F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

asianobserve

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You have to give credit to Chinese, it not easy to steal from America and then get away with it. I bet we would do that if we could.
The USSR were also able to steal advanced military designs from the US during the Cold War. But some of those stolen designs appeared to be intentionally flawed...
 

Illusive

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The USSR were also able to steal advanced military designs from the US during the Cold War. But some of those stolen designs appeared to be intentionally flawed...
Maybe not this time, they already have DAS, i hope they dont have F135 data, that'd be big catch for them.
 

salute

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F-35 Lightning developed from RUSSIAN aircraft Yak-141 blueprints were sold to Lockheed Martin

http://youtu.be/k8QKj4K8Ko4

from wiki -
Yakovlev Yak-141 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cooperation with Lockheed
Following the announcement by the CIS on September 1991 that it could no longer fund development of the Yak-41M, Yakovlev entered into discussions with several foreign partners who could help fund the program. Lockheed Corporation, which was in the process of developing the X-35 for the US Joint Strike Fighter program, stepped forward, and with their assistance 48-2 was displayed at the Farnborough Airshow in September 1992. Yakovlev announced that they had reached an agreement with Lockheed for funds of $385 to $400 million for three new prototypes and an additional static test aircraft to test improvements in design and avionics. Planned modifications for the proposed Yak-41M included an increase in STOL weight to 21,500 kg (47,400 lb). One of the prototypes would have been a dual-control trainer. Though no longer flyable, both 48-2 and 48-3 were exhibited at the 1993 Moscow airshow. The partnership began in late 1991, though it was not publicly revealed by Yakovlev until 6 September 1992, and was not revealed by Lockheed until June 1994.
 

SajeevJino

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[tweet]569532078171115521[/tweet]


Gimme only one link from Russian Media that giving good words for US or US based Products
 

Ashok mourya

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Americans should be worried.

The U.S. military has grounded all its new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters following an incident on June 23, when one of the high-tech warplanes caught fire on the runway of a Florida air base. The no-fly order — which affects at least 50 F-35s at training and test bases in Florida, Arizona, California and Maryland — began on the evening of July 3 and continued through July 11.

All those F-35s sitting idle could be a preview of a future in which potentially thousands of the Pentagon's warplanes can't reliably fly.

Handout photo of three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flying over Edwards Air Force BaseTo be fair, the Pentagon routinely grounds warplanes on a temporary basis following accidents and malfunctions to buy investigators time to identify problems and to give engineers time to fix them.

But there's real reason to worry. The June incident might reflect serious design flaws that could render the F-35 unsuitable for combat.

For starters, the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 — which can avoid sensor detection thanks to its special shape and coating — simply doesn't work very well. The Pentagon has had to temporarily ground F-35s no fewer than 13 times since 2007, mostly due to problems with the plane's Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine, in particular, with the engines' turbine blades. The stand-downs lasted at most a few weeks.

"The repeated problems with the same part of the engine may be indications of a serious design and structural problem with the F135 engine," said Johan Boeder, a Dutch aerospace expert and editor of the online publication JSF News.

Pratt & Whitney has already totally redesigned the F135 in an attempt to end its history of frequent failures. But there's only so much engineers can do. In a controversial move during the early stages of the F-35"²s development, the Pentagon decided to fit the plane with one engine instead of two. Sticking with one motor can help keep down the price of a new plane. But in the F-35"²s case, the decision proved self-defeating.

Handout photo of workers on the moving line and forward fuselage assembly areas for the F-35 JSF at Lockheed Martin Corp's factory located in Fort Worth, TexasThat's because the F-35 is complex — the result of the Air Force, Marines and Navy all adding features to the basic design. In airplane design, such complexity equals weight. The F-35 is extraordinarily heavy for a single-engine plane, weighing as much as 35 tons with a full load of fuel.

By comparison, the older F-15 fighter weighs 40 tons. But it has two engines. To remain reasonably fast and maneuverable, the F-35"²s sole F135 engine must generate no less than 20 tons of thrust — making it history's most powerful fighter motor.

All that thrust results in extreme levels of stress on engine components. It's no surprise, then, that the F-35 frequently suffers engine malfunctions. Even with that 20 tons of thrust, the new radar-dodging plane is still sluggish. The F-35 "is a dog "¦ overweight and underpowered," according to Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight in Washington.

In 2008, two analysts at the RAND Corporation, a California think-tank that works closely with the military, programmed a computer simulation to test out the F-35"²s fighting ability in a hypothetical air war with China. The results were startling.

"The F-35 is double-inferior," John Stillion and Harold Scott Perdue concluded in their written summary of the war game, later leaked to the press. The new plane "can't turn, can't climb, can't run," they warned.

Handout photo of workers on the moving line and forward fuselage assembly areas for the F-35 JSF at Lockheed Martin Corp's factory located in Fort Worth, TexasYet the F-35 is on track to become by far the military's most numerous warplane. It was designed to replace almost all current fighters in the Air Force and Marine Corps and complement the Navy's existing F/A-18 jets. The Pentagon plans to acquire roughly 2,400 of the radar-evading F-35s in coming decades, at a cost of more than $400 billion.

Like it or not, the stealthy F-35 is the future of U.S. air power. There are few alternatives. Lockheed Martin's engineers have done millions of man-hours of work on the design since development began in the 1990s. Starting work on a new plane now would force the Defense Department to wait a decade or more, during which other countries might pull ahead in jet design. Russia, China and Japan are all working on new stealth fighter models.

The Pentagon sounds guardedly optimistic about the current F-35 grounding. "Additional inspections of F-35 engines have been ordered," Rear Admiral John Kirby, a military spokeman said, "and return to flight will be determined based on inspection results and analysis of engineering data."

Minor fixes might get America's future warplane flying again soon — for a while. But fundamental design flaws could vex the F-35 for decades to come, forcing the Pentagon to suspend flying far too often for the majority of its fighter fleet, potentially jeopardizing U.S. national security.
 

MANT!

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Every major American defense program goes through these periods of bad publicity, I'm thing back to the B-52, B-58, the M-1 Abrams, the Nimitz class carriers, the F-111, the F-14, the C-5, the F-18, the F-16, the F-15, the Sturgeon class submarines, the F-22, the B-1, the Ohio class submarine, (shoot, even the F-4 Phantom was on the chopping block in the early 60s)..when the darn things actually get into I.O.C. and finally get some hours in them, often they are the very best in the world at what they do. Don't mistake lively debate in the USA (and outright lies made by folks who have a stake in alternate programs) as "proof" that a defense program will suck...besides it's not so much the aircraft but the pilot that makes the most difference.
 

asianobserve

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F-35 Flies Against F-16 In Basic Fighter Maneuvers

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been flown in air-to-air combat maneuvers against F-16s for the first time and, based on the results of these and earlier flight-envelope evaluations, test pilots say the aircraft can be cleared for greater agility as a growth option.

Although the F-35 is designed primarily for attack rather than air combat, U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin test pilots say the availability of potential margin for additional maneuverability is a testament to the aircraft's recently proven overall handling qualities and basic flying performance. "The door is open to provide a little more maneuverability," says Lockheed Martin F-35 site lead test pilot David "Doc" Nelson.

The operational maneuvers were flown by Nelson in AF-2, the primary Flight Sciences loads and flutter evaluation aircraft, and one of nine F-35s used by the Edwards AFB-based 412th Test Wing for developmental testing (DT). The F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards has six F-35As, two F-35Bs and a single F-35C dedicated to DT work, as well as a further set of aircraft allotted to the Joint Operational Test Team. Work is underway as part of efforts to clear the final system development and demonstration (SDD) maneuvering envelopes on the way to initial operational capability (IOC). The U.S. Marine Corps F-35B IOC is targeted for later this year, the Air Force's F-35A in 2016, and the U.S. Navy's F-35C in 2019.

"When we did the first dogfight in January, they said, 'you have no limits,'" says Nelson. "It was loads monitoring, so they could tell if we ever broke something. It was a confidence builder for the rest of the fleet because there is no real difference structurally between AF-2 and the rest of the airplanes." AF-2 was the first F-35 to be flown to 9g+ and -3g, and to roll at design-load factor. The aircraft, which was also the first Joint Strike Fighter to be intentionally flown in significant airframe buffet at all angles of attack, was calibrated for inflight loads measurements prior to ferrying to Edwards in 2010.

The operational maneuver tests were conducted to see "how it would look like against an F-16 in the airspace," says Col. Rod "Trash" Cregier, F-35 program director. "It was an early look at any control laws that may need to be tweaked to enable it to fly better in future. You can definitely tweak it—that's the option."

"Pilots really like maneuverability, and the fact that the aircraft recovers so well from a departure allows us to say [to the designers of the flight control system laws], 'you don't have to clamp down so tight,'" says Nelson. Departure resistance was proven during high angle-of-attack (AOA) testing, which began in late 2012 with the aircraft pushing the nose to its production AOA limit of 50 deg. Subsequent AOA testing has pushed the aircraft beyond both the positive and negative maximum command limits, including intentionally putting the aircraft out of control in several configurations ranging from "clean" wings to tests with open weapons-bay doors. Testing eventually pushed the F-35 to a maximum of 110 deg. AOA.


High angle-of-attack testing included intentional departures with weapons bay doors open.
An "aggressive and unique" approach has been taken to the high AOA, or "high alpha" testing, says Nelson. "Normally, test programs will inch up on max alpha, and on the F-22 it took us 3-4 months to get to max alpha. On this jet, we did it in four days. We put a spin chute on the back, which is normal for this sort of program, and then we put the airplane out of control and took our hands off the controls to see if it came back. We actually tweaked the flight control system with an onboard flight test aid to allow it to go out of control, because it wouldn't by itself. Then we drove the center of gravity back and made it the worst-case configuration on the outside with weapons bay doors and put the aircraft in a spin." The aircraft has been put into spins with yaw rates up to 60 deg./sec., equal to a complete turn every 6 sec. "That's pretty good. But we paddled off the flight-test aid and it recovered instantly," he says.

Pilots also tested the ability of the F-35 to recover from a deep-stall in which it was pushed beyond the maximum AoA command limit by activating a manual pitch limiter (MPL) override similar to the alpha limiter in the F-16. "It's not something an operational pilot would do, but the angle of attack went back and, with the center of gravity way back aft, it would not pitch over, but it would pitch up. So it got stuck at 60 or 70 deg. alpha, and it was as happy as could be. There was no pitching moment to worry about, and as soon as I let go of the MPL, it would come out," Nelson says.

Following consistent recoveries, the test team opted to remove the spin chute for the rest of the test program. "The airplane, with no spin chute, had demonstrated the ability to recover from the worst-case departure, so we felt very confident, and that has been proven over months of high alpha testing," says Nelson. "It also satisfied those at the Joint Program Office who said spin chute on the back is not production-representative and produces aerodynamic qualities that are not right." Although there are additional test points ahead where the spin chute is scheduled to be reattached for departure resistance with various weapons loads, the test team is considering running through the points without it.


Following good recoveries from earlier high-alpha testing, F-35 evaluators are considering doing away with the spin chute for upcoming evaluations with asymmetric loads. The chute is pictured here during initial high angle-of-attack work.
With the full flight envelope now opened to an altitude of 50,000 ft., speeds of Mach 1.6/700 KCAS and loads of 9g, test pilots also say improvements to the flight control system have rendered the transonic roll-off (TRO) issue tactically irrelevant. Highlighted as a "program concern" in the Defense Department's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) 2014 report, initial flight tests showed that all three F-35 variants experienced some form of wing drop in high-speed turns associated with asymmetrical movements of shock waves. However, TRO "has evolved into a non-factor," says Nelson, who likens the effect to a momentary "tug" on one shoulder harness. "You have to pull high-g to even find it." The roll-off phenomena exhibits itself as "less than 10 deg./sec. for a fraction of a second. We have been looking for a task it affects and we can't find one."
F-35 Tested Against F-16 In Basic Fighter Maneuvers | Defense content from Aviation Week
 

asianobserve

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Up Close and Personal With the F-35's 400K USD Flight Helmet With a X-Ray Vision-Like Imagery



The Helmet Mounted Display System is one of the most advanced system on the much debated F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.

It integrates FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) and DAS (Distributed Aperture System) imaging, night vision and a virtual HUD (Head Up Display) that makes the F-35 the first front line combat plane without a "conventional" HUD: the main flight and weapon aiming information are projected onto a virtual HUD on the visor.



As explained when we saw one for the first time at Farnborough International Airshow in 2012, the helmet system collects all the information coming from the plane's sensors along and fuses it with imagery fed by a set of six cameras mounted on the jet's outer surfaces.

In this way, the HMDS provides the pilot with a X-ray vision-like imagery: he can see in all directions, and through any surface, with the HUD symbology he needs to fly the plane and cue weapons, through the line of sight imagery.



No matter where the pilot turns his head, the most relevant data he needs follows his eyes.

Needless to say, as many other F-35's systems, the HMDS has suffered issues: whilst jitter and latency problems have been solved, there is still concern with turbulence and buffeting, that can cause display issues (particularly dangerous when the JSF is maneuvering to evade an enemy missile shot), decreased night-vision acuity, and information sharing when 3 or 4 aircraft fly together.

http://theaviationist.com/2015/04/03/meet-f-35-400k-usd-helmet/
 

sorcerer

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F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER
Assessment Needed to Address Affordability Challenges


[pdf]http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669619.pdf[/pdf]
 
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Russian military expert about F-35 ''Lightning II'' (English subtitles)
Published on Apr 10, 2015
 

Zebra

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Russian military expert about F-35 ''Lightning II'' (English subtitles)
Published on Apr 10, 2015, by - Mparovios3000
 

Zebra

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/01/lockheed-fighter-exercises-idUSL1N0YN1GQ20150601

Lockheed F-35s get first role in major military exercise

WASHINGTON, June 1 | By Andrea Shalal

Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet will drop weapons and take part in a major U.S. military exercise this week for the first time, another milestone for the Pentagon's largest weapons program, Air Force officials said Monday.

The exercise, called "Green Flag West," tests the U.S. military's ability to engage in air-to-surface conflicts and helps get ground troops who pinpoint potential air strikes ready for combat.

Several F-35 A-model jets, along with a host of other warplanes and other weapons, will participate in the exercises.

General Herbert Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, told Reuters that exercises were an important way to expose weapons and pilots to more real-world battle scenarios.

"It's incredibly important that you've got to get past just the theoretical ... to get it into the fog and friction of dynamic environment that is changing rapidly," Carlisle said after an event hosted by the Air Force Association.

The Air Force has used aircraft equipped with F-35 sensors in past exercises, but this will be the first time that more "operationally representative" aircraft take part, he said.

Lockheed is developing three models of the aircraft for the U.S. military, eight countries that help fund its development, and three other nations. U.S. officials say the $391 billion weapons program has been meeting or exceeding its performance and cost targets since a major restructuring in 2011.

Carlisle said the Air Force was still working through some problems with how data from various radars and other sensors are fused and displayed to the pilot, but he expected the aircraft to perform well in the exercise.

"The airplane's pretty impressive," Carlisle said. He said the jet's radar-evading capabilities and large number of sensors would help improve the performance of all other U.S. aircraft in a fight, much like the F-22 does now.

The Marine Corps is expected to declare an initial squadron of 10 F-35B jets ready for initial combat use in July, with the Air Force to follow suit in August 2016. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
 

flyingarg

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finally both speculations and expectations will be put to test. this should be interesting :)
 

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F-35 Lightning II: Busting Myths

Published on Apr 22, 2015, by Dragon029

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F-35 Lightning II: Busting Myths - Episode 2

Published on May 8, 2015, by Dragon029
 

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