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

[Jura The idiot]

Eglin AFB F-35s Hit Their Highest Mission-Capable Rate

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since I've now read it, I post
:

As President Trump's nominee for defense secretary is telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet won't meet a Pentagon goal for an 80% mission-capable rate across all military services by Sept. 30, the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base is nonetheless flirting with that number.

In April, the 33rd -- a graduate flying and maintenance training wing -- posted a 77.1% mission-capable rate for the 33 F-35s on its flight line, according to Lt. Savannah Stephens, the wing's public affairs officer. That's the highest mission-capable rate achieved by the wing since August of 2016, when the Air Force declared initial operational capability status had been reached for the F-35A, the Air Force's version of the jet.

For June, the 33rd Fighter Wing's F-35 mission-capable rate was down just slightly, to 76.8%, according to Stephens.

"Our trend over the last year has been getting closer and closer to the 80% mark, and that is a huge win for our wing," Stephens said in an email. "We're at the highest MC (mission-capable) rates we've ever had."

Different versions of the jet are flown by the Marine Corps, which operates the F-35B, a short take-off and vertical landing jet, and the Navy, whose F-35C can land on an aircraft carrier.

In order to be mission-capable, an aircraft must be able to perform at least one of its designated missions. The F-35's missions include air-to-air and air-to-ground combat as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

At Eglin and elsewhere across the military services, a lack of availability of spare parts has hampered the F-35's mission-capable rates. Last year, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose district includes Eglin, raised concerns that the base could miss its goals for graduating new F-35 pilots as a result of the parts shortage. Eglin is one of two Air Force bases -- the other is Luke Air Force Base in Arizona -- that train F-35 pilots.

Stephens said Wednesday that the supply issues that had affected Eglin's F-35 operations have eased in recent months.

"We're doing what we can and turning jets," said Stephens, referencing the cycle of getting jets' maintenance needs addressed and returning them to service.

But Stephens also cautioned that when the deadline for 80% mission capability arrives, Eglin might not meet that goal. There are a number of reasons for that, including routine maintenance scheduling that might keep a number of F-35s out of the sky, she said.

The 80% mission-capable target was set by former Defense Secretary James Mattis last September, when the mission-capable rate for the Air Force's F-35s was at 54.7%. Air Force officials have since said that the service is on pace to meet Mattis' goal.

But earlier this week in a letter to the Senate committee, Mark Esper, President Trump's nominee for secretary of defense, said that problems with maintaining a specialized canopy on the F-35s flown by all of the military services meant the jet would not meet the readiness target across the military services.

Esper's letter came on the heels of an April report from the federal General Accounting Office that noted that "shortages, repair backlogs, and mismatched parts are keeping F-35s on the ground."

 

[Anlsvrthng]

Are we discussing S-300, S-400 or SPY-1? You need to make up your mind.

Invoking SPY-1 as a surrogate to make an argument for S-300 is not acceptable. You need to lift your game if you wish to be taken seriously.

I am sorry, I have to appreciate that the internal working of radar systems is a too complicated topic .

I try to simplify it
F35 with jamming (Growlers or whatever) against different radar systems
PAtriot - using X band search and targeting radar, easy to jam, can't see stealth
AEGIS - using S band for search / tracking, use X band mechanically steered for target illumination, stealth shaping has small effectiveness against, needs S band jamming,
S-300 - using VHF/UHF/S/X (and everything between) radars for search and tracking , use X band for illumination and missile command, needs full spectrum jamming, shaping of the aircraft irrelevant.

The logical fallacy of many on this forum is to expect that the S- 300 need vhf AND s-band AND x-band for targeting, but the relationship is OR between these .

It using the old Soviet doctrine about situational awareness and system robustness, so every new radar increase the capability, not a requirement for basic operation.

Many think in the USA military doctrine, where a cheap system needs all of its components to have basic operating capability.

 

[Air Force Brat]

does your wall of text say the F-35 is a game-changer LOL providing tremendous value for money?

now even

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"The biggest acquisition disaster Opens a New Window. in the Pentagon’s Opens a New Window. history shows no sign of abating.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the poster child for ineptitude and inefficiency in defense procurement, ..." and so on:

Need for new F-15s reflects F-35 catastrophe

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Tom Shatz, hey wasn't he in that movie with F-14's, damn he is an expert isn't he??? Citizens Against Government Waste??

Jura, Jura, Jura, don't buy any real estate son! your F-35 derangement syndrome is right at home here bro, course you and old Tom know more that the US military all the foreign partners in the F-35 put together.

 

[Jura The idiot]

Tom Shatz, hey wasn't he in that movie with F-14's, damn he is an expert isn't he??? Citizens Against Government Waste??

Jura, Jura, Jura, don't buy any real estate son! your F-35 derangement syndrome is right at home here bro, course you and old Tom know more that the US military all the foreign partners in the F-35 put together.

foreign partners like Turkey, oh wait
LOL!

 

[Jeff Head]

U.S. Marine Corps conducts first ever F-35B fighter jet ‘elephant walk.

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View attachment 52213
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Oh the detractors have to be having cows over this! LOL!

 

[Air Force Brat]

Oh the detractors have to be having cows over this! LOL!

yes, even our old friend Jura seems to enjoy being a vocal critic of the F-35A, B, or C in spite of my best efforts to help him see the light?? LOL

that has helped him make a few new friends here,,, but I can't wait to see who signs up to be a partner next, Poland probably....

 

[Air Force Brat]

foreign partners like Turkey, oh wait
LOL!

Heh!, Heh!, Heh!, you should probably look up "partner" in the dictionary my friend, Turkey no longer falls under that definition... no a partner would not compromise everyone else's security by selling their soul to the devil, sadly Mr. Erdogan has been unable to keep his commitment to the partners.

But really with the dozen solid partners spending billions of dollars on the F-35, they my friend put their money where their mouth is, they are very aware of the superiority of the F-35 to every other available option, friend or foe...

 

[Brumby]

F35 with jamming (Growlers or whatever) against different radar systems

I have not specifically discussed jamming in our conversation so far other than in passing. The F-35 jamming power is unknown but rumour is that it is highly capable including the ability to conduct electronic attacks.
The Growler supposedly has 11KW of jamming power at its disposal. Lower frequency radar like the VHF band in such situations would be more vulnerable to jamming than say a X band radar. Translated it is 40w/MHz of jamming power in VHF vs 2.4w/MHz in X band, a 16 X difference.

The logical fallacy of many on this forum is to expect that the S- 300 need vhf AND s-band AND x-band for targeting, but the relationship is OR between these .

There is no expectation of anything other than stating the facts that the system comes with multi band radar acting as some sort of senor suited to its configuration. It is a well established fact that lower frequency radar like in VHF has very poor range resolution and not suited for targeting solutions. It is not a fallacy - just facts based on radar science

 

[Jura The idiot]

Heh!, Heh!, Heh!, you should probably look up "partner" in the dictionary my friend, Turkey no longer falls under that definition... no a partner would not compromise everyone else's security by selling their soul to the devil, sadly Mr. Erdogan has been unable to keep his commitment to the partners.

But really with the dozen solid partners spending billions of dollars on the F-35, they my friend put their money where their mouth is, they are very aware of the superiority of the F-35 to every other available option, friend or foe...

great pledge, Brother, just, you know Mar 13, 2018

I'll say one more thing on this page, without quoting anyone (I don't strive to have the last word), which is

F-35 Project resembles Comecon to me

LOL link for those not coming from Eastern Block:

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time will tell the rest

 

[Anlsvrthng]

I have not specifically discussed jamming in our conversation so far other than in passing. The F-35 jamming power is unknown but rumour is that it is highly capable including the ability to conduct electronic attacks.
The Growler supposedly has 11KW of jamming power at its disposal. Lower frequency radar like the VHF band in such situations would be more vulnerable to jamming than say a X band radar. Translated it is 40w/MHz of jamming power in VHF vs 2.4w/MHz in X band, a 16 X difference.

Effective radiation of the 11KW require a full sized dipole, with the correct polarisation.

It means with NEBO it require half meter height antenna, in the case of Vostok it require one meter high antenna.

But different versions of NEBO has different polarisation as well, to make things worst, with different frequency.

And these are phased array radars, with big aperture, less than 6 degree wide main lobe, so two of them can triangulate the jammer with 10 km precision from 100 km.

Enough to clue the S band radars.

In case of Iran ,only regards of S-300 they have two 64N6E2 , four 96L6E and four 30N6E2 ( latest is the fire control radar )

It cover the best part of the spectrum from 2GHz to 12 GHz, with possibly lot of resonance frequencies for any possible angle of F-35.

And this is the S-300 system, Iran posses a range of (road mobile) VHF/UHF radars .

And they have S-300 battery elements/ radars bought on the carboot sale.

There is no expectation of anything other than stating the facts that the system comes with multi band radar acting as some sort of senor suited to its configuration. It is a well established fact that lower frequency radar like in VHF has very poor range resolution and not suited for targeting solutions. It is not a fallacy - just facts based on radar science

It was never an issue with the range, but with the angle.

The radars are quite good to measure distances, the issue is the angular resolution.

So, the tracking issue was true for the semi-active missile seeker heads with 2D VHF radars, but those days are gone.

The Nebo can pinpoint the position of an aircraft from 100 km to a smaller than 500m cube, and that is enough for the missile to get close to see the reflection of the 30N6 from the target.

The missile most likely will see the target from way longer distance, considering it works as a multistatic radar system and doglegging the F-35/B-2/F-22 from "non -stealth" directions.