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

[Jura The idiot]

Tuesday at 8:23 AM

oh really? US considers non-combat-rated subset of F-35 fleet

18 September, 2017

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now recalled Feb 16, 2017

US Air Force 'must' retrofit so that LockMart makes even more profit out of all copies including the oldest, huh? that's ludicrous (but real world hahaha) and the US Air Force would be better off if it ditched the old Lots and used the resources on moving on in the program ... is what I think

related:
Will The U.S. Retrofit Older F-35s To Fight Or Buy New?
Sep 20, 2017

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Faced with a set of

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Joint Strike Fighters that are too limited to fly in combat, the U.S. military is faced with the question of what to do with them—upgrade or buy new?

The F-35 Joint Program Office is on the cusp of a major increase in F-35 production of F-35s. In 2016,

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delivered 46 of the fighters. By the end of 2018, the company should be producing 130 per year, according to Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the head of the program. And the rate of production will increase even further.

At the same time, the program is juggling multiple configurations of the aircraft—not just because there are Air Force,

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and Navy variants, but also because production began before flight tests were finished. That issue, known as concurrency, continues to bedevil the military’s ability to afford the program, as it will take a lot of work to bring some of the oldest F-35s up to the standard they will need to fight in combat.

“From a production perspective, we have literally 150 to 160 modifications that have to occur on some of our tails to get it to a Block 3 configuration,” Winter said during a Sept. 18 speech at the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber conference here. “Our mods program is almost as exciting and dwarfing our production program.”

With that in mind, Winter said it is time to consider perhaps not modifying every aircraft to the Block 3F standard that would enable it carry a full complement of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. Testing of Block 3F could be delivered by the end of this year. “We’re looking at a solution space that gives our warfighter options,” he said.

For the Air Force, some of those options would be whether to use this handful of older F-35s as aggressor aircraft or in other training roles.

Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein said there is an ongoing discussion among the Air Force, the other Joint Chiefs and international air chiefs about whether to modify those older F-35s.

“You’re going to see us continuing to do a business-case analysis of retrofit of these aircraft,” he said during a Sept. 19 press conference. But he quickly added that this is not a new kind of discussion—the Air Force had the same one around the

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, the

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and

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.

 

[FORBIN]

P&W offers F135 upgrade for depot insertion after 2023
Pratt & Whitney will offer a drop-in thrust or fuel efficiency upgrade for the Lockheed Martin F-35’s engine as the fighter’s joint programme office develops options for the Block 4.2 upgrade package now scheduled to enter service in late 2023.

The Growth Option 1.0 proposal from P&W would improve the 43,000lb-thrust F135 engine’s acceleration force by 6 to 10% depending on the aircraft’s flight condition or reduce fuel consumption by 5% to extend the range of the tactical stealth fighter, P&W Military engines president Matthew Bromberg tells FlightGlobal in an interview.

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[Air Force Brat]

Tuesday at 8:23 AM

related:
Will The U.S. Retrofit Older F-35s To Fight Or Buy New?
Sep 20, 2017

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This is an extremely easy problem to solve,,,, no need to "destroy" outstanding "early run" aircraft to bring them to a "nebulous" and changing standard......

Do the absolutely necessary to bring them up to safety specs, and place them in a dedicated aggressor/test program,, put the old heads in these airplanes, and allow them to develop "TACTICS"

Make them as "Combat Capable" as possible, and allow these "old heads" their own aircraft KOMRAD! if individual pilots are allowed to learn their individual aircraft, they become a valuable resource to learn to fight and maintain the Air Force of the future..

One of these "old heads" will come up with a technique to "take down" the bad guys 5 gen aircraft,,, in these older block aircraft, making it a piece of cake for the nubes in the newer aircraft to fly them to their limits.

 

[FORBIN]

This is an extremely easy problem to solve,,,, no need to "destroy" outstanding "early run" aircraft to bring them to a "nebulous" and changing standard......

Do the absolutely necessary to bring them up to safety specs, and place them in a dedicated aggressor/test program,, put the old heads in these airplanes, and allow them to develop "TACTICS"

Make them as "Combat Capable" as possible, and allow these "old heads" their own aircraft KOMRAD! if individual pilots are allowed to learn their individual aircraft, they become a valuable resource to learn to fight and maintain the Air Force of the future..

One of these "old heads" will come up with a technique to "take down" the bad guys 5 gen aircraft,,, in these older block aircraft, making it a piece of cake for the nubes in the newer aircraft to fly them to their limits.

For the 100 first what question ofc much more cheap upgraded F-35s which have max about 5 years in more

 

[FORBIN]

Interesting and can confirm F-35C to this block 4 receive also, normaly planned but can confirm... the Harpoon is disponible cheap ofc but don't fit internaly so no question the need is there...

While not an endorsement for the US F-35, the Kongberg-Raytheon Joint Strike Missile is on track for fielding on Norway’s F-35A fleet most likely in 2022-2023 during Block 4 build, and has an important attribute – internal loading to maintain the rigors of stealth.

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[TerraN_EmpirE]

It's a numbers game. refit the ones with the most life to give to the new standards. Keep the oldest for tests. but not necessarily Aggressors.Thing is that as we transition to the F35 standard we need to break up what we are training against. This is why I like the Commercial Red Air even though they are using old machines like Kfirs, L39's, Mirage F1 and the like. it's not just the intercept it's the difference in machines.

 

[Jura The idiot]

This is an extremely easy problem to solve,,,, no need to "destroy" outstanding "early run" aircraft to bring them to a "nebulous" and changing standard......

Do the absolutely necessary to bring them up to safety specs, and place them in a dedicated aggressor/test program,, put the old heads in these airplanes, and allow them to develop "TACTICS"

Make them as "Combat Capable" as possible, and allow these "old heads" their own aircraft KOMRAD! if individual pilots are allowed to learn their individual aircraft, they become a valuable resource to learn to fight and maintain the Air Force of the future..

One of these "old heads" will come up with a technique to "take down" the bad guys 5 gen aircraft,,, in these older block aircraft, making it a piece of cake for the nubes in the newer aircraft to fly them to their limits.

I think what matters most now is inside Tuesday at 8:23 AM post:

"The looming modification bills are threatening to suck resources from a looming production ramp-up with more than 900 aircraft projected for delivery over the next five years, Winter says."

I mean the Pentagon should not make it worse by carefully taking care of LockMart profit in every quarter of every year

 

[Jura The idiot]

related to what I said right above is this:

inside Apr 8, 2017

probably a repost

:
"Lockheed recently delivered the 200th EOTS sensor, which has been outpaced technologically by Lockheed’s Sniper and Northrop Grumman/Rafael’s Litening targeting pod systems because of delays in fielding, and consequently improving, the F-35. The baseline EOTS hasn't been used in combat yet and is already outdated."

and now supposedly great news is
Lockheed Martin Completes 300th Electro-Optical Targeting System for F-35
Posted: September 20, 2017 3:00 PM

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Lockheed Martin recently completed its 300th Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) for the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, the company announced in a Sept. 19 release.

EOTS is an imaging sensor that allows the F-35 to identify, track and designate targets. The 300th EOTS was completed under the 10th Low-Rate-Initial Production contract, and each system was delivered on time or ahead of schedule.

“Completing the 300th EOTS is a testament to the growth of the F-35 program and our ability to produce a reliable and affordable system,” said Paul Lemmo, vice president of Fire Control/Special Operations Forces Contractor Logistics Support Services at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “More than 650 EOTS have been ordered to date, and we are committed to continuing to drive down the cost and increase performance to support the F-35.”

F-35 EOTS is the world’s first sensor to combine forward-looking infrared and infrared search and track functionality to provide F-35 pilots with precise air-to-air and air-to-ground targeting capability. EOTS allows aircrews to identify areas of interest, perform reconnaissance and precisely deliver laser and Global Positioning System-guided weapons.

?!

 

[FORBIN]

Interesting and can confirm F-35C to this block 4 receive also, normaly planned but can confirm... the Harpoon is disponible cheap ofc but don't fit internaly so no question the need is there...

While not an endorsement for the US F-35, the Kongberg-Raytheon Joint Strike Missile is on track for fielding on Norway’s F-35A fleet most likely in 2022-2023 during Block 4 build, and has an important attribute – internal loading to maintain the rigors of stealth.

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Similar case for AGM-158C F-35 can be armed only externaly.

 

[FORBIN]