F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

[tomahawk6]

Their buy may involve up to 12 aircraft. I think they would be wise to buy a half dozen P8's as well. But the F35's allow them to operate a networked force.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-message-to-china-behind-singapores-us-f-35-jet-plan/ar-BBUtj12?ocid=spartanntp

 

[MarkOttawa]

Israelis hard at it, showing their tech expertise:

Revealed: Israel’s Top Secret F-35F JSMF
April 1, 2019

Secret Two-Seat Variant Uses Additional Crewmember to Counter Anti-F-35 Social Media Posts.

Israel has unveiled their previously classified F-35F Nebekh Joint Social Media Fighter (JSMF). The new rear seat position in the two-seat F-35F Nebekh is occupied by the SMO or Social Media Officer. The modification is in response to threats to the F-35 in the social media space. Gen Hadir Uffani of the IDF told reporters, “The F-35’s primary threats exist in the social media space, so we have made a special variant of the Joint Strike Fighter to counter this threat in real-time.”

The SMO suite consists of integrated sensor fusion that monitors Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat for flamers leveling criticism against the Joint Strike Fighter program. When critical social media posts from internet know-it-alls and trolls are detected, the system can respond in real-time by assigning a massive arsenal of cat memes to interdict the threat. The cat memes are stored in a special, low-observable internal hard drive in the aircraft’s stealthy weapons’ bay...

Newly released image of Israel's top-secret F-35F Nebekh Joint Social Media Fighter (JSMF) first seen on April 1, 2019. (Photo: via Facebook)
https://theaviationist.com/2019/04/01/revealed-israels-top-secret-f-35f-jsmf/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Rifleman62]

https://theaviationist.com/2019/04/09/japanese-f-35-lightning-ii-stealth-aircraft-reported-missing-over-the-pacific-ocean/

Japanese F-35 Lightning II Stealth Aircraft Reported Missing Over The Pacific Ocean - 9 Apr 19
    The aircraft has disappeared at around 19.27LT. The status of the aircraft and its pilot is unknown.

According to several Japanese media outlets, an F-35A Lightning II belonging to the Japan Air Self Defense Force is currently reported as missing during a mission over the Pacific Ocean. The F-35 launched from Misawa Air Base, in Aomori Prefecture, in the norther part of the country. Misawa is the home of the 302 Hikotai (Squadron), the unit previously operating the F-4EJ “Kai”, that has officially moved to Misawa air base to operate the JASDF F-35A 5th generation aircraft after retiring its last Phatom on Mar. 26, 2019.

According to the JASDF, the aircraft had taken off from about 7 minutes, as part of a 4-ship formation, when it disappered on Apr. 9, at 7:27PM LT on the Pacific Ocean about 135 km east of Misawa. Japan Maritime Self Defense Force search and rescue vessels have been dispatched to the area where the aircraft disappeared.

If confirmed, the Japanese loss would be the second involving the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. The first one occurred on September 28, 2018 when a U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II crashed near Beaufort, South Carolina. The pilot ejected safely. As a consequence of that mishap, almost all the F-35s were shortly grounded on Thursday, October 12, 2018 for safety inspections of their fuel flow systems.

Japan’s program of record is 147 aircraft says the official Lockheed Martin website. “In December 2018, the Japan Ministry of Defense announced its decision to increase its procurement of F-35s from 42 to 147. They stated the aircraft will be a mix of 105 F-35As and 42 F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft.”

13 F-35A are currently based at Misawa AB, based on Japanese media reports.

 

[MarkOttawa]

But Marine F-35Bs were there first, last year and in combat (see 2)):

1) F-35 deploys to Middle East for first time

The Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet has, for the first time, been deployed to the Middle East.

U.S. Air Forces Central Command said in a release that F-35A Lightning IIs from the 388th Fighter Wing and the 419th Fighter Wing, both at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, arrived at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates Monday.

The F-35′s arrival comes a little more than a month after B-1B Lancer bombers completed their deployment at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which left the Air Force with no bomber presence in the Middle East. The joint strike fighters will bolster the Air Force’s firepower in the region as the coalition carries out airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and scattered remnants of the Islamic State.

"We are adding a cutting-edge weapons system to our arsenal that significantly enhances the capability of the coalition,” said Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, commander of AFCENT, in the release. “The sensor fusion and survivability this aircraft provides to the joint force will enhance security and stability across the theater and deter aggressors.”..
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/04/15/f-35-deploys-to-middle-east-for-first-time/

2) First Marine F-35B Combat Deployment Hints at New Roles for Amphibious Ready Group
https://news.usni.org/2019/02/27/first-marine-f-35b-combat-deployment-hints-at-new-roles-for-amphibious-ready-group

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

F-35A vs F-15X?

The US Air Force, not Turkey, is frustrating Lockheed execs on the F-35 program

Turkey’s purchase of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 is in jeopardy due to its order of a Russian air defense system, but Lockheed executives on Tuesday appeared unruffled by the dispute.

Rather, they signaled that an inconsistent demand by the U.S. military — particularly the Air Force — is a bigger long-term concern.

During an April 23 earnings call, one Wall Street analyst asked how Lockheed is dealing with shifts in the F-35 production rate caused by fluctuations in U.S. demand and the uncertainty of future orders with Turkey, Canada and Italy...

In the fiscal year 2020 budget, the U.S. Defense Department plans to buy 78 joint strike fighters for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. However, the Air Force, the F-35’s largest customer, requested just 48 F-35As in FY20 and intends to buy only 48 F-35As annually over the next five years — a far cry from the 60 jet buy rate that Air Force officials had previously held as a goal...



By FY20, Lockheed will be able to offer an F-35A conventional take off and landing model at a cost of $80 million or less, Possenriede said. The company is also working to lower sustainment costs to $25,000 per flight hour by 2025, which is on par with the cost of flying fourth generation fighters.

However, it remains to seen whether that will be enough to entice the Air Force to increase its buy rates, especially as it also plans to begin procuring the F-15X from rival Boeing in FY20.

Defense Department officials have maintained that the F-35 program of record remains the same, and that overall quantities aren’t in danger of being slashed if the services buy the jets more slowly...
https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2019/04/23/the-us-air-force-not-turkey-is-frustrating-lockheed-execs-on-the-f-35-program/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[tomahawk6]

The F35 is in the news as it should be as we face off with potential foe's China and Russia.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-scrambles-to-keep-F-35-s-secrets-safe-from-Russia-and-China

 

[tomahawk6]

2 F-35A's struck ISIS targets in Iraq for the first time.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/first-airstrike-by-air-force-f-35s-targets-isis-tunnels-and-weapons-in-iraq/ar-AAAKAI9?ocid=spartanntp

 

[MarkOttawa]

Now Poles:

Polish defense minister: F-35 acquisition ‘not far away’

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said April 29 that the Polish government aimed to sign a deal to station U.S. troops in Poland this year, and a contract to purchase F-35 fighter jets was “not far away” from being signed.

Blaszczak’s announcement in an interview with local broadcaster TVP indicates that Warsaw could aim to negotiate on the potential troop deployment in parallel with the aircraft acquisition. Poland has pitched for the United States to build a permanent military base in the country, offering to pay at least $2 billion toward the project, dubbed “Fort Trump.”

On April 25, during her visit to Warsaw, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said that a U.S. Air Force team was to be sent to Poland in May to demonstrate the capabilities of the F-35 to Polish defence ministry officials, as reported by local news agency PAP.

Last February, Blaszczak said the planned acquisition of 32 fifth-generation aircraft [emphasis added] would be carried out as part of the country’s military modernization program. Under the initiative, Warsaw aims to spend 185 billion zloty ($48.5 billion) on new weapons and equipment by 2026.

The envisioned procurement is part of Poland’s efforts to to replace its outdated Soviet-designed Sukhoi Su-22 and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/04/30/polish-defense-minister-f-35-acquisition-not-far-away/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Upping the internal missile load:

Lockheed ‘Sidekick’ Will Raise F-35 Missile Capacity

A device called Sidekick will allow a U.S. Air Force or Navy version of the F-35 to carry six AIM-120 missiles internally instead of four, a Lockheed Martin official says.

The comments by F-35 test pilot Tony Wilson on May 1 come as the program continues to define the details of a 10-year modernization program for the F-35 called Block 4 [emphasis added]. The upgrades are expected to allow the F-35 to carry improved sensors and new weapons.

But it’s also possible that the F-35 will be able to carry more air-to-air weapons in the internal bays, which preserve the aircraft’s ability to avoid being tracked by an enemy’s fire control radars at long range.

“What we’ve done is essentially completed trade studies, design and development” of Sidekick, a Lockheed spokesman added. “What is left to be fielded would be things like software integration, weapons separation testing, flight testing and airworthiness testing.”

Lockheed hasn’t released details of the design of the Sidekick mechanism. The F-35A and F-35C are equipped with two internal bays, with each carrying two AIM-120s or a single AIM-120 and a large bomb such as a 2,000-lb. GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). The lift fan aboard the F-35B limits each internal bay to carrying either two AIM-120s or one missile and a 1,000-lb. JDAM.

It’s possible the Sidekick replaces the AIM-120 launch adapter in the high section of the internal bay with a mechanism that can store two of the Raytheon-built, radar-guided missiles in the same space as one now...

Separately, an Air Force F-35A deployed to the United Arab Emirates completed an airstrike on an Islamic State target in Iraq on April 30 [emphasis added]. The pilot released a JDAM on the target, which included a tunnel network and weapons cache, according to a statement by Air Forces Central Command. The military statement did not describe the results of the strike.

Last year, Israel’s Air Force commander revealed that an F-35I was used in combat for the first time in 2018 in the Middle East. The U.S. Marine Corps also announced last September that the F-35B had dropped a weapon on a Taliban target in Afghanistan.
https://aviationweek.com/defense/lockheed-sidekick-will-raise-f-35-missile-capacity

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Things still not going that swimmingly:

Pentagon Says F-35 Flight Hour Stretch Goal Unachievable

The Pentagon admits its $25,000 flight hour stretch goal for the Lockheed Martin F-35A is unrealistic to attain by fiscal 2025.

There are several studies ongoing surrounding F-35 flight hour cost at the Pentagon and there is no path to get to $25,000 by fiscal 2025. Currently, the F-35A cost per flight hour is $44,000, Bob Daigle, Cost Assessment And Program Evaluation (CAPE) director, told the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee May 2.

“That’s a target and it’s not our projection of where we’re actually going to be,” Daigle said.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin said in February the company was committed to the $25,000 cost target goal by 2025. “I have a lot of confidence we’re going to get there. And every day I see the actions of that partnership,” said O.J. Sanchez, sustainment innovation and operations vice president.

The F-35 enterprise highlights flight hour cost targets in its lifecycle sustainability plan (LSP) that was approved in January. The LSP has eight lines of effort that assess cost per flying hour, cost per tail per year and overall ownership cost, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 program executive officer, told reporters May 2 after the subcommittee hearing.

“All of those levers that are in the LSP give us the confidence that we can go from $44,000 a flight hour to $34,000 a flight hour in 2024,” Winter said.

The LSP has the $25,000 flight hour stretch goal by 2025 in the document. “That will be very, very hard to meet but it’s FY ‘19 right now and we have a number of years,” he said.

On average the cost per flight hour for the F-35 must be reduced by 7-12% each year. “The 25 by 25 wasn’t generated by the program office nor the CAPE. It was stretch goal given to us by our leadership,” Winter said.
https://aviationweek.com/defense/pentagon-says-f-35-flight-hour-stretch-goal-unachievable

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Jarnhamar]

the F-35A cost per flight hour is $44,000

Wow. At that price wouldn't it be cheaper to just bribe enemy pilots to defect?

 

[MarkOttawa]

Would almost be cheap-ish by time we might end up buying:

Price Drop: Lockheed Pitches $80M F-35A to Pentagon

That’s the cheapest price yet for the Air Force version of the fifth-generation jet.

Lockheed Martin is offering to come down more than 10% on the price of the least-expensive F-35 as it negotiates the largest sale yet of Joint Strike Fighters.

The company is offering to sell the Pentagon about 100 F-35As — the version flown by the U.S. Air Force and most allies — for less than $80 million each, down from $89.5 million apiece in the deal signed last September. That price point suggests the company will meet its 2020 price targets for the warplane, whose lengthy development and higher-than-expected initial costs have drawn much criticism.

The 100 F-35A are part of a block buy of three production lots of the jets — in all, roughly 450 jets. The order will include F-35Bs for the Marine Corps, F-35Cs for the U.S. Navy, and a variety of the jets for allies.

“We currently have an offer submitted to the Department of Defense for Lots 12-14 that is below the $80 million F-35A for lot 14 in 2020, per our longstanding commitment,” company spokesman Mike Friedman wrote in an email Tuesday. “This represents equal or less than the procurement cost of legacy jets, while providing a generational leap in capability.”

The latest round of F-35 negotiations come as the Air Force is planning to buy new Boeing-made F-15 Eagle fighters for the first time in two decades. While the new Eagles would replace existing F-15s, Lockheed has argued the F-35 is a cheaper alternative and offers stealth and other technology that comes standard in a more modern, fifth-generation warplane.

The proposed purchase of three batches of jets simultaneously is meant to get a better price than past years’ annual purchases of a few dozen of the jets. A 2018 Rand study put the potential savings at more than $2 billion...
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2019/05/price-drop-lockheed-pitches-80m-f-35a-pentagon/156825/#

Mark
Ottawa

 

[tomahawk6]

Buy the vstol version [Marine version] so as to operate in austere conditions or get the F15x.

 

[Good2Golf]

Wow. At that price wouldn't it be cheaper to just bribe enemy pilots to defect?

You should ATIP the current CF-188 cost per flight hour...

 

[MilEME09]

Can we get a block buy of 100?

 

[dapaterson]

USMC variant is shorter range, more maintenance intense, and more expensive to operate.

Good to see cost per airframe going down, but total acquisition cost is a more important figure.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Pentagon not ready for block buy yet:

Ellen Lord: Lot 12 Contract For F-35s Soon
The Pentagon says a new F-35 deal is coming this summer, and promises more costs savings even as the program struggles to get needed spare parts.

The US will soon sign a new contract to acquire more F-35s, even as it scans the globe for alternate suppliers for parts currently being made in Turkey in the event the NATO ally is removed from the program .

“We would like to have a contract award in the June/July time frame,” Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s chief acquisition official, told reporters Friday. That means it may well come in time for the Paris Air Show, held in the third week of June. The contract would be for Lot 12, following September’s $11.5 billion Lot 11 deal for 141 aircraft.

Under that deal, the price per F-35A aircraft fell to $89 million, and Lord said she expects costs to continue to slide for the next Low Rate of Initial Production (LRIP) lot.

There has been some talk about the Pentagon issuing multi-year contracts for future lots of the stealthy aircraft, including lots 15 tough 17, but Lord refused to offer predictions for the future of the program. “I’m not sure I would call it a goal,” to enter into multi-year contracts, she said. “It’s under consideration. There are questions about the benefits of doing that as well as the negatives of doing that [but] any decision I make will be a data-driven decision.”

A total of 14 countries participate in the F-35 program, but only one — Turkey — is in danger of being booted from the pack. The tension between Ankara and the rest of NATO only continues to grow the closer the country gets to purchasing the Russian S-400 air defense system, which the US and NATO has said would force them to exclude Turkey from the F-35 team.

That’s a problem not only for the segment of the F-35 industrial base that resides in Turkey, but also because taking the 100 F-35A aircraft Turkey plans to purchase out of the mix would likely increase unit costs for other customers. Overall, Turkish companies are expected to perform about $12 billion worth of work on the aircraft in the coming years.

Last month, the Pentagon confirmed that it had stopped F-35 parts shipments to Turkey in retaliation for the impending S-400 deal...

The aircraft is facing other issues, including suffering a shortage of hundreds of spare parts each month, causing production line slowdowns and cost increases. Appearing on Capitol Hill again earlier this month, Winter said he was “hitting a stagnant plateau with Lockheed Martin because they are 600 parts a month behind on average — 600 parts not on the production line when I need them.” Now that more than 400 of the aircraft are deployed, Winter said he needs parts “to fix the airplanes” out populating air wings.
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/05/ellen-lord-lot-12-contract-for-f-35s-soon/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Colin Parkinson]

If Canada falls out of the program and loses the part contracts, they will be in a world of hurt I suspect. they might extend those contracts until a suitable supply is up and running.

Just on the 30% discount from FMS sales and the parts contract, the F35 is the best bet for us. Although i think the new F15 is a better fit.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Now the Poles, will please Trump:

Poland plans to buy 32 F-35A fighters: minister

Poland plans to buy 32 Lockheed Martin F-35A fighters to replace Soviet-era jets, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Tuesday, amid the growing assertiveness of neighbour Russia.

“Today we sent a request for quotation (LOR) to our American partners regarding the purchase of 32 F-35A aircraft along with a logistics and training package,” Blaszczak tweeted.

The United States is expected to expand sales of F-35 fighters to five nations including Poland as European allies bulk up their defenses in the face of a strengthening Russia, the Pentagon said last month. reut.rs/2ExdnD1

Poland is among NATO member countries that spend at least 2% of GDP on defence. Warsaw agreed in 2017 to raise defence spending gradually from 2% to 2.5% of GDP, meaning annual spending should nearly double to about 80 billion zlotys ($21 billion) by 2032...
https://www.reuters.com/article/SOMNIA-idUSKCN1SY0NQ

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Terribly clever of Justin Trudeau to keep delaying decision on new RCAF fighter until F-35A cost came down a bunch, eh?

Lockheed, Pentagon reach handshake agreement on next F-35 lot, paving the way for an $80M jet next year

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Defense have reached a handshake agreement on the next lot of F-35 joint strike fighters, an agreement that for the first time includes options for customers to purchase additional aircraft over the next few years.

In a statement, Pentagon acquisition head Ellen Lord called the agreement, worth $34 billion over lots 12, 13 and 14 for 478 aircraft, a “historic milestone.”

The agreement includes 157 jets in lot 12, and comes with an estimated 8.8 percent Unit Recurring Flyaway cost savings from the previous lot. While the Pentagon did not provide costs per aircraft in its news release, that would amount to about $81 million per F-35A conventional takeoff and landing model compared to $89.2 million for an F-35A in lot 11.

Lord estimated that the cost will drop around 15 percent from lot 11 to lot 14 across all variants, which could peg an A model at around $76 million.

“This framework estimates the delivery of an F-35A for less than $80M in Lot 13, one year earlier than planned," [emphasis added] Lord said. "This agreement symbolizes my commitment to aggressively reduce F-35 cost, incentivize Industry to meet required performance, and to deliver the greatest capabilities to our warfighters at the best value to our taxpayers.”

The price of the F-35B short takeoff and landing variant and F-35C carrier variant also dropped in lot 12, said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 head.

“With smart acquisition strategies, strong government-industry partnership and a relentless focus on cost reduction, the F-35 enterprise has successfully reduced procurement costs of the 5th generation F-35 to equal or less than 4th generation legacy aircraft,” he said in a statement. “The handshake agreement, once finalized, will represent the largest F-35 production contract and the lowest aircraft prices in program history.”
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/10/lockheed-pentagon-reach-handshake-agreement-on-first-f-35-multiyear-buy/

Plus:

$34B = Biggest Procurement In History As Lockheed, DoD Handshake Deal for 478 F-35s
The deal for hundreds of new F-35s will drive the cost per airplane below $80 million for the first time.
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/06/34b-biggest-procurement-in-history-as-lockheed-dod-handshake-deal-for-478-f-35s/

Mark
Ottawa