Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

FighterJock said:
NeilChapman said:
FighterJock said:
Trump is claiming credit for Lockheed Martin cutting 600 Million from the F-35 program. ??? :-\

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/31/trumps-claim-taking-credit-for-cutting-600-million-from-the-f-35-program/
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He's going to get blamed for anything that happens on his watch....
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Will that not make them cheaper to buy in the long term?
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I'll message you. News ONLY topic. I broke the rule with my prior response.

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F-35 Review: A Fresh Look at the Industrial Base
by Sandra I. Erwin

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=2409
 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2017/01/30/mattis-review-of-f-35-fighter-likely-to-yield-lower-price-tag-faster-production/#4cef6dbd7114
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/02/mattis-studying-f-35c-vs-super-hornet-cost-study-appears-separate/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41827077&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_cB9rjZef0RGSK-nBvf_SNIH6ASEawZpzOt-piLEBc7dP8QYsWwAf6yDmxXNwpQL0oD33l1t7sPObEaBqnM7PTjefc9Q&_hsmi=41827077
 
USMC Aviation Boss: F-35C Review Likely to Confirm Need for 5th Gen

—Brian Everstine

2/2/2017

​​The military will work through its directed review of the F-35’s capabilities, related to the F/A-18 Super Hornet, though the top Marine Corps officer in charge of aviation expects it will confirm the military’s established plans. Defense Secretary James Mattis on Jan. 26 directed the Pentagon to review the costs of the F-35 program and compare the F-35C and F/A-18E/F operational capabilities to see if the advanced Super Hornet can compete with the F-35C as a “cost effective fighter aircraft alternative.” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the deputy commandant of aviation, said he will work on the review, and expects both Boeing and Lockheed Martin to make their case for their respective aircraft. However, Davis said, his “sense” is that the review will validate the importance of having a fifth generation aircraft. On Monday, Air Force spokesman Col. Patrick Ryder said USAF will have limited involvement since the review is focused specifically on the Navy’s C model, but fifth generation aircraft do have “much different capabilities” that separates them from legacy aircraft.
 
Controversial F-35A warplane struts its stuff in Red Flag excercise

By KEITH ROGERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
While controversy trails the F-35A Lightning II fighter whenever it flies these days, only contrails were visible Thursday as the cutting-edge stealth jet made one of its first appearances in the ongoing Red Flag air combat exercise at Nellis Air Force Base.

Since the year’s first Red Flag began Jan. 23, the F-35A — the Air Force version of the $100 million joint strike fighter — has been flying for the first time in tandem with the nation’s other stealth air-superiority jet, the F-22 Raptor, and more than 80 other warplanes and support aircraft from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

So far, the Lightning II has racked up 110 missions in the exercise that ends Feb. 10 over the sprawling Nevada Test and Training Range, north of the Las Vegas Valley.

The F-35 has been in the limelight since December, when then-President-elect Donald Trump criticized the cost of the Lockheed Martin aircraft as “out of control” in a series of tweets and said he had asked rival Boeing to “price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet” that could perform the same mission. Eight F-18 Hornets also were participating in Red Flag.


Before his squadron departed for Thursday’s war exercise, Lt. Col. George “Banzai” Watkins, commander of the F-35As from the 34th Fighter Squadron, declined to compare “apples and oranges” of the radar-evading joint strike fighters with the Navy’s non-stealthy F-18 Super Hornet.

But Watkins said the F-35 “has been living up to what it’s expected to do,” in the exercise.

Red Flag planners made sure that the 13 F-35s from Hill Air Force Base in Utah have had more aggressor jets than ever to counter and avoid simulated advanced missile strikes.

Meanwhile the F-35s on the friendly “blue team” have been successful in finding ground-based air defense sites with their high-tech sensors and taking them out with training bombs.

As of Thursday the F-35’s kill ratio with aggressor jets stood at 15-1, even though the F-35’s primary mission isn’t air-to-air combat, which typically is left up to the Raptor.

Watkins said he’s “never seen a Red Flag like this where they’ve put up as many advanced threats against us. If we didn’t suffer a few losses, it wouldn’t be challenging enough.”

Members of Congress who hold the Pentagon’s purse strings have been paying close attention to the debate over the cost of the F-35. The unit price of roughly $100 million apiece is expected to decrease to the $90 million range as more of the estimated 150 joint strike fighters are produced for the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Navy and allies.

Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, a new member of the House Armed Services Committee, said she has an open mind on the president’s approach to reviewing the nation’s most expensive weapons system.

“The president and secretary of defense’s focus on tackling the cost of the F-35 is absolutely right,” she said in an email via her spokesman. “Costs are coming down, but I believe there are additional avenues available to continue to reduce what we’re paying for these aircraft.”


Watkins said the F-35A’s debut has demonstrated that the nation’s newest stealth jet provides an essential complement to the F-22s.

“They’re designed for air-to-air. We’re designed for the suppression of enemy air defense positions,” he said. “We can see the ground through the weather with our SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) mapping radar to detect a threat and take it out before it’s a factor to the other aircraft out there.”

The Marine version — the F-35B — was the first joint strike fighter to fly in a Red Flag at Nellis, in July last year.

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Follow @KeithRogers2 on Twitter.
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http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/military/controversial-f-35a-warplane-struts-its-stuff-red-flag-excercise
 
F-35A Fires First Air-to-Air Missiles

2/3/2017

​​Members of the 33rd Fighter Wing recently shot the first live air-to-air missiles from operational F-35A strike fighters during a Jan. 31 weapons system evaluation at Tyndall AFB, Fla. The AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles were loaded onto four strike fighters, but after the first three missiles were shot successfully crews determined the remaining missile did not need to be fired, according to a Feb. 1 release. The test comes a few weeks after Air Education and Training Command dropped the first live bombs from an F-35A over a range at Eglin AFB, Fla. “It is important that we have different tools available to us in the cockpit,” said Maj. Mark Schnell, 33rd Operation Support Squadron chief of standards and evaluation, in the release. “Having an array of tools for the array of targets we will face is going to help us be more lethal while minimizing collateral concerns.”
 
Hi! F-35B arrived MCAS Iwakuni base near Hiroshima Japan this January.
https://togetter.com/li/1077036

So I will meet her at friendship day in this May. :D

This video is taken in 2/2/2017 at MCAS Iwakuni base.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtEmuyeoD0c
 

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Hi! This video was taken in 30/1/2017 at Iwakuni base.(岩国基地)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSxFAfqSKPY
 
Hi!
http://www.marines.mil/News/News-Display/Article/1052138/lightning-ii-strikes-iwakuni-f-35b-arrives/

Iwakuni base already recieved 10 F-38B in January this year and will receive 6 F-35B in August this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFET6K6qLkA
 
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/red-flag-gives-f-35a-its-toughest-test-yet



Red Flag gives F-35A its toughest test yet

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — What happens when the F-35A goes to its very first Red Flag, the Air Force’s premier air-to-air training exercise?

The answer, according to U.S. military and international participants, is that the event itself becomes more challenging than ever, with a greater number of more capable aggressors outfitted with advanced weaponry.

Although the Marine Corps operated its short takeoff, vertical landing variant in the event last year, Red Flag 17-1 marks the debut of the conventional F-35A operated by the Air Force. After almost two weeks, 13 joint strike fighters from Hill Air Force Base in Utah have flown 110 sorties, said Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th Fighter Squadron commander.

“It’s a much more difficult adversary that we are fighting against here as a team than we would have fought against a year and a half ago, when I was here last,” Watkins said, referencing his previous Red Flag event, which he flew in as an F-16 pilot.

“They have stepped up the number of red air that we’re fighting — the number of aggressor aircraft that are fighting against us — the amount of jamming and stuff that they’re providing against us, the skill level of the adversary that they are trying to replicate, as well as the surface-to-air missile threat.”

Fifth-generation aggressors will not be introduced during this Red Flag, but the sheer number of fourth-generation adversaries have posed a problem for participants. Up to about 24 adversaries can be in flight at the same time and can regenerate three or four times after being shot down, Watkins said.

The F-35A’s kill ratio stands at 15 aggressors to 1 F-35 killed in action, but because Red Flag is a training exercise, the fighter shouldn’t have a perfect record, he contended.

“If we didn’t suffer a few loses, it wouldn’t be challenging enough, so we’d have to go back and redo it. So there are some threats out there that make it through because of their sheer numbers and the advanced threats that they’re shooting at us. So we have had one or two losses so far in our training,” he said. “That’s good for the pilots.”

The F-35 is so stealthy, it produced training challenges, pilot says Once the F-35 reaches full combat capability, it will be more lethal, Watkins pointed out. The fighter is currently limited to an internal missile loadout, but will be able to carry a full complement of weapons — including external stores — as early as 2018 in Block 3F.

For many pilots of other aircraft, the exercise was their first opportunity to fight alongside the joint strike fighter. Lt. Col. Charles Schuck, an F-22 pilot and commander of the 27th fighter squadron, agreed that this year’s Red Flag featured a larger number of skilled adversaries with advanced capabilities. But his squadron’s experience partnering with the Marine Corps’ F-35Bs last year helped them understand how the F-22 and F-35 could augment each other, he said.

“Getting to work with them gave us a little bit of an advance leg up this time to know what kind of questions to ask our Air Force F-35s so that our knowledge was there,” he said. “And it put us a little out in front in getting ready for the Red Flag, so we didn’t have to start from square one on the very first day.”

Lt. Col. Dave DeAngeles, an F-35A pilot who commands the reserve detachment at Hill AFB, said the mission-planning sessions were critical for understanding how to best utilize the unique capabilities of each asset to cooperatively defeat a threat.

“I'm able to sit with my [E/A-18 Growler] partners and just say: ‘How are you able to go and fight different threats, and how are you able to jam them?’ And I'm able to share: ‘This is how I would fight with my F-35,’ ” he said.

“Then, using the Link 16 network, we're able to kind of pass each other targets as well, so in certain scenarios where they say we need to take out a high-threat [surface-to-air missile] we'll work closely with the Growlers,” he said. While the E/A-18s suppress the threat by jamming and other electronic attacks, “we're able to go ahead and take it out."

The F-35 has particularly excelled in missions where the enemy can launch advanced surface-to-air missiles. Previously, in scenarios with those weapons, blue forces, or friendlies, would put all their energy into taking them out with standoff weapons such as Tomahawk cruise missiles.

"We'd have to start from that, and then we'd peel back from there,” Watkins said.

This year, Red Flag participants have encountered three or four different advanced surface-to-air-missiles in one scenario. In those situations, cyber, space and signals intelligence assets like the Rivet Joint partner with the F-35 to fuse together targeting information. Then, the F-22 uses its standoff weapons to bring down aggressors while the F-35’s stealth capabilities allow it to slip undetected within range of the missile system, where it drops munitions.

It would be too dangerous for a fourth-generation aircraft like an F-16 to get that close, Watkins said.
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Large US F35 order
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38862319
 
Further details and new flyaway prices:

https://www.f35.com/news/detail/agreement-reached-on-lowest-priced-f-35s-in-program-history

The approximate per variant unit prices, including jet, engine and fee are as follows:

F-35A: $94.6 million (7.3% reduction from Lot 9)

F-35B: $122.8 million (6.7% reduction from Lot 9)

F-35C $121.8 million (7.9% reduction from Lot 9)
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UK faces massive rise in costs to fix stealth fighter

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/04/f-35-stealth-jet-fighter-uk-faces-billions-extra-cost
 
The F-35B part of the video was from last year when the USMC's VMFA-121 participated in Red Flag 16-3.

the F-35As flying in formation belong to the F-35A squadron (the 34th FS) that's currently participating in Red Flag 17-1, but that footage specifically is from last year as well, when they were preparing for USAF IOC.

VMFA-121 are in the process of permanently relocating to Japan (most of their jets are there now, the last 6 or so will sail there on the USS Wasp) and only USAF F-35s are participating in the current Red Flag 17-1.
 
FJ,

USAF F-35A IoC was last August, no?

http://breakingdefense.com/2016/08/air-force-declares-f-35a-ioc-major-milestone-for-biggest-us-program/

N
 
http://thaimilitaryandasianregion.blogspot.com/2016/12/f-35-production-ramped-up-at-texas-plant.html

This isn't "new" but hadn't seen it in the thread. Interesting insight into production.
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/02/at-red-flag-its-tough-to-be-legacy-aircraft-in-an-lo-world/

The plane’s EW suite helps it find the threat, then they can use their stealth and jamming to “get in a lot closer to these threats than anyone else can,” Watkins told reporters earlier this week. Then they can use their cyberwarfare capabilities, about which no one will talk on the record, and EW to neutralize the IADS. Or they can use a missile or bomb or a combination of all four.
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Air Combat Command seeking production-ready PGM for F-35


Air Force Air Combat Command is looking for a quick-turnaround, 500-pound precision-guided bomb that could be fielded on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as soon as this year.

The service is conducting market research to identify companies that may be able to produce up to 1,200 precision-guided munitions and meet the requirements of the F-35 Block 3F Operational Flight Plan, according to a Feb. 10 sources-sought notice. The notice indicates the bombs will be fielded on the Air Force's F-35A variant.

"In response to an Air Combat Command Quick Reaction Capability requirement, the USAF is seeking a time-sensitive, interim solution to add a 500-pound class precision-guided munition with moving and maneuvering target capability that is mechanically, electrically and logically compatible with F-35 Block 3F aircraft," the notice states, making clear that the service is looking for "a mature, existing design already in production."

The service could issue a contract as soon as the third quarter of fiscal year 2017 for an initial 400 PGMs with deliveries beginning six months later.

"The capability cannot impact the current fielding schedule for F-35 Block 3F, namely 15 May 2018," the notice states.
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https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-cost-target-impossible-without-block-buy-lockh-433981/
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEPYnbFl_g0

The end of exercise Red Flag 17-1 figures for the F-35As: 145 air-to-air kills, 7 losses (all of which were within visual range of the enemy), 51 simulated / inert weapons dropped, destroying 49 advanced SAMs.

USMC WTI classes have been getting 24:0 kill ratios in exercises where legacy fighters would lose half their force and sometimes not take out the target.

The $532 million SDD "cost overrun" (talked about earlier in this thread) is no longer being required from the Pentagon, but is instead being taken entirely out of savings found in the F-35 program - specifically from management reserve, incentive profits that industry failed to earn and negotiated savings.

Bogdan still believes that the final price of the F-35A in FY19 will reach $80-85 million.

Bogdan also disputes reports by the DOT&E and media that flight testing will continue into next year. He does however want to start IOT&E to incrementally start in February 2018 with 18 Block 3F jets instead of the full 23 that is meant to be required. The additional 5 jets would get added to the IOT&E fleet in the couple of months after it begins.

The JPO and services have got their way; the Block 4 Follow On Modernisation program will not be a separate program, although it will still be a separate contract and monitored like a separate program. They just save 6-12 months and tens of millions in admin paperwork.

Issues surrounding the gun use on the F-35A (the yaw being generated when the gun door opens and the excessive movement of the gun pipper in the helmet mounted display) have just had software fixes implemented and are being tested. It's still too early for results though, so further work may be required.

Edit:

Navy to Test Fix for F-35C Catapult Problem Next Week (by modifying pullback tension).
https://news.usni.org/2017/02/16/f-35c-catapult-problem-next-week
 
One correction, it's in FY2019 that he expects the price to get to $80-->$85 mil (full flyaway price)
 
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/02/17/australia_laud_f-35_capabilities_110825.html
 
Final Red Flag kill ration seams to be 20:1 based on a statement in this clip

https://youtu.be/zgLjNsB_hyM
 
http://www.defenseone.com/business/2017/02/charted-heres-how-cost-each-version-f-35-changing/135451/?&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief
 
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/02/f-35c-getting-redesigned-wing-tips-that.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fadvancednano+(nextbigfuture)&utm_content=FaceBook
 
VTOLicious said:
Not necessarily in reference to the above posted link, but after reading the article I posted below I doubt Next Big Future to be a reliable news source ::)

Marine megadrone will have all the weapons, sensors of an F-35 and do everything a manned F-35 can do except displace the F-35 budget

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/10/marine-megadrone-will-have-all-weapons.html
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This is the picture associated with the article. So the text proclaims a Marine Corps FX-NGAD in the form of a drone and they show a tiltrotor.
 

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