F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

[Daredevil]

Pentagon needs $12.6 billion per year through 2037 for F-35: Report

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon needs to budget $12.6 billion each year through 2037 to finish developing and paying for all the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighters it plans to buy, according to a report released by a congressional watchdog agency on Monday.

This amounts to $2 billion per year more the Pentagon would need for this program than the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had projected in a draft report obtained and published by Reuters on Saturday.

The draft report excluded the cost of the fighter's single engine, which is built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, said Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office.

The report said the Pentagon was expected to spend a total of $316 billion each year through 2037 on procurement and development of the radar-evading warplane.

"Overall, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is now moving in the right direction after a long, expensive, and arduous learning process. It still has tremendous challenges ahead," GAO concluded in its annual report to Congress on the F-35, the Pentagon's costliest weapons program.

The F-35 is an advanced fighter meant to serve the US Air Force, Navy and Marines for decades to come. The program, which has seen costs rise 70 percent from initial projections and numerous technical complications, is facing a critical phase in which any new setbacks or reductions in orders from the US military and its allies would further boost the cost per plane.

The program is slated to cost nearly $400 billion overall, plus over $1 trillion for so-called "sustainment" costs that cover operating and maintaining the warplanes over an estimated 30-year service life. The Pentagon and F-35 program office are working to reduce those costs, which the GAO report said were 60% higher than those applicable to aircraft the F-35 is slated to replace.

The GAO report said the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office recently forecast annual operations and maintenance costs of $18.2 billion for all three models of the F-35, compared to $11.1 billion spent in 2010 to operate and sustain the legacy aircraft.

The "(Department of Defense) and the contractor now need to demonstrate that the F-35 program can effectively perform against cost and schedule targets in the new baseline and deliver on promises," the report said.

"Achieving affordability in annual funding requirements, aircraft unit prices, and life-cycle operating and support costs will in large part determine how many aircraft" the US military can ultimately acquire, it said.

Pentagon needs $12.6 billion per year through 2037 for F-35: Report - The Times of India

 

[SajeevJino]

Singapore expected to order F-35 fighter jets soon​

Singapore is in the "final stages of evaluating" the F-35 to upgrade its air force, a process U.S. sources say should turn quickly into orders for several dozen of the stealthy warplanes that have been beset by cost overruns and delivery delays.

Singapore, a major business and shipping hub with the best-equipped military in Southeast Asia, is expected to submit a "letter of request" soon for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, said two U.S. government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The city-state could start the process as soon as this week to buy the planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp, one of the officials said. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, makes the engine for the F-35.

Singapore's defence minister, Ng Eng Hen, said on Tuesday the air force "has identified the F-35 as a suitable aircraft to further modernise our fighter fleet".

"Our F-5s are nearing the end of their operational life and our F-16s are at their mid-way mark," he said in parliament. "We are now in the final stages of evaluating the F-35."

Ng gave no timeline but said the defence ministry "will have to be satisfied that this state-of-the-art multi-role fighter meets our long-term needs, is on track to be operationally capable and, most importantly, is a cost-effective platform."

Singapore's air force now has 24 F-15SGs, 20 F-16Cs and 40 F-16Ds, 28 F-5Ss and nine F-5Ts, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. It also has 19 AH-64D Apache attack helicopters among its other assorted aircraft.

The wealthy island nation of about 5.3 million people plans to spend S$12.3 billion ($9.85 billion) on defence in the 2013 fiscal year that starts in April, a rise of 4.3 percent from the previous year, the government's budget shows.

Singapore - home to a global financial centre, the world's second-busiest container port and major energy operations - is the region's biggest military spender, dwarfing its much larger neighbours Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.


BEHIND SCHEDULE AND OVER BUDGET

As Washington turns its economic and security attention to the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, it is encouraging more exports of weapons such as the F-35 to strengthen links with allies and offset cuts in its own procurement programmes.

Lockheed, under a $396 billion programme that is already seven years behind schedule and 70 percent over initial cost estimates, is building three variations of the F-35 for the U.S. military and eight international partners that are helping to fund the plane's development.

The development partners are Britain, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands. But rising costs, delivery delays and budget pressures have forced some to rethink the size of their orders and consider alternatives.

Singapore became a minor partner in the programme in 2003, along with Israel, which has ordered 19 of the jets so far.

Singapore's F-35 order is expected to include the Marine Corps' B-model, which can take off from shorter runways and lands like a helicopter, said a source familiar with that variation of the plane.

Due to the city-state's small size and limited air space, its air force trains its fighter pilots in the United States and its helicopter pilots in Australia.

Singapore was the world's fifth-largest importer of conventional weapons in 2008-2012, at 4 percent of the global total, trailing India, China, Pakistan and South Korea, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says.

Singapore expected to order F-35 fighter jets soon - sources | Reuters

 

[Mariner HK]

Re: INS Viraat refit at Cochin to hold Tejas LCA?

F35c can evade enemy ship radar... Then its a sure Kill from stand Off range ...If we have 1 F35 on board our Ships insteed of Attack Choppers Its will be a force multiplier fo sure... Its like Long range Radar evading Resuable Anti ship missile with multiple target ..

 

[Mariner HK]

Re: INS Viraat refit at Cochin to hold Tejas LCA?

F35c can evade enemy ship radar... Then its a sure Kill from stand Off range ...If we have 1 F35 on board our Ships insteed of Attack Choppers Its will be a force multiplier fo sure... Its like Long range Radar evading Resuable Anti ship missile with multiple target ..

I think lockheed martin should pay me for advertising F-35 like this lol.F-35 is like Long range Radar evading Resuable Anti ship missile with multiple target oh yes with 3D air reconnaissance

 

[asianobserve]

http://f-35.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CF-35-Lightning-II.pdf

 

[Yusuf]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Ki86x1WKPmE&feature=colike[/video]

 

[Yusuf]

F-35 for the Navy can be a possibility. We may rethink putting Cats for the 2nd carrier.

 

[Shirman]

Please pardon this if posted it earlier ;-
Israel to make wings for F-35 warplanes | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

Originally published April 24, 2013 at 3:35 AM | Page modified April 24, 2013 at 6:02 AM

Israel to make wings for F-35 warplanes
Israel Aerospace Industries says it has signed a long-term contract with U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin to produce wings for the F-35 next-generation fighter jet.

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM —

Israel Aerospace Industries says it has signed a long-term contract with U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin to produce wings for the F-35 next-generation fighter jet.

The state-owned company said Tuesday the contract is for 10 to 15 years and could generate up to $2.5 billion in sales. It says the wings will be made at an Israeli facility that already produces wings for Lockheed's F-16 warplane.

The F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, with an estimated cost of nearly $400 billion. The program aims to replace a wide range of existing aircraft for the U.S. and several partner countries.

The program has suffered repeated delays. The Pentagon briefly grounded its small fleet of F-35s in February after discovering a small crack in an engine turbine blade.

 

[ersakthivel]

Considering the pressure applied by the chines there is nothing wrong in India buying a hundred odd f-35s replacing all it's carrier borne fighters with it,

to strangulate it's sea lanes and send a signal to china ,

saying that if you hit me on the head , I will cut the oxygen supply for your economy.

 

[asianobserve]

Eglin AFB Marines Fly First F-35B Eight-Ship
By Dave Majumdar on April 26, 2013
Flightglobal

The US Marine Corps' VMFAT-501 training squadron, which is assigned to the US Air Force's 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida, launched its first F-35B eight-ship earlier today. The unit flew one mission and then conducted a hot pit refueling before going back up again.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2013/04/eglin-afb-marines-fly-first-f-.html

 

[average american]

I expect the STOVL is being made for allies that dont have full size aircraft carriers, I dont see its as being all that much use other wise.

 

[asianobserve]

I expect the STOVL is being made for allies that dont have full size aircraft carriers, I dont see its as being all that much use other wise.

It will be the American Marines not American allies that will have more F-35Bs in service. They (American Marines) will put their F-35s in these new ships:

 

[p2prada]

F-35 for the Navy can be a possibility. We may rethink putting Cats for the 2nd carrier.

F-35 comes with a STOBAR config as well as CATOBAR config.

We need cats on our carriers for the important purpose of throwing AEW&Cs in the air.

 

[ersakthivel]

By pushing up tensions all over south asia, and east asia with japan and , South korea and India ,the chinese are actiing as the market agents for J-35.

Is there any under hand deal to rescue the massive F-35 program from the doldrums between China and the US by raising the hackles of so many economically robust nations around it's territory?

 

[Rahul Singh]

Re: ADA LCA Tejas Mark-II

That's not enough.

More than enough.

The F/A-XX has NOTHING to do with JSF.

F-35 is NOT a replacement for SH either. JSF is meant to replace only Harriers, F-16 and F/A-18 Hornet.

The only aircraft Boeing claimed will be a competitor to the JSF is SH Block 3, not F/A-XX.

Gee, just do the math. There are some 500 F/A-18 C/D Hornets in operation apart from another 500+ F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets. The Navy is ordering some ~450 F-35Cs to directly replace the F/A-18 C/D Hornets while the Boeing F/A-XX will replace the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets with an equal number of orders. That is the plan. That was always the plan.

People are confused about this but here goes. This should clear it out.
Navy Looks for New Jet, on Top of Its Trillion-Dollar Model | Danger Room | Wired.com


You see where they are going. There is more in the article. So no need to club F-35 with this new aircraft. More importantly the article is old and outdated. So things have progressed beyond that.

Do you even know why SH development was taken up?

Yes SH is going to stay longer but only because it is a new aircraft and was designed as filler between old Hornets and JSF all because NATF did not fuctify and JSF was far and getting delayed.

And Boeing ever since loosing its JSF bid is trying to mud sling F-35 in order to reduce its significance so that there can be new move for some sixth generation fighter. And for those reasons it developed variants of F-15 called Silent Eagle and F/A-18 international road map, loosely referred as Block 3 as filler.

The very reason (which is commonality for managing budget cuts) why F-35 is being developed rules out any new aircraft. In all probability one which will replace the SHs are the latter hence advanced variants of JSF. For unmanned combat systems they will always have X-47s and its variants.

BTW your own posted article/link reads following, which clears a lot of air.

The military wants the F-35 to ultimately replace nearly every tactical fixed-wing aircraft the Navy, Marines and Air Force fly, but the admiral in charge of the program has backed off the 2018 estimate for when the plane is expected to enter the air fleet.


So the Navy has bought more Super Hornets as delays plague the JSF. At the Navy's annual Sea Air Space convention, Morley self-congratulated by noting that the Super Hornet is "on time, on cost, and on schedule."
.........................
......................

But then what will the something else be? What will keep the Son of Super Hornet from redundancy with the JSF?

"Don't know," Morley concedes. "That's the point of the whole analysis. What do we need it to do? What will the threat be then? What will JSF be able to cover? What additional capabilities might we need? That's all the stuff we're starting to look at now."

 

[p2prada]

Re: ADA LCA Tejas Mark-II

Do you even know why SH development was taken up?

Yes SH is going to stay longer but only because it is a new aircraft and was designed as filler between old Hornets and JSF all because NATF did not fuctify and JSF was far and getting delayed.

The Super Hornet flew much before, back in 1995. It was well before F-35 design was even ready. In the beginning JSF was indeed meant to replace all of the Navy's aircraft. But overtime they realized that JSF cannot replace either the A-10 or the SH. That's why there may be two new programs to replace these aircraft.

And Boeing ever since loosing its JSF bid is trying to mud sling F-35 in order to reduce its significance so that there can be new move for some sixth generation fighter. And for those reasons it developed variants of F-15 called Silent Eagle and F/A-18 international road map, loosely referred as Block 3 as filler.

I will say this again. The new F/A-XX has nothing to do with JSF. It won't be of any threat to JSF either, it is expected to be ready only in the 2030 region which means a large part of JSF production will be over by then. SE and Block 3 are of no real threat to USN JSF orders either. It is just Boeing's was of providing cheaper alternatives to a 5th gen aircraft for the export market.

The very reason (which is commonality for managing budget cuts) why F-35 is being developed rules out any new aircraft. In all probability one which will replace the SHs are the latter hence advanced variants of JSF. For unmanned combat systems they will always have X-47s and its variants.

They are not entirely sure or you can say we are not entirely sure.

BTW your own posted article/link reads following, which clears a lot of air.

That's why I said the article is old and may not reflect the changes that may have happened since then. X-47B is a small aircraft, as much as a F-16. The F/A-XX may be a 30+ tonne aircraft with the same or greater operational range than the SH and significantly greater than F-35C. It is not supersonic either, merely a subsonic strike fighter with a limited role.

 

[Austin]

A broad perspective on JSF Program from all sides and stake holders of the program

 

[vram]

The smile on the face of the test pilot as he completed a successful vertical landing of Britain's newest generation of fighter jets said it all. "This is simply a phenomenal flying machine."
After all the bitter controversy over the Government's decision to scrap the iconic Harrier jump jet in 2010 as part of the defence cuts, a team of Britain's top gun fighter pilots has now arrived in the U.S. to begin testing its successor, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Under the Government's plans to build two new aircraft carriers equipped with state-of-the-art fighters, the role of the F-35 is crucial to the programme's success. Like the Harrier before it, the F-35 has the ability to conduct vertical landings.
And last week at the American military's Patuxent River naval air base in Maryland, I became the first British journalist to see one of the British pilots conducting a perfect test landing of an aircraft that is set to become one of Britain's leading strike fighters for the next generation.
One of the most impressive aspects of Britain's first stealth warplane is its Rolls Royce vertical landing system, which will enable the aircraft to land on the deck of the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers that are currently under construction in Scotland.
During last week's test flight I watched as one of Britain's prototype F-35 fighters approached the landing area at around 150mph, before the aircraft slowly came to a complete halt. It then hung perfectly motionless in the sky for a full minute at around 100 feet before making a gentle landing on the tarmac.
"This aircraft is light years ahead of the Harrier in terms of what it can do," said Peter Wilson, 47, the British test pilot who conducted the landing. A veteran Harrier pilot who has flown combat missions in Iraq, Bosnia and Sierra Leone, Mr Wilson, who is now one of Britain's leading test pilots, said the Harrier was a difficult plane to fly, and required immense skill on the part of the pilot to conduct vertical landings. "We have learnt our lessons and the F-35 has all the Harriers faults designed out of it," said Mr Wilson, from Whalley, Lancs.
A key element in the versatility of the Harriers, which played a vital role in the campaign to liberate the Falkland Islands and more recently saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, was their ability to make vertical landings in the most challenging conditions, whether on the deck of an aircraft carrier in a driving gale or at a remote desert airstrip.
Now the team of British pilots and technicians working on the F-35 are making sure the new aircraft has the same capability. If all goes according to plan, and the new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are built on time, then the F-35s will available to fly off the decks on combat operations by 2020.
Apart from its flying capability, the F-35 is also fitted with the latest intelligence-gathering and stealth technology. Named Lightning II in honour of Britain's supersonic jet fighter during the early Cold War era, the F-35 can fly at nearly twice the speed of sound and its stealth capability means it can penetrate deep into enemy territory without being tracked by radar. "The stealth factor means you can detect enemy aircraft but they cannot detect you," explained Mr Wilson.
"It is a joy to fly," said Lt. Commander Ian Tidball, 43, a former Royal Navy Harrier pilot who arrived in the U.S. four weeks ago to begin test flights. "It is very responsive compared to the Harrier, and has a far wider range of capabilities."
These include a specially designed helmet that gives the pilot a 350 degree view around the aircraft simply by tilting his head, while the cockpit is filled with a multi-screen display consol that enables the pilot to collect and assess intelligence collected by the aircraft's advanced sensors will assessing which targets to attack. In all the most advanced combat aircraft ever flown by the British military contains around eight million lines of software code.
"The helmet is like wearing a laptop on your head, while the cockpit has been designed with its own in-built i-Pad before the i-Pad had even been invented," explained Group Captain Harv Smyth (correct spell), 41, another veteran RAF Harrier pilot who won the Distinguished Flying Cross during the Iraq War in 2003 and is overseeing the project. "The main problem we face is that the technology is now so advanced that we have to make sure it fits in with our air worthiness requirements."
At $110 million (around £71 million) a piece, the Lightning does not come cheap and, like the previous Eurofighter project that produced the RAF's Typhoon interceptor, the development programme has been beset by spiralling costs and serious equipment setbacks. During early trials pilots found that the helmets – which cost around £300,000 each – did not function when the plane hit turbulence, a potentially fatal failing in a combat environment, while more recently the entire test fleet was grounded earlier this year when cracks were found in the engine turbine blade.
Critics of the ambitious plan to provide a new generation of aircraft carriers with top-range fighters also say that at a time when the Government is trying to cut the deficit Britain simply cannot afford to continue with the most ambitious military project undertaken in recent British history.
But Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, who visited the American test site last week, said he remained committed to maintaining the £10 billion programme. He said Britain's participation in the American-led F-35 venture will create 25,000 jobs and has the potential to earn an estimated £35 billion in exports during the life of the programme. In addition it will help to strengthen the transatlantic alliance.
"It's great to be back in the business of vertical landing aircraft again," said Mr Hammond. "This aircraft will enable Britain to have one of the world's leading war-fighting capabilities for many years to come."

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: simply a phenomenal flying machine - Telegraph

 

[vram]

IT 'MIGHT' be a phenomenal flying machine compared to the Harrier jump jets . But is it a phenomenal fighter as well compared to the rest ? this is the most critical question that will have to be answered.interesting times ahead

 

[average american]

IT 'MIGHT' be a phenomenal flying machine compared to the Harrier jump jets . But is it a phenomenal fighter as well compared to the rest ? this is the most critical question that will have to be answered.interesting times ahead

It is when accompanied with all the new technology such as smart bombs and air stratgy that that go with it.