F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

[p2prada]

Interesting concept, CUDA

The F-35 can carry 12 of these.

Would be nice to get some range and maneuverability figures.

 

[Damian]

Oh Cuda looks even better, they even want to design it's Air to Groung and Anti Ship versions.

And this is really smart to use kinetic energy, you have a very compact, lightweight missile. I can for example imagine Cuda as anti tank weapon with top attack capabilities with kinetic energy penetrator.

By the way, possible designation of Cuda missile might be AIM-160.

 

[average american]

What I think is interesting is they are turning B1s and B2s in to bomb trucks that can carry 180 and 212 GBU 39 smart bombs respectively, now they can carry an equal number of air to air missile or air to ground missiles. They may work as defensive weapons for AWACS and Tankers

 

[average american]

B1-R - YouTube

B1-R bomber - missile platform and bomber - video



the B1-R is a proposed upgrade for the current B1-B fleet.

It would be equipped with advanced radars & four F-22 engines, thus being able to achieve a estimated top speed of mach 2.2 at a 20 percent reduction of the B1-B's combat range.

Additional enhancements include network centric capabilities,AESA ( active-electronicically-scanned radar), improved defensive system's as well asa opening up existing hardpoints for conventional munitions.

The B1-R is not the only proposed replacement others include the FB-22 & the YF(B)-23

 

[average american]

If the Cuda does have a lethality enhanced warhead ala PAC 3, the effect will be akin to setting off a Mach 3-5 shotgun blast at point-blank range at the target. Works for me.
Design News - Features - MISSILES: Last Line of Defense

PAC-3 will employ a lethality enhancer to improve its performance envelope against cruise missiles and high-performance aircraft. The lethality enhancer consists of a ring of tungsten fragments deployed pyrotechnically just before target intercept. It's located just aft of the PAC 3's attitude control motor module.

 

[lookieloo]

B1-R - YouTube

B1-R bomber - missile platform and bomber - video



the B1-R is a proposed upgrade for the current B1-B fleet.

It would be equipped with advanced radars & four F-22 engines, thus being able to achieve a estimated top speed of mach 2.2 at a 20 percent reduction of the B1-B's combat range.

Additional enhancements include network centric capabilities,AESA ( active-electronicically-scanned radar), improved defensive system's as well asa opening up existing hardpoints for conventional munitions.

The B1-R is not the only proposed replacement others include the FB-22 & the YF(B)-23

The B-1R concept has been dead for years (not sure if it was ever taken seriously) as is the FB-22/FB-23 idea; and the CUDA is still just a notional in-house project for Lockheed (no sign of an actual program yet). No sense in counting our chickens before they hatch. For now, there are more pressing concerns like the LRSB and a two-year gap in AMRAAM-D production that has to be made-up.

 

[shuvo@y2k10]

The best aerodynamic performance of any 4th gen be su-30mki and su-35.The best aerodynamic performance of any fifth gen would surely be pak-fa which would sport a 3d tvc giving it unlimited angle of attack.

 

[average american]

The B-1R concept has been dead for years (not sure if it was ever taken seriously) as is the FB-22/FB-23 idea; and the CUDA is still just a notional in-house project for Lockheed (no sign of an actual program yet). No sense in counting our chickens before they hatch. For now, there are more pressing concerns like the LRSB and a two-year gap in AMRAAM-D production that has to be made-up.

Evidently the B1R was not needed and the new missiles can be carried on the B1 and B2 smart bomb rack by the hundreds.

 

[lookieloo]

Evidently the B1R was not needed and the new missiles can be carried on the B1 and B2 smart bomb rack by the hundreds.

que?

 

[Armand2REP]

The best aerodynamic performance of any 4th gen be su-30mki and su-35.

I doubt that, M2000 and Rafale made short work of it at Garuda IV. Rafale has proven to have no 4th gen equal.

 

[lookieloo]

JSF Findings Expected This Week | Defense News | defensenews.com

A preliminary report on the engine malfunction that grounded the entire F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet is expected by Friday, according to a program spokeswoman.

"We expect engineering findings and a follow-on report with better understanding of impact no later than Friday," Kyra Hawn, a spokeswoman with the F-35 joint program office, told Defense News in an email.

"We still do not know enough to determine the root cause of the crack or project the actual impact," Hawn wrote. "We should have initial structural engineering data collected, and associated analysis/recommendation by week's end (if not earlier)."

The Pentagon grounded all JSF models currently in testing after a crack was found in an engine equipped on one of the F-35A conventional takeoff-and-landing models ordered by the Air Force. The grounding was extended to the Marine's jump-jet F-35B and the Navy's carrier F-35C because the engine, manufactured by Pratt & Whitney (P&W), is in all three variants.

Matthew Bates, a P&W spokesman, told Defense News that the damaged engine arrived at Pratt's facilities on Sunday and that engineering teams are "hard at work" inspecting the crack.

"I could foresee the airplane back in the air in the next week or two," Gen. Chris Bogdan, the JSF program head, told Agence France-Presse in Melbourne. "If it's more than that, then we have to look at what the risk is to the fleet."

The AFP quoted Bogdan say saying the fleet should be flying again "within a reasonable period of time."

 

[average american]

More controversially, some sources (including Francis Tusa's industry newsletter, Defence Analysis) maintain that the aircraft compares unfavourably with Eurofighter's Typhoon in the air to air role, though this is vigorously denied in other quarters. Though it uses a modern and extremely efficient canard Delta configuration, Rafale has been accused of being hampered by an old fashioned and 'cumbersome' Man Machine Interface, and it has been further suggested that this was the main reason behind the type's rejection by South Korea and Singapore.

According to Defence Analysis and Flight Daily News, the Singapore evaluation also reportedly revealed problems with Rafale's reliability and availability, and that the aircraft failed to demonstrate claimed radar performance or its claimed ability to supercruise. Singapore was also reportedly unimpressed by Rafale's much vaunted "Omni role" capability. "Show us, properly" was said to have been the reaction, according to Defence Analysis. The lack of official comment by Singapore leads many to dismiss such criticism as unreliable hearsay, however.

If criticism of under-powered engines and the passive electron-scan radar (which Defence Analysis say is viewed by many as a technological dead end) is to be overcome, Dassault badly need to fund the advanced F3 variant, but this is unlikely to happen quickly without an export customer (according to Aviation Week and Space Technology).

 

[Patriot]

F-35: Blade Bummer

he news that the Pentagon's fleet of 51 F-35 fighters has been grounded because of a half-inch crack in one of its engine's turbine blade is one of those problems that can truly be called a teething issue: it's something that happens on most every high-tech jet engine that is pushing the engineering envelope.

Pentagon officials over the weekend suggested waiting for Pratt & Whitney, the maker of the F-135 powerplant that powers the F-35, could take a week to 10 days.

This isn't a new problem with the F-35 powerplant; a similar blade cracked during testing in 2007. "Most likely root cause is resonant response to aerodynamic excitation by the upstream 54 vanes in STOVL operation," an investigation into that earlier failure concluded. "No indication that defects in material properties or single crystal orientation significantly contributed to the failures."

News of the grounding comes at a sensitive time, as F-35 advocates try to convince the Australian government this week to stick to its original plan to buy 100 of the jets. The grounding is only the latest in a series of problems for the program, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

.
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.The U.S. military plans on spending $396 billion for 2,457 of the planes, making it the most costly weapons system in the history of the world (the planes, built by Lockheed Martin, are slated to cost $332 billion; Pratt's price for the engines is projected to be $64 billion). But the program's problems, and looming defense-spending cuts, are likely to cut the program, perhaps by as much as half, defense officials say privately.

 

[asianobserve]

Pratt & Whitney to test upgraded F135 this year
By: Dave Majumdar Orlando
Flightglobal 2/27/2013

Pratt & Whitney expects to test an upgraded version of its F135 afterburning turbofan later this year, a top company official says. The engine is installed on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"We'll run a demonstrator this year that will demonstrate hot section technologies in the combustor and the turbine that could provide another 5% thrust," says Bennett Croswell, president of P&W's military engines division.

The improved hot section technologies could also be used to improve fuel efficiency, which is becoming increasingly important as the Pentagon scrambles to save money in an era of declining budgets.

"We're also working with the [US] Navy on something called the fuel burn reduction programme that will leverage those hot section technologies that could get you 5% reduction in fuel burn," Croswell says.

P&W has been working on an incremental growth path for the F135 engine, which currently produces 28,000lbs dry thrust and 43,000lbs of afterburning thrust, for a number of years. The company will continue working on incremental improvements to the F135 as it has done before with its previous designs, Croswell says.

In fact, Croswell says, some of the improvements being made to the F135 could be retrofitted back into the Lockheed F-22 Raptor's F119 from which the F135 was originally derived.


Pratt & Whitney to test upgraded F135 this year

 

[Armand2REP]

Pratt & Whitney to test upgraded F135 this year

Don't you think they should fix the current engine problems before they try making it hotter?

 

[asianobserve]

They should. But I think issue on the blades has no bearing on the over-all integrity of the engine's design.

 

[lookieloo]

Pratt Rules Out Worst-Case Cause For F-35 Blade Crack

Pratt & Whitney is 99% sure the fan blade problem that grounded the Pentagon's 51 new F-35 fighter jets was not caused by high-cycle fatigue, which could force a costly design change, according to two sources familiar with an investigation by the enginemaker.

Company engineers have concluded that a 0.6 inch-long (1.5 cm) crack found on a turbine blade in the engine of an F-35 jet at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was almost certainly caused by lesser issues, such as high heat exposure or a manufacturing problem, that would be easier to solve, the sources said.

"They're 99% sure that it's not the worst-case scenario of high-cycle fatigue," said one of the sources.

Flights of the single-engine, single-seat F-35 fighter could resume as early as this week if the Pentagon accepts the findings of Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp, after additional tests to be done Wednesday, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly....

 

[Armand2REP]

They should. But I think issue on the blades has no bearing on the over-all integrity of the engine's design.

If the blades can't take the heat (main cause of cracking) then making it hotter isn't going to hold up.

 

[asianobserve]

If the blades can't take the heat (main cause of cracking) then making it hotter isn't going to hold up.

It's too early to say what caused the cracking. It may have been manufacturing defects or foreign object, or could be the metallurgy of the blade.

 

[SajeevJino]

Grounded US F-35 jets to resume flights​

The Pentagon has said its entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets could resume flying after being grounded last week following the discovery of a cracked engine.

Late week, the Pentagon announced that it had suspended all 51 of its F-35 warplanes after an inspection revealed a crack on a turbine blade in a test aircraft's engine at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.

"F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume," Pentagon spokeswoman Kyra Hawn said on Thursday, explaining that no additional cracks were found during inspections of the rest of the fleet or in any spare engines.

The suspension marked the second engine-related grounding in two months of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme, the Pentagon's largest weapons programme with an estimated cost of almost $400bn.

The Marines Corps version of the plane was grounded for nearly a month starting in mid-January because of a faulty hose in the engine.

The warplanes have stealth capabilities and a top speed of 1,930km/h.

A US watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, said the programme's performance is disappointing amid concerns from some Congress members about the high price.

"The F-35 is a huge problem because of its growing, already unaffordable, cost and its gigantically disappointing performance," the group's Winslow Wheeler said.

"That performance would be unacceptable even if the aircraft met its far-too-modest requirements, but it is not."

Grounded US F-35 jets to resume flights - Americas - Al Jazeera English