- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Messages
- 12,846
- Likes
- 8,556
F-35A The Game Changer
The arrival of the F-35 to Israel — simultaneously with the supply of S-300 missiles from Russia to Iran — preserves Israel’s qualitative edge over Middle East skies. “In most cases, the F-35 is able to elude the radar of the S-300,” a high-placed military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “This is a big challenge for us, but we are up to it. The Stealth [aircraft] was built for exactly this purpose and will give us freedom of movement even against this new development.”
The reason is simple: “When you embark on an important strategic bombardment,” a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “you need aircraft that will carry out the shelling, other planes to protect the first ones from interception and yet other planes to provide protection from surface-to-air missiles [SAM]. But the F-35 carries out all these tasks by itself, with tremendous effectiveness. It has small radar footprint and is not threatened by most SAMs. It is a totally different world.”
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ori...es-for-receiving-f-35-jets.html#ixzz4GPFOET8ASome high-ranking Israeli air force members have already flown simulation flights on the sophisticated F-35 simulator system. “We are in a completely different league,” one of them told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “The flight included dogfights against an octet of advanced, non-F-35 aircraft, and the Stealth [aircraft] won hands down.”
More than 30 F-35 pilots said the joint strike fighter outperformed the A-10 in every maneuverability category, according to a report released Thursday afternoon.
While the Heritage report did not measure the F-35's close air support ability, the pilots interviewed for the report said the F-35 outranked the A-10 in every category of maneuverability from responsiveness at slow speeds to ability to regain speed after decelerating.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pilots-say-f-35-beats-out-a-10-in-new-report/article/2598652Even with some G-force limitations while the F-35 undergoes more development and testing, one pilot said that the joint strike fighter "exceeded pilot expectations." Once those restrictions are lifted, however, that same pilot said it will be "eye watering."
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/natio...next-week-super-hornets-to-be-at-same-airshowThe F-35 will make its debut in Canada at an airshow in British Columbia next week as aerospace companies ramp up their campaigns to sell the federal government new fighter aircraft.
The stealth aircraft is expected to arrive in Canada on Thursday, the first time the plane has come to Canada. It will be displayed at the Abbotsford International Airshow which starts Aug. 12.
* “The F-35 is a lot easier to fly and a lot more difficult to operate,” than the older F-18 Super Hornet, he said
* A Stealth Aircraft the First Week of the War
In a major conflict, military officials expect the fighter jets flying initial combat missions would need to do more than just destroy air defenses in stealth mode. So the F-35 also features sophisticated artificial-intelligence enhanced electromagnetic warfare capabilities. The jet also has three points under each wing capable of carrying conventional non-stealthy weapons, like GBU-12 Paveway II 12 laser-guided smart bombs.
“Why does a stealth aircraft need external weapons? It’s a stealth aircraft for the first week of the war,” said Thomas Briggs, the lead flight test engineer for the F-35 program. “When you destroy the enemy air defenses. After that, when you need to go out and take as many bombs as you can to prosecute a mission, we can start to strap weapons under the wings and take more ordinance over the target. That’s why that’s there.”
http://www.defensetech.org/2016/08/...-for-f-35-helmet-green-glow-problem/?mobile=1ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON — In coming days, five test pilots here will begin conducting night trials with a new software load for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter helmet that they believe will spell the end to a troubling issue.
Adjustments that decrease the contrast of the Generation III helmet-mounted display should allow pilots of the F-35C to land on aircraft carriers without having their view obscured by the display’s ambient light, said Tom Briggs, acting chief test engineer for the Navy.
“They were landing in the same spot on the runway every time, tearing up where the hook touches down,” Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, head of Naval Air Forces, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “So we quickly realized, we needed to either fix the runway or adjust, put some variants in the system. So that’s how precise this new system is.”
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2016/08/18/navy-f-35c-landed-so-precisely-it-tore-up-a-runway/The new system in question is called Delta Flight Path, a built-in F-35C technology that controls glide slope and minimizes the number of variables pilots must monitor as they complete arrested carrier landings. A parallel system known as MAGIC CARPET, short for Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies, is being developed for use with the Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers. Together, these systems may allow carriers to operate with fewer tankers, leaving more room for other aircraft, Shoemaker said.
The Japanese government informed the city of Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Monday that the United States plans to deploy 16 F-35 fighters at the US military base there from January to August next year.
It marks the first time for that stealth aircraft to be stationed overseas.
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-...35-stealth-fighters-west-japan-base-next-year
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/block-3f-software-aids-f-35-weapons-test-428711/During Block 2 software testing on the F-35, the service accomplished three weapons delivery accuracy tests in one month. The recent tests employed 30 different weapons including the Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition, Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, Boeing GPS-guided Small Diameter Bomb and Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder, according to a 22 August Lockheed press release.
Pentagon weapons tester: F-35 fighter jet has 'significant' problems
Dated just one week after the Air Force declared its version of the F-35 ready for initial combat operations, Gilmore wrote that the advanced aircraft continues to demonstrate limitations related to its software, data fusion, electronic warfare and weapons employment, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the memo.
"Achieving full combat capability with the Joint Strike Fighter is at substantial risk" of not occurring before development is supposed to end and realistic combat testing begins, he wrote in the memo to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James; Gen. David Goldfein, the service's chief of staff, and Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisitions chief, according to Bloomberg.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/26/politics/f-35-fighter-jet-problems-gilmore-memo/"Achieving full combat capability with the Joint Strike Fighter is at substantial risk" of not occurring before development is supposed to end and realistic combat testing begins, he wrote in the memo to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James; Gen. David Goldfein, the service's chief of staff, and Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisitions chief, according to Bloomberg.
The Air Force received its 100th F-35 Lightning II Friday.
The fifth-generation aircraft landed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, joining the service’s ever-growing fleet of the aircraft less than a month after top brass declared the F-35 had reached its initial operating capability Aug. 2.
The current 100 F-35s are stationed mainly at Luke and at Hill AFB in Utah, with more set to join them before the end of the year as they roll off the Lockheed Martin assembly lines.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/articles/air-force-gets-100th-f-35By the end of 2016, F-35s could outnumber F-22s.