F-35 Lightning II: News thread

WOW.... amazing...

Just a few questions however... if the ship can't see subsonic missiles and defeat two at the same time, why not just use standard Harpoon missiles that are already in the inventory?

Second, again, with no air defence to speak of why sent four F-35s when a single F-15E could have done the job with more missile options and better self defence performance with its own AMRAAMs and ARMs as well as 5 air to ground missiles?

Not really that impressed to be honest.

GarryB wrote:WOW.... amazing...

Just a few questions however... if the ship can't see subsonic missiles and defeat two at the same time, why not just use standard Harpoon missiles that are already in the inventory?

Second, again, with no air defence to speak of why sent four F-35s when a single F-15E could have done the job with more missile options and better self defence performance with its own AMRAAMs and ARMs as well as 5 air to ground missiles?

Not really that impressed to be honest.

The video, the tech, everything related to SOM is sketchy and pretty useless.
It's a good jobs program tho.

The 1st #TurkishAirForce F-35A (18-0001, c/n AT-1) made its 1st flight from NAS JRB Fort Worth (TX) on 10May18. The 18-0001 was succesfully flown by Commander Wilson. Photos: Clinton White / Highbrass Photography.

https://twitter.com/scramble_nl/status/994709486576242688

No sh%t it's over Beirut, put it in Damascus an see if it isn't turned into a pile of scrap metal.

Seriously, this fighter is not gonna be leaving the Golan and Lebanese (Safe-space).

Is this old news or the resumption of flight training?

Time for the US to build a real 5G fighter:

https://www.defenseone.com/business/2018/08/lockheed-pitching-f-22f-35-hybrid-us-air-force/150943/

Amidst claims that PAK-FA is no 5G and F-35 wonderful beyond measure, Lockheed is essentially admitting they are behind. Let's see where this ends up...

https://www.rt.com/usa/437286-pentagon-f35-design-flaws/

Officials overseeing the development of the F-35 fighter jets have apparently deliberately downplayed some critical deficiencies that can endanger lives of both pilots and troops on the ground, said the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), an independent watchdog. It obtained the Pentagon agency’s documents which show that there’s no justification or plans to fix the flaws still plaguing the $1.5 trillion program.

Instead of fixing them, the problems were just re-categorized. The Deficiency Review Board of the Joint Strike Fighter Program Office downgraded 19 Category I problems to a less serious Category II, without providing any plan to correct ten of those critical design flaws. Category I deficiencies “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage,” according to the US military documents.

Category II deficiencies “could impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.” The categories are assigned to the deficiencies by the testing personnel, who identify them during the test and evaluation process. In many cases, however, the board acted on its own “with no apparent justification or evidence that the flaws were in fact not as serious as initially categorized,” POGO said.

They'll eventually get it right....eventually. Corruption is a helluva problem tho..

In the meantime I heard they were looking into getting Su-35s...(ehm....heavily upgraded F-15s).

USMC's Older F-35Bs May Only Be Able To Fly Around A Quarter Of Their Expected Service Life

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26269/usmcs-older-f-35bs-may-only-be-able-to-fly-around-a-quarter-of-their-expected-service-life

A new Pentagon report is warning that the U.S. Marine Corps' oldest F-35B Joint Strike Fighters may remain airworthy for just over a quarter of the aircraft's expected lifespan due to serious structural problems. This could force the service to begin grounding jets, or retiring them permanently, as early as 2026. It also remains unclear whether subsequent improvements to the aircraft's design on later models have significantly increased the durability of later production aircraft.

I would cross-post this to Russia's VTOL thread just for kicks but I realized you gotta keep the hope alive.

So extra structure upgrades... more work, more weight, less performance, and costs more, and don't forget these aircraft being retired early... 2026... boy... they are barely in service now and they will need to be retired in 7 years time... these are the more expensive 125 million dollar a pop models... talk about lack of bang for buck... but of course the Russians are not bound by the laws of physics and wont make the same mistakes...

Isn't it funny how they under build an aircraft to get a contract and then to get a capable platform they have to remake it heavier and more expensive in a form that probably would have lost them the contract in the first place... the dirty world of the US MIC....

The sprinkles...

https://www.rt.com/usa/450356-pentagon-report-f35-testing/

Adding to the pile of flaws and setbacks plaguing the F-35 strike fighter, a new report by the Pentagon reveals that jet's life span is nearly four times shorter than expected and the accuracy of its guns is "unacceptable."

The number of F-35s ready to fly remained "flat" for past three years and there was "no improving trend" in 2018.

In fact, the average availability rate of F-35 jets didn't hit the "target value of 60 percent," which is also "well below [the] planned 80 percent" needed for efficient testing and pilot training, according to the military's assessment.

In addition, the tests revealed that the life span of early-production models is far lower than the expected 8,000 flights hours, and "may be as low as 2,100 flight hours," the document reads.

The DOT&E further noted that some of the "vulnerabilities" in the plane's cybersecurity uncovered earlier "still had not been remedied."

In January, citing its own sources, Politico reported that the Pentagon's acting chief, Patrick Shanahan, slammed the jet fighter as "f***ed-up," calling the project "unsustainable" and claiming that its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, "doesn't know how to run a program."

Americans did hint that they would prefer canceling the entire program but at this stage it has consumed so much money that they have to get something out of it.

Designing a new plane would cost yet another several hundred billion $, take 5+ years of R&D, several years of testing and US would need to fly 40 years old F-15s all that time.

Waiting for Vann and other local experts to say heads must roll and they should get rid of LM all together and privatise it and get a small company to replace them...

It is going to take a few hundred billion to fix this aircraft... looking at their real experience with the F-35 they need to admit they made a mistake and go for a serious upgrade of the F-15, new built with new materials but not super stealthy... give it a big radar and lots of weapons and good range and then make 2,000 of them for a fraction of the cost of the 2,000 F-35s they are never going to make...

But don't take my advice... keep on with the F-35 it is an excellent money hole to waste money and make your air power weaker...

BTW Su-35 will have a predicted initial price of $50 milion pee unit + probably lower operating costs. Nice.

I am quite looking forward to seeing what sort of performance they will get from their new technology radar systems...

If you look at infantry as a comparison... the whole world currently lines up its troops in bright colourful uniforms and fire volley shots at the enemy... the US claims it has developed a gillie suit and will use its sniper rifles to devastate the enemy...

The problem for them is that the Russians are introducing thermal sights that can detect threats even in gillie suits and their sniper rifles are just as good as Americas sniper rifles so the Americans have no real range advantage... (R-77 vs AMRAAM and Meteor vs R-37M)...

The thing is that their snipers are so expensive to train they don't have many and some of their other equipment sucks etc etc... can't be bothered to continue the analogy but you can see where this is going can't you?

Russia is of course developing its own snipers, but is not replacing all rifle armed soldiers with snipers... it is just too expensive... there are so many jobs a sniper is less use than an average infantryman.

For those not in the know yet....

F-35s out there in service today, are, more or less, working prototypes....

200ish.

The troubled $1.5 trillion F-35 program is not ready to begin the critical combat-testing phase, the Pentagon’s testing director said in a previously undisclosed August memo obtained by the Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). That decision marks another setback in the development of the Pentagon’s largest acquisition program.

The memo, issued on August 24, 2018, says the program has not met the necessary entry criteria to begin the crucial combat-testing phase called Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E). It comes on the heels  of the revelation , reported first by POGO, that program officials have been trying to make it appear as though the program has completed the development phase, by altering paperwork to reclassify potentially life-threatening design flaws to give the appearance of progress rather than actually fixing them.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/stealth-nightmare-f-35-unable-fight-43007

There are some good advancements however that you can gather from the original doc (linked in the article). A rushed work in progress that a lot of fat cats are skeeming off unfortunately.

Perhaps more accurately described as:

F-35s out there in service today, are, more or less, non-working prototypes....

The bad news never ends with the Flub-35 , Turkey to be cut out, France and Germany leaving and creating their own 5th-gen plane, Spain joining them, and now this....

Pentagon Mismanaged $2.1 Billion In F-35 Stealth Jet Parts

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-16/bombshell-pentagon-mismanaged-21-billion-f-35-stealth-jet-parts

Popular Mechanics and The Drive will spin this into why the Su-57 is bad, and the Flub-35 is great....oh how Orwellian of them.

Of course the problem there is that all the cyber capabilities of the F-35 leaves it exposed to getting hacked and defeated electronically.

In fact the US has a kill switch that can be used to turn off the aircraft of allies... and the Chinese stole all the data and schematics on the aircraft...

Also this guy has never sat in an Su-57 or even an Su-35 or MiG-35 so what he has to say about SA can't be taken as gospel.

BTW NATO forces have for years gotten their SA from AWACS... that is the purpose of the Su-57 carrying the R-37M...

US stops F-35 fighter jet parts delivery to Turkey

“The United States has been clear that Turkey’s acquisition of the S-400 is unacceptable,” said acting Pentagon spokesman Charles Summers Jr. “Until they forgo delivery of the S-400, the United States has suspended deliveries and activities associated with the stand-up of Turkey’s F-35 operational capability. Should Turkey procure the S-400, their continued participation in the F-35 program is at risk.”

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2019-04-01/us-stops-f-35-fighter-jet-parts-delivery-to-turkey

The soap opera goes on, participation of Turkey in the program looking increasingly unlikely long term. Better for Turkey IMO...