F-35 Lightning II

[Chema]

Interesante resumen.

[Orel]

British, Italian F-35s to get new missile types
The cash injection will see SPEAR and Meteor integrated on the aircraft... The weapons will join Paveway IV and ASRAAM

Gran noticia para ellos, lógicamente con inversión adicional, y mayor comunalidad con sus EFAs.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_ePDlKXoAE ... =4096x4096

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Armamento aire-suelo ya operativo o en vía de estarlo.

Muy útil la tabla pero así a botepronto falta la familia Paveway con GBU-12, GBU-49, Paveway IV que ya están integradas. Dentro de las JDAM es una familia enorme y van integrando poco a poco como la noticia que puse con la GBU-54 LJDAM y la GBU-38. De JDAM tienen integradas GBU-31 y GBU-32.

Tambien falta SPEAR 3 de MBDA que están empezando a trabajar en su desarrollo e integración. Al AARGM-ER le queda mucho ya que hasta que no tenga el F-35 el nuevo anclaje ese Sidekick no van a poder usarlo.

El LRASM tambien lo están integrando.

[Pathfinder]

P&W propone el F135 EEP (enhanced engine package) como mejora para el F135 que dote a las 3 variantes de las capacidades necesarias para darle provecho al Block 4, un precio económico y con un mínimo riesgo. Esto seguro vienen a ser las mejoras que ya estaban previstas de hace años, que las agruparán bajo una misma denominación para no volver loco al personal. Porque antes había la Grown 1.0 y la 2.0

https://prattwhitney.com/products-and-s ... E-PACKAGES

[Pathfinder]

Armamento aire-suelo ya operativo o en vía de estarlo.

Muy útil la tabla pero así a botepronto falta la familia Paveway con GBU-12, GBU-49, Paveway IV que ya están integradas. Dentro de las JDAM es una familia enorme y van integrando poco a poco como la noticia que puse con la GBU-54 LJDAM y la GBU-38. De JDAM tienen integradas GBU-31 y GBU-32.

Tambien falta SPEAR 3 de MBDA que están empezando a trabajar en su desarrollo e integración. Al AARGM-ER le queda mucho ya que hasta que no tenga el F-35 el nuevo anclaje ese Sidekick no van a poder usarlo.

El LRASM tambien lo están integrando.

En cuanto tenga tiempo, irá añadiendo a la tabla las que faltan.

[champi]

Otro contrato más (20/9/2021): https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contra ... e/2782087/

...
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $10,253,908 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification (P00009) to a previously awarded contract (N0001920C0032). This modification adds scope to provide additional field level maintenance capabilities in support of F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter site activations for the Navy and Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Grand Rapids, Michigan (51%); Endicott, New York (31%); Orlando, Florida (15%); and Fort Worth, Texas (3%), and is expected to be completed in August 2023. Fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $10,253,908 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
...

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Israel Wants To Put New Equipment Inside The F-35: Exclusive Q&A With Top Officer
The goal, said Brig. Gen. Nir Barkan, Israeli Air Force Chief of the Air Staff and Vice Commander of the IAF, is to add Israeli-made gear inside the F-35.
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/09/isr ... p-officer/

TEL AVIV: Israel’s air force has asked the US to allow greater access to the core avionics of the F-35 joint strike fighters, with the goal of installing new Israeli-developed systems onto the stealth fighter, according to a top Israeli officer.

“The effort is to find the right balance between the US restrictions and the Israeli operational demands,” Brig. Gen. Nir Barkan, Israeli Air Force Chief of the Air Staff and the number two officer for the IAF, said in an exclusive interview with Breaking Defense.

Barkan, who is in charge of building the future capabilities of the IAF, said that a special F-35 test aircraft has been used extensively to test more Israeli made systems on the stealth jet.

While he would not go into details about what Israeli-made technologies the IAF would want to add to the F-35, sources here say they include a new electronic warfare system, a new communication system that will allow a two-way flow of real time data, and the addition of highly-classified weapon systems to be loaded into the weapons bay when operating stealthily.

Israel has a program of record for 50 of the conventional take-off and landing F-35A models. Israeli officials have started that its F-35 fleet has been used in different combat operations in “close and far away arenas,” and the country is known for being more willing to use the jets in combat situations than some other F-35 operators.

Asked to respond to Barkan’s comments, Brandi Schiff, a spokesperson for the F-35 joint program office, said “The F-35 JPO will continue to meet all of Israeli sovereign requirements within the United States Government’s security and release policy, and will strive to balance U.S. restrictions with Israel’s requests.”

Israel is also in discussions with the US about procuring a new tranche of advanced F-15s, with the request having been carried to the White House during Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s August visit to Washington. Asked why Israel needs more F-15s given its large F-35 buy, Barkan noted the F-15s ability to serve as more of a weapons truck compliments the F-35, and that the “special connectivity systems we use” allows the two jets to operate “together very closely.”

Y su Adir para pruebas:


https://twitter.com/IAFsite/status/1439575005503926278


Sospecho que una cosa que quieren integrar son los datalinks para manejar sus SPICE y Delilah.

[Pathfinder]

Israel Wants To Put New Equipment Inside The F-35: Exclusive Q&A With Top Officer
The goal, said Brig. Gen. Nir Barkan, Israeli Air Force Chief of the Air Staff and Vice Commander of the IAF, is to add Israeli-made gear inside the F-35.
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/09/isr ... p-officer/

TEL AVIV: Israel’s air force has asked the US to allow greater access to the core avionics of the F-35 joint strike fighters, with the goal of installing new Israeli-developed systems onto the stealth fighter, according to a top Israeli officer.

“The effort is to find the right balance between the US restrictions and the Israeli operational demands,” Brig. Gen. Nir Barkan, Israeli Air Force Chief of the Air Staff and the number two officer for the IAF, said in an exclusive interview with Breaking Defense.

Barkan, who is in charge of building the future capabilities of the IAF, said that a special F-35 test aircraft has been used extensively to test more Israeli made systems on the stealth jet.

While he would not go into details about what Israeli-made technologies the IAF would want to add to the F-35, sources here say they include a new electronic warfare system, a new communication system that will allow a two-way flow of real time data, and the addition of highly-classified weapon systems to be loaded into the weapons bay when operating stealthily.

Israel has a program of record for 50 of the conventional take-off and landing F-35A models. Israeli officials have started that its F-35 fleet has been used in different combat operations in “close and far away arenas,” and the country is known for being more willing to use the jets in combat situations than some other F-35 operators.

Asked to respond to Barkan’s comments, Brandi Schiff, a spokesperson for the F-35 joint program office, said “The F-35 JPO will continue to meet all of Israeli sovereign requirements within the United States Government’s security and release policy, and will strive to balance U.S. restrictions with Israel’s requests.”

Israel is also in discussions with the US about procuring a new tranche of advanced F-15s, with the request having been carried to the White House during Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s August visit to Washington. Asked why Israel needs more F-15s given its large F-35 buy, Barkan noted the F-15s ability to serve as more of a weapons truck compliments the F-35, and that the “special connectivity systems we use” allows the two jets to operate “together very closely.”

Y su Adir para pruebas:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_oiZFXXsAE ... ame=medium
https://twitter.com/IAFsite/status/1439575005503926278


Sospecho que una cosa que quieren integrar son los datalinks para manejar sus SPICE y Delilah.

O sea que tienen un datalink que no es el Link 16 común en occidente, imagino que será algo furtivo del tipo MADL, de lo contrario no tiene mucho sentido, sino lo normal es que se adapten al Link 16 que ya lleva el avión integrado... sea como sea la pasta que se van a dejar, no es una broma.

[14yellow14]

O sea que tienen un datalink que no es el Link 16 común en occidente, imagino que será algo furtivo del tipo MADL, de lo contrario no tiene mucho sentido, sino lo normal es que se adapten al Link 16 que ya lleva el avión integrado... sea como sea la pasta que se van a dejar, no es una broma.

Hay muchos más datalinks que el 16 o el MADL, para controlar los misiles por ejemplo es el radar que se comunica con ellos. Ellos tienen datalinks especificos para el control "man in the loop" de muchas armas de precisión, seguramente es algo que están trabajando.

Y eso, los cambios específicos de la version Adir de Israel van en esa dirección, comunicaciones, datalinks y tal para compartir información con la estructura actual de Israel:

Israel's initial batch will be almost identical to the international JSF offered to other countries, with one difference: The F-35s manufactured for Israel will include several cockpit interfaces to accommodate the air force's command, control, communications, computer and intelligence systems. The F-35 main computer will enable a plug-and-play feature for Israeli equipment...."

"...some observers say Israel is the only country whose variant is unique. According to Lockheed Martin spokesperson Eric Schnaible, the company modified the F-35 for Israel in three main areas: command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I), electronic warfare, and weapons integration.

Initially, the US refused to allow Israeli modifications to the F-35. The compromise reached involved not changing anything inside the aircraft, but allowing the Israelis to add capabilities on top of the existing infrastructure.

State-run Israel Aerospace Industries, for example, is working on a C4I overlay for the F-35, with Lockheed Martin. “It’s open architecture, which sits on the F-35’s central system, much like an application on your iPhone,” Benni Cohen, general manager of IAI’s Lahav Division, told Defense News last year.

“The F-35 Adir aircraft has also been provisioned to allow updates to EW and weapons interfaces,” Schnaible said. “The design of aircraft installations, power, and cooling have been modified to provide IAF the ability to incorporate indigenous weapons.”

The types of weapons Israel will be adding to the F-35 are either classified or not yet known, and Moti wouldn’t confirm either.

“It’s like a view to the future. We know we want to fly with Israeli weapons in this aircraft,” he said. “Because it’s so complex, we started working today on understanding how we can integrate future weapons.” The same goes for communications, the challenge being figuring out a way for the F-35 to communicate with the F-15s and F-16s it’s going to fly alongside.

“We need to have Israeli communications,” Moti said. “The aircraft are supposed to speak in the same protocols.” As the F-35 is akin to “a flying computer,” Moti explained, “if you’re not speaking the same language as this computer, you cannot do anything.”

https://www.airforcemag.com/article/the-israeli-f-35s/



https://www.iai.co.il/israels-f-35i-fig ... uction-iai

[champi]

Se entrega el EOTS nº 850: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/ne ... ws_release

...
Recently, the F-35 Sensors team completed the 850th EOTS along with the final deliveries for F-35 Lot 13 production. This achievement comes at a time where the program is realizing a 98% stick rate and has consistently seen more than a 96% stick rate within the last year. A stick rate refers to the percentage of EOTS sensors that integrate into the F-35 without needing to be returned for repair.
...

[14yellow14]

A vueltas con el nuevo motor:

Air Force Wants New Engine for F-35—If It’s Affordable

https://www.airforcemag.com/air-force-w ... ffordable/

The Air Force would prefer to put new engines from its Adaptive Engine Transition Program into the F-35A, but whether that can be done affordably may depend on Navy participation, said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall during AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 20.

“We’d very much like to continue the program that advances engine technology,” Kendall said. “We’ve had some pretty good success there.” But the Navy, a participant in the effort, is still on the fence. “It’s not clear that they will be going forward,” Kendall said, adding that he’s “already having discussions with the Secretary of the Navy about that.”

The head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick, told reporters last week that if the service wants the AETP engine, it will have to bear the full cost of its development and integration because the engine won’t fit in the F-35B and may not fit in the Navy’s F-35C carrier-landing model, either. The F-35 partners—the Marine Corps, Navy, allied countries, and foreign military sales customers—have all agreed that “you have to pay to be different” on the program, which aims for high commonality as a cost-saving measure, Fick said.

If the Air Force goes for a new engine, that would sharply increase operating costs, Fick said, because the fleet sustainment enterprise would have to support at least two engines, with different parts and associated equipment.

The House Armed Services Committee, in its National Defense Authorization Act language for fiscal year 2022, mandated that the JPO develop a plan for integrating AETP engines on the F-35 starting in 2027.

The AETP technology has great appeal, Kendall said, because of the “fuel savings and thrust increase we can get” from it. Contractors have said the engines could yield as much as a 30 percent savings in fuel.

GE Aviation is developing the XA100 engine, and Pratt & Whitney is developing the XA101, each of which has a third airstream that allows for greater thrust and better efficiency in cruise, as well as greater cooling capability, and, potentially, better infrared stealth.

“I’m hoping we’ll be able to go forward together,” Kendall said of the Navy’s participation. “If we have to, we’ll look hard at the affordability of going forward” as a single service, “just as we have on the rest of the program. But those advantages are substantial. And I’d like to be able to pursue them if it’s affordable.”

Kendall also said he’s skeptical the F-35’s sustainment costs can get down to “the kinds of numbers we’ve been talking about,” which the Air Force has pegged at $25,000 per flying hour by 2025. He said he plans to do a “deep dive” on the program in the coming months to see what kinds of operating costs are really achievable.

The F-35 JPO awarded Lockheed Martin sustainment contract last week that could set the stage for a performance-based logistics arrangement in the mid-2020s if the company shows significant progress in containing F-35 sustainment costs.

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Senate panel proposes $1.7B boost to F-35A Block 4 mod plan

https://insidedefense.com/daily-news/se ... 4-mod-plan

Senate authorizers want to add $1.7 billion to the Air Force’s fiscal year 2022 budget request for F-35A retrofit modifications, calling on the service to move “expeditiously” to upgrade older jets to the Block 4 configuration. The proposed plus-up, included in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the FY-22 defense authorization bill released Wednesday, would fund Technology Refresh 3 upgrades for 338 jets in low-rate initial production lots 1-13.

[champi]

Al hilo de lo que comenta 14yellow14, del "National Authorization Defense Act" del FY2022: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/i ... ummary.pdf

...
· Directs DOD transition of F-35 program sustainment from the Joint Program Office to the Air Force and Navy.
· Authorizes $4.285 billion for the F-35A program, including an increase of:
- $85 million for the purchase of an additional F-35A; and
- $175 million for the purchase of F135 power modules and $185 million for weapons system sustainment of F-35As.
...
· Authorizes an increase of $20 million for F-35 continuous capability development and delivery.
...
· Authorizes $535 million to purchase an additional five F-35C aircraft.
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· Authorizes $246.6 million to purchase additional F-35B spares and ground support equipment.
...
· Prohibits further equipping of the Air National Guard with F-35s until an increased number are fielded in the regular Air Force.
...

Otro contrato más. En este caso, relacionado con el mantenimiento del cañón (23/9/2021): https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/ ... e/2786993/

...
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $14,722,642 cost-plus-incentive-fee modification (P00049) to a previously awarded contract (N0001918C1048). This modification is adding scope to provide depot level repair capabilities for the F-35 gun system in support of F-35 Lightning II low-rate initial production Lot 11 aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) participants. Work will be performed in Williston, Vermont (62.17%); Fort Worth, Texas (22.29%); and Saco, Maine (15.54%), and is expected to be completed in November 2024. Fiscal 2021 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $8,058,118; fiscal 2019 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $5,250,024; and non-U.S. DOD participant funds in the amount of $1,414,500 will be obligated at time of award, $5,250,024 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
...

[Orel]

Los primeros F-35A yanquis permanentemente basados en Europa llegarán a la base de Lakenheath este diciembre:
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 97.article

[Pathfinder]

La actual configuración del F-35, sería una subvariante de la 240-4. Con la 240-3 el avión alcanzó M1.67 (Aviation Week, marzo 2009), de ahí que el M1.6 del actual sea un requerimiento mínimo no la máxima velocidad que el avión podría alcanzar a una determinada altura de combate y con las bahías internas llenas.