F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

[Tactical Frog]

Defense Ministry: F35A had 2 emergency landings
Japan's Defense Ministry says an F35A fighter jet that crashed into the sea off northern Japan on Tuesday had made two emergency landings in the last two years.

State Minister of Defense Kenji Harada was speaking at a Lower House committee meeting on Thursday.

The minister referred to a test flight by US manufacturer Lockheed Martin in June, 2017, before Japan deployed the aircraft. He said the flight was aborted after a cooling system alert.

The minister said the manufacturer found faults in the system and replaced the defective parts before delivering the jet to the defense ministry.

A ministry official also said at the committee meeting that while the same aircraft was flying in bad weather last August, there was a malfunction in the position indicator.

The Defense Ministry says the defective parts were replaced.

The Air Self-Defense Force began deploying F35A jets at its Misawa base in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, in January last year.

The ministry official told NHK that it's not known whether the two incidents were linked to Tuesday's crash.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190412_11/

We will see more and more F-35 crashes of all variants when airforces will push them to the limits in operational conditions. Just a feeling ...

 

[BON PLAN]

We will see more and more F-35 crashes of all variants when airforces will push them to the limits in operational conditions. Just a feeling ...

I fully agree.
This plane is made of too many compromises, and the development phase lasted too long to give a free handling plane.
The Vstol model was a suicide for the 2 others.

 

[bhramos]

..........................................................

 

[asianobserve]

Defense Ministry: F35A had 2 emergency landings
Japan's Defense Ministry says an F35A fighter jet that crashed into the sea off northern Japan on Tuesday had made two emergency landings in the last two years.

State Minister of Defense Kenji Harada was speaking at a Lower House committee meeting on Thursday.

The minister referred to a test flight by US manufacturer Lockheed Martin in June, 2017, before Japan deployed the aircraft. He said the flight was aborted after a cooling system alert.

The minister said the manufacturer found faults in the system and replaced the defective parts before delivering the jet to the defense ministry.

A ministry official also said at the committee meeting that while the same aircraft was flying in bad weather last August, there was a malfunction in the position indicator.

The Defense Ministry says the defective parts were replaced.

The Air Self-Defense Force began deploying F35A jets at its Misawa base in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, in January last year.

The ministry official told NHK that it's not known whether the two incidents were linked to Tuesday's crash.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190412_11/

We will see more and more F-35 crashes of all variants when airforces will push them to the limits in operational conditions. Just a feeling ...

There are no grounding of F-35s in the other Air Forces that operate it. Only JSDF grounded their F-35s.

BTW, that JSDF F-35 that crashed was the first one assembled in Japan and has encountered several mechanical failures before.

 

[asianobserve]

Instead of USAF grounding their F-35As they sent a squadron to tge Middle East, no doubt to perform combat missions.

F-35 deploys to Middle East for first time

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...5/f-35-deploys-to-middle-east-for-first-time/

 

[BON PLAN]

Instead of USAF grounding their F-35As they sent a squadron to tge Middle East, no doubt to perform combat missions.

F-35 deploys to Middle East for first time

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...5/f-35-deploys-to-middle-east-for-first-time/

No more war in middle east..... Just too late.

 

[BON PLAN]

Lockheed's Costly F-35 to Be Billions Costlier, Pentagon Finds
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...y-f-35-to-be-billions-costlier-pentagon-finds

The estimated total price for research and procurement has increased by $22 billion in current dollars adjusted for inflation, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual cost assessment of major projects. The estimate for operating and supporting the fleet of fighters over more than six decades grew by almost $73 billion to $1.196 trillion.

The increase to $428.4 billion from $406.2 billion in acquisition costs, about a 5.5 percent increase, isn’t due to poor performance, delays or excessive costs for labor or materials, according to the Defense Department’s latest Selected Acquisition Report sent to Congress last week and obtained by Bloomberg News.
Instead, the increase reflects for the first time the current cost estimates for a major set of upgrades planned in coming “Block 4” modifications, according to the report.

“Ensuring our Block 4 efforts are captured in our acquisition baseline and now in our SAR help us to provide full transparency and status on our F-35 modernization progress,” the Pentagon’s F-35 program office said in an emailed statement.

“The F-35 program remains within all cost, schedule and performance thresholds and continues to make steady progress,” the program office said in its statement. The office “is committed to the delivery of cost-effective warfighting capability across all areas of the program.”

But the long-range cost estimate for operating the fleet from 2011 to 2077 was problematic even before the latest independent Pentagon cost projection of an increase to $1.196 trillion. By contrast, the F-35 program office’s latest estimate declined by about $8.5 billion to $1 trillion.

 

[BON PLAN]

Japanese F-35 fighter reportedly crashes during routine training flight

Did the Japanese tried to made it an amphibious fighter ??? LOL

 

[BON PLAN]

Boeing prepares St. Louis plant for likely Air Force F-15 orders

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/04/22/boeing-prepares-st-louis-plant-for-likely-air-force-f-15-orders/

 

[BON PLAN]

The support is becoming a nightmare...
https://aviationweek.com/defense/us...m=email&elq2=43ebcb29de1e48f8bbfe6fa8e7bd4b1c

 

[StealthFlanker]

F-35 Block 4 upgrade
Comprehensive list

 

[bhramos]

Still F-35 parts not found in Deep sea..................

 

[Armand2REP]

F-35 only had 50% availability in 2018

WASHINGTON — Only about half of the F-35 fighter jets worldwide were ready to fly during an eight-month period in 2018, with the wait for spare parts keeping jets on the ground nearly 30 percent of the time, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The F-35’s much-maligned Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, can't even keep track of spare parts.

Trump's acting defense secretary called F-35 fighter jet program 'f----d up

 

[BON PLAN]

F-35 Block 4 upgrade
Comprehensive list

A very detailled explanation about how immature is the plane so far.
How many blocks before F4 ? and again no FOC ..... a pity.

 

[BON PLAN]

Still F-35 parts not found in Deep sea..................

At least it is stealth under the sea.....

 

[BON PLAN]

Air Force risks losing third of F-35s if upkeep costs aren't cut

https://www.stripes.com/news/air-fo...-of-f-35s-if-upkeep-costs-aren-t-cut-1.519246

"The U.S. Air Force may have to cut purchases of Lockheed Martin's F-35 by a third if it can't reduce operations and support costs by as much as 38 percent over a decade, according to an internal analysis.
The shortfall would force the service to subtract 590 of the fighter jets from the 1,763 it plans to order, the Air Force office charged with evaluating the F-35's impact on operations and budgets said in an assessment obtained by Bloomberg News."

"The long-term support concerns are on top of current F-35 challenges including parts shortages, unavailable aircraft and technical issues that must be resolved as the program ends its 17-year development phase. In September, the F-35 is to begin as much as a year of rigorous combat testing that's required by law. Successful testing would trigger full-rate production, the most profitable phase for Lockheed, as soon as late 2019."

"Stephen Lovegrove, the U.K.'s No. 2 civilian defense official, told reporters Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington that although the F-35 "is doing everything we hoped it would do," his country also is grappling with the size and scope of the future support costs for a "very, very complicated platform."

Lovegrove, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, said he'd be discussing the "slightly unknown territory" of long-term costs in meetings with F-35 program officials. The U.K. is buying 138 of the Marine Corps version of the F-35 designed to be flown off aircraft carriers.
"I am constantly being asked by parliamentarians in the U.K. what the total cost is going to be and they are sometimes, understandably, a bit frustrated when I have to tell them, 'At the moment nobody is entirely sure,'" Lovegrove said."

It was clear from the beginning. That plane is too costly (and the real costs are not the official ones, specially about sustainement). More SH18 and F15 (and maybe F16... oups F21) to be ordered.

Mark my words please

 

[asianobserve]

F-35B & F-35A air demo maneuvers illustration:


http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=24622&p=417856#p417856

 

[BON PLAN]

Air Force risks losing third of F-35s if upkeep costs aren't cut

https://www.stripes.com/news/air-fo...-of-f-35s-if-upkeep-costs-aren-t-cut-1.519246

"The U.S. Air Force may have to cut purchases of Lockheed Martin's F-35 by a third if it can't reduce operations and support costs by as much as 38 percent over a decade, according to an internal analysis.
The shortfall would force the service to subtract 590 of the fighter jets from the 1,763 it plans to order, the Air Force office charged with evaluating the F-35's impact on operations and budgets said in an assessment obtained by Bloomberg News."

"The long-term support concerns are on top of current F-35 challenges including parts shortages, unavailable aircraft and technical issues that must be resolved as the program ends its 17-year development phase. In September, the F-35 is to begin as much as a year of rigorous combat testing that's required by law. Successful testing would trigger full-rate production, the most profitable phase for Lockheed, as soon as late 2019."

"Stephen Lovegrove, the U.K.'s No. 2 civilian defense official, told reporters Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington that although the F-35 "is doing everything we hoped it would do," his country also is grappling with the size and scope of the future support costs for a "very, very complicated platform."

Lovegrove, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, said he'd be discussing the "slightly unknown territory" of long-term costs in meetings with F-35 program officials. The U.K. is buying 138 of the Marine Corps version of the F-35 designed to be flown off aircraft carriers.
"I am constantly being asked by parliamentarians in the U.K. what the total cost is going to be and they are sometimes, understandably, a bit frustrated when I have to tell them, 'At the moment nobody is entirely sure,'" Lovegrove said."

It was clear from the beginning. That plane is too costly (and the real costs are not the official ones, specially about sustainement). More SH18 and F15 (and maybe F16... oups F21) to be ordered.

Mark my words please

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...louis-plant-for-likely-air-force-f-15-orders/

 

[BON PLAN]

F-35B & F-35A air demo maneuvers illustration:


http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=24622&p=417856#p417856

The number 8 figure of the Japanese F35B was wrong. The plane dive into the sea......

 

[BON PLAN]

This Isn't a Secret: F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighters Aren't Exactly Invisible
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/isnt-secret-f-22-raptor-stealth-fighters-arent-exactly-invisible-54807

And China might be able to track them.

State-run Chinese media is claiming that the People’s Liberation Army has been able to track the U.S. Air Force’s Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters over the East China Sea. While the Chinese report might be easily dismissed as propaganda—it is not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact—it’s very possible that China can track the Raptor. Stealth is not a cloak of invisibility, after all. Stealth technology simply delays detection and tracking.
First off, if a Raptor is carrying external fuel tanks—as it often does during “ferry missions”—it is not in a stealth configuration. Moreover, the aircraft is often fitted with a Luneburg lens device on its ventral side during peacetime operations that enhances its cross section on radar.
That being said, even combat-configured F-22s are not invisible to enemy radar, contrary to popular belief. Neither is any other tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft with empennage surfaces such as tailfins—the F-35, PAK-FA, J-20 or J-31. That’s just basic physics.
The laws of physics essentially dictate that a tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft must be optimized to defeat higher-frequency bands such the C, X, Ku and the top part of the S bands. There is a “step change” in a Low Observable (LO) aircraft’s signature once the frequency wavelength exceeds a certain threshold and causes a resonant effect. Typically, that resonance occurs when a feature on an aircraft—such as a tail-fin — is less than eight times the size of a particular frequency wavelength. Effectively, small stealth aircraft that do not have the size or weight allowances for two feet or more of radar absorbent material coatings on every surface are forced to make trades as to which frequency bands they are optimized for.
Therefore, a radar operating at a lower-frequency band such as parts of the S or L band—like civilian air traffic control (ATC) radars—are almost certainly able to detect and track tactical fighter-sized stealth aircraft. However, a larger stealth aircraft like the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, which lacks many of the features that cause a resonance effect, is much more effective against low-frequency radars than, for example, an F-35 or F-22. Typically, however, those lower-frequency radars do not provide what Pentagon officials call a “weapons quality” track needed to guide a missile onto a target. “Even if you can see an LO [low observable] strike aircraft with ATC radar, you can’t kill it without a fire control system,” an Air Force official had told me.
That being said, Russia, China and others are developing advanced UHF and VHF band early warning radars that use even longer wavelengths in an effort to cue their other sensors and give their fighters some idea of where an adversary stealth aircraft might be coming from. But the problem with VHF and UHF band radars is that with long wavelengths come large radar resolution cells. That means that contacts are not tracked with the required level of fidelity to guide a weapon onto a target. As one U.S. Navy officer rhetorically asked, “Does the mission require a cloaking device or is it OK if the threat sees it but can’t do anything about it?”
Traditionally, guiding weapons with low frequency radars has been limited by two factors. One factor is the width of the radar beam, while the second is the width of the radar pulse—but both limitations can be overcome with signal processing. Phased array radars—particularly active electronically scanned arrays (AESA)—solve the problem of directional or azimuth resolution because they can steer their radar beams electronically. Moreover, AESA radars can generate multiple beams and can shape those beams for width, sweep rate and other characteristics. Indeed, some industry experts suggested that a combination of high-speed data-links and low-frequency phased-array radars could generate a weapons quality track.
The U.S. Navy and Lockheed may have already solved the problem. The service openly talks about the E-2D’s role as the central node of its NIFC-CA battle network to defeat enemy air and missile threats. Rear Adm. Mike Manazir, the Navy’s director of air warfare, described the concept in detail at the U.S. Naval Institute just before Christmas in 2013.
Under the NIFC-CA ‘From the Air’ (FTA) construct, the APY-9 radar would act as a sensor to cue Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets fighters via the Link-16 datalink. Moreover, the APY-9 would also act as a sensor to guide Raytheon Standard SM-6 missiles launched from Aegis cruisers and destroyers against targets located beyond the ships’ SPY-1 radars’ horizon via the Cooperative Engagement Capability datalink under the NIFC-CA ‘From the Sea’ (FTS) construct. In fact, the Navy has demonstrated live-fire NIFC-CA missile shots using the E-2D’s radar to guide SM-6 missiles against over-the-horizon shots—which by definition means the APY-9 is generating a weapons quality track.

That effectively means that stealthy tactical aircraft must operate alongside electronic attack platforms the like Boeing EA-18G Growler. It is also why the Pentagon has been shoring up American investments in electronic and cyber warfare. As one Air Force official explained, stealth and electronic attack always have a synergistic relationship because detection is about the signal-to-noise ratio. Low observables reduce the signal, while electronic attack increases the noise. “Any big picture plan, looking forward, to deal with emerging A2/AD threats will address both sides of that equation,” he said.

So is the F35.