F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

[PuckChaser]

I'm sure the engineers working on the system took note of your comment, and will fix the problem shortly. 

Thanks for the sarcasm. You'll likely note I'm a F-35 proponent, and asked a simple question which G2G answered. Maybe track his attitude and emulate.

 

[YZT580]

In support of nothing in particular, somewhere in the archives of DND is a film showing an airborne CF100 firing its cannons.  The aircraft appears to practically stop (or at least slow down noticeably).  It is an interesting demonstration of Newton's principles.  All that energy has to go somewhere. 

 

[MarkOttawa]

CF-100 had eight .50 machine guns, not cannons (Mark 5 was all-missile); with Mark 3 "Trials were conducted with a tray containing four 20 millimeter cannon, but technical problems led to the abandonment of this weapons fit."
http://www.airvectors.net/avcf100.html

Mark
Ottawa

 

[McG]

To prove F-35 CAS capabilities, it will face-off against A-10

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/strike/2015/08/29/prove-cas-capabilities-face/71336130/

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Now have it do gun runs where people are shooting back and you guess that the brass will nix the gun runs. The F35 will be a bomb truck. Possible a very good one. Frankly the 2 should be used together.

 

[Jarnhamar]

http://www.duffelblog.com/2015/08/f-35-loses-dogfight-to-red-baron/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Duffel%20Blog&utm_content=Lockheed%20Upbeat%20Despite%20F-35%20Losing%20Dogfight%20To%20Red%20Baron

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Now have it do gun runs where people are shooting back and you guess that the brass will nix the gun runs. The F35 will be a bomb truck. Possible a very good one. Frankly the 2 should be used together.

This is what the USAF conceptualizes the F35 being.  It's the sensor suite and fusion that they want the plane for.  They envision the F35 being used in conjunction with B1 and B2 bombers with the F35 acting as eyes and ears for the bombers carrying the big pay load.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Royal Drew: US bomber plans:

Update: What About That New USAF Bomber?
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/mark-collins-update-what-about-that-new-usaf-bomber/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Pep talk from program head:

News: Bogdan shines light on F-35 program
99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
...
“From 2011, when we rebased the program to now, we are making some pretty slow but some good progress,” Bogdan said. “We are at a point now in the program where because of that progress, we are no longer slow and steady. We are past the slow and steady progress; we are now growing and accelerating rapidly on this program.”

“We will do everything we can to give the Air Force everything they need,” Bogdan said. “If we fall through, the responsibility falls on me. But I need you to also do your part as well. This program runs on two things; money and trust. If people can’t trust what JPO or myself are doing, the program will crumble. So the key is integrity.

“When I come to work every day I work for two groups of people, I work for the warfighters and I work for the taxpayers,” Bogdan said. “My concern every day when I come to work is spending every dollar the taxpayer gives me as wisely as I can and making the right decisions for the warfighter, short and long term.”..

“People love to criticize the F-35,” Rose said. “The reality is usually far different, as someone who has been involved in the F-35 program since 2009, the airplane is actually quite impressive, the capability that it brings is awe inspiring, we need to be patient, we need to work hard and we need to work hard to make it into the airplane we need it to be.”
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/175228/bogdan-shines-light-f-35-program#.VenoB0bCNdg

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

How many F-35Bs for UK?

1) ANALYSIS: UK combat air future hinges on SDSR decisions

...
But one of the most eagerly-awaited elements of the planning document will be its contents about the F-35B.

Three of the type are already being used by the UK to support initial operational test and evaluation activities in the USA, with a fourth to be accepted during 2016. The MoD has already announced funding to acquire its first 14 operational examples, which should also be handed over from next year.

Initial operational capability with the RAF’s 617 Sqn is planned for the following year at Marham, and the UK’s second unit to be equipped with the STOVL design has already been identified as the Fleet Air Arm’s revived 809 NAS.

With the UK having previously committed to buying at least 48 F-35s but with the US programme of record still listing its interest at 138 of the type, this review could deliver a long-needed answer about how many of the fifth-generation type it needs, and more importantly, how many it can afford. Only once the MoD reveals this answer will the future strength of the UK’s combat air capability take shape.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-uk-combat-air-future-hinges-on-sdsr-decisi-416276/

2) UK Commits To 2 Carriers, Fully Crewed; F-35B Numbers TBD

...aircraft carriers aren’t much use without aircraft, either. Each QE-class ship can accommodate 40 aircraft of various types, but not all of those are going to be fighters. (Indeed, the British are planning to operate Queen Elizabeth with nothing but helicopters until its first F-35s are delivered). The maximum capacity for F-35s is reportedly 36 aircraft, but during routine operations, each carrier might have only a dozen F-35Bs on board.

Will each carrier eventually get a full complement of F-35s? “Any sort of further commitments on details… whether it’s numbers of aircraft or numbers of frigates or what have you, that will be coming out of the SDSR process,” Mordaunt said. “But what I would say [is that in the SDSR] there will also be a lot of radical thinking about the kinds of things we will be operating… .from the carriers,” not just F-35s but “other air assets, whether they’re manned or unmanned..”

One of the savviest aerospace industry analysts around guesstimated the British would end up with 30 F-35Bs per carrier — eventually. “60 Bs, that would probably do the job,” Richard Aboulafia told me.

“The original buy of 138 F-35s [for the Royal Navy and RAF combined] looks unlikely,” Aboulafia said. “If we’re looking at acquisitions through 2030, with some F-35s acquired to replace earlier Eurofighters, we’ll likely see at least 100 UK F-35s”: 60 Bs for the Royal Navy and 40 As for the Royal Air Force...
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/09/uk-commits-to-2-carriers-fully-crewed-f-35b-numbers-tbd/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

Why do both carriers have to have a "full complement" of F35Bs? 

Only one carrier is likely to be at sea at a time.  They are also likely to be embarking Apaches and Merlins and the occasional Chinook.

Couldn't they normally operate with a 6 pack of F35s with up to an additional 24 being flown aboard for dedicated operations?  Or even just use it as a FARP for longer range operations.

By limiting the -B model buy then the number of -A models could be increased.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Kirkhill: But UK has no plans to acquire F-35As.  Both RAF and RN will fly F-35B.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

Kirkhill: But UK has no plans to acquire F-35As.  Both RAF and RN will fly F-35B.

Mark
Ottawa

Just picking up what Aboulafia put down....

 

[MarkOttawa]

I suspect Aboulafia, a bit of an F-35 booster, is implying that RAF will buy As sometime next decade--RAF and RN F-35B webpages:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/f35jointstrikefighter.cfm

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/the-equipment/aircraft/future-aircraft/f35-joint-strike-fighter

Mark
Ottawa

 

[YZT580]

If they end up having to defend their resources again in the Falklands they will require two carriers and a full complement of F35s on each.  There is no point at all in spending the cash on a full carrier and then treating it as if it were a Mistral.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Italian angle:

Exclusive Photos: The First Ever F-35 assembled internationally makes maiden flight
http://theaviationist.com/2015/09/07/first-international-f-35-makes-first-flight/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

If they end up having to defend their resources again in the Falklands they will require two carriers and a full complement of F35s on each.  There is no point at all in spending the cash on a full carrier and then treating it as if it were a Mistral.

Her Majesty's Brigade of Floating Islands have many overlapping capabilities that allows for maximum flexibility.  Independently deployed they can manage a multitude of capabilities concurrently - especially when coupled with available shore bases.  Concentrated they can focus on a single capability.

There is no need for both carriers to be at sea all the time.  There is no need for both carriers to be fully equipped with F35s all the time.  The F35s can stay nice and warm in hangars on shore until there is somewhere for them to land in the next trouble spot.

Those floating islands will also be hot spots for that other item that was in short supply on the Falklands: Troop Transport Helicopters (and their associated escort, recce and attack cousins).

And the principal lesson of the Falklands was: "Never give up the Island".  Not just Port Stanley, but South Georgia, Ascension and St Helena.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Hmm:

Cyber missions could fuel Boeing EA-18G orders: U.S. Navy chief
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/03/us-usa-navy-boeing-idUSKCN0R32I320150903

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

USAF F-35A situation:

ALIS Biggest Challenge For F-35 IOC: Gen. Harrigian
http://breakingdefense.com/2015/09/alis-biggest-challenge-for-f-35-on-track-to-ioc-gen-harrigian/

Big program picture:

At Crossroads, F-35 Still Faces Challenges

Over the past five years, the F-35 joint strike fighter has overcome massive cost overruns, schedule delays and a host of technical snags. The US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps jets are now on track to meet key deadlines, and proponents of the program brag that costs have remained steady since 2010.

But as the Pentagon prepares for a new challenge — tripling production of the next-generation fighter jet — F-35 program leaders are bracing for an uphill climb.

Next year, F-35-maker Lockheed Martin will deliver 43 aircraft to the services. During the three years after that, the Pentagon will ramp up production to more than 120 aircraft each year, according to Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the F-35 joint program office. The JPO is concerned the F-35 manufacturing base will not be able to keep up with such a drastic surge, he said.

"Acquisition rule of thumb says we probably, year-to-year, don't want to do more than about 50 percent what you did the year before," Bogdan said Wednesday at the ComDef conference in Washington. "If you do the math and you are going to triple in three years, you are not on a 50-percent-per-year slope."

"That gives me some pause," Bogdan said.

...since the Pentagon decided to move to initial production before completing the test program, maintainers must install fixes to operational planes as problems crop up with the test fleet. Maintenance teams are busy installing these modifications to existing aircraft and jets coming off the ramp, for instance the engine fix that stemmed from a fire at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, last summer.

"So when we have those 493 airplanes out in the field in 2019, guess how many will be in what I consider to be the right configuration? Not a one," Bogdan said. "Every airplane coming off the line now and coming off in the next two and a half years, plus all the airplanes we've built already, will need some form of modification to get them up to the full capability that we promised the war fighter."

Each aircraft confined to the depot for modification is one less plane the services can use to train pilots and maintainers, Bogdan emphasized. This is a particular problem for the Air Force, which must meet certain training requirements in order to declare IOC in 2016.

To address this gap, the JPO is sending field teams to do F-35A depot work at the bases, rather than bringing the jets to the depots, Bogdan said. This saves time on the front and back end of the process, allowing the maintenance teams to move the jets through modifications more quickly...
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/strike/2015/09/09/-crossroads-f-35-still-faces-challenges/71970864/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Kirkhill]

When good enough was good enough.

24 marks and many sub-marks and three major families of engines that were constantly being upgraded.  Too bad the log side of things didn't grip that situation tightly.  Who knows how much sooner the war would have ended. 

There were 24 marks of Spitfire, but also, as will be seen, many sub-variants within the marks. The entire Spitfire family may be divided by the generation of Rolls-Royce engines which powered the aircraft. Thus the first generation was powered by single-stage Merlins, from Merlin II to Merlin 50 and resulted in Spitfires Mks. I, II and V as the most prominent fighter variants. Two-stage Merlins (meaning the use of two-stage supercharger for increased altitude performance), from Merlin 61 to Merlin 70, provided the basis of mid-war development, Mks. VIII, IX and XVI being the most prolific versions of this family. Finally, the arrival of Rolls-Royce Griffon provided a basis for the final line of Spitfire development, exemplified by Mks. XII, XIV and their post-war derivatives.

This article describes the initial Spitfire line powered by single-stage supercharged Merlin engines.

It is notable that throughout the entire development process, which took place over twelve years, from 1935 through to 1948, there were no outstanding failures of the basic design: this is a real testament to the original genius of Reginald J Mitchell, his successor Joseph Smith and the design teams they led.

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/supermarine-spitfire-variants-the-initial-merlin-powered-line.html