is not part of the international consortium that funded development of the stealthy new fighter, the request for classified information must first be approved by the U.S. government, but U.S. officials said they did not expect any problems securing the needed marketing license.

The Pentagon's F-35 program office said it had received the letter and was "working to support the German Air Force request."

Lockheed referred questions to the State Department, which oversees foreign military sales, and the Pentagon. Spokesman Michael Rein said it would be inappropriate for Lockheed to comment since any potential sales would be negotiated between the two governments.

The F-35 is in operational use by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Air Force, which last month carried out its first operational deployment of a small number of jets to Estonia for training with other U.S. and NATO military aircraft.

The U.S. Air Force this month also announced this month that it plans to bring the F-35 to the Paris Air Show in June.