Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning and F-22 'Raptor' : News & Discussion
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Touch wood. Our Tejas also has a similar record
, though a lot lesser number of Tejas have flown compared to F-35.
gotta give credit where credit is due , fortunately no loss of pilots , thats all that matters for me.
Bipartisan bill to limit the sale of F-35s to Turkey.
Senators Lankford, Shaheen, and Tillis Introduce Bill To Stop Transfer of Fighter Aircraft To Turkey | U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma
Senators Lankford, Shaheen, and Tillis Introduce Bill To Stop Transfer of Fighter Aircraft To Turkey | U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma
wouldn't it hurt the already ailing F-35 Programme ???Bipartisan bill to limit the sale of F-35s to Turkey.
Senators Lankford, Shaheen, and Tillis Introduce Bill To Stop Transfer of Fighter Aircraft To Turkey | U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma
recently 2 countries and pentagon itself had raised dispute with LM over the costs of repairs?
How is the F-35 program ailing? Disputes happen all the time.
The actual program is bust proof at this point.
Well you gotta admit it's not all smooth sailing I mean all the delays and cost overruns are just the tip of the iceberg.
So it's not wrong to say there are some real problems with this project , and on top of that pentagon raising a dispute is a big deal not to mention Canada refused to buy these jets outright same is happening in Australia and Italy and by cutting a deal mid way with turkey you'll kill any chance of future sale to many countries as it shows the unreliability of the US as a weapons supplier/Ally.
I can assure you this just like the F-111 the numbers of the F-35 will be severely cut short , you can screenshot this and save it , I bet you 200$ that after say 5 years when we will have more clear picture , people are gonna realize the true cost and issues with this jet combined with after effects of trump presidency isolationism I see a bleak future for this project.
Source on Australia and Italy please. Italy just inducted their F-35 into the military and already have 9 planes with IOC coming later this year. Australia is declaring IOC this year, on top of UK going through carrier trials as well as declaring IOC just in this year.
And Canada has not refused to buy these jets, the idiot prime minister is running a competition that allows lockheed to compete, which will obviously win since they added an economic factors clause which is funny since lockheed is already in canada providing thousands of jobs.
The Pentagon squabbling over 100million is nothing. If this dispute was serious in anyway, Lockheed would not have just gotten a billion dollar contract literally an hour ago.
With the interim purchase of superhornet do you really think f-35 has an chance in Canada??
Considering what they actually need for their huge sparsely populated country is a heavy twin engined jet.
A single engined jet is never going to be a decent performer if it involves such huge airspace and rough terrain.
And I really doubt USN is going to buy these jets in the numbers it has been proposed , they are still buying F-18 and is bleeding money just to keep them airworthy since attrition and continuous relentless ops have taken quite a toll on the USN airwing.
Your sources are significantly outdated dude. The super hornet interm purchase was canceled like a year ago.
They are still buying the f-18 though , instead of buying them new from Boeing now they are buying the used F-18 from the Australia , point is they are buying the F-18 not F-35.
Also read this
Boeing Lost Another Military Contract with Canada
With this much rivalry and trade wars going on , do you really see them buying any U.S equipment let alone F-35?
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Italy is a very important F-35 partner. The F-35 will be a success there. Russia is a threat for them.
Australia needs the F-35s because they see China as a major threat. They don't have alternatives planned.
Canada's a bit different compared to the two since there's the big daddy USA in their backyard. There's some temporary Boeing-Bombardier politics at play too.
Canada is pretty smart delaying their selection till after the US elections. Much easier pill to swallow once Trump is gone.
There is no guarantee Trump won't win. Elections are always unpredictable. Even Trump was surprised when he won.
Boeing has a major disadvantage because of their dispute with Bombardier. If the Canadians want American and want to teach Boeing a lesson at the same time, then the F-35 is a no-brainer. But there is a chance the LM may participate with the F-16 instead, they fear tenders, particularly ones with the French and Russians in it.
F-35 Program Completes Last Developmental Test Flight
F-35 Program Completes Last Developmental Test Flight
Lockheed Martin declared that the F-35 program had completed the “most comprehensive flight-test program in aviation history.” The last sortie in the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase took place from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, on April 11, when F-35C CF-02 collected data on loads that are generated by external carriage of some weapons. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the SDD phase has cost more than $60 billion, a 50 percent increase on that predicted when SDD started in December 2001 (in FY2017-adjusted dollars).
“Since the first flight of AA-1 in 2006, the developmental flight-test program has operated for more than 11 years mishap-free, conducting more than 9,200 sorties, accumulating over 17,000 flight hours, and executing more than 65,000 test points to verify the design, durability, software, sensors, weapons capability, and performance for all three F-35 variants,” said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 program executive officer.
“The F-35 flight-test program represents the most comprehensive, rigorous, and the safest developmental flight-test program in aviation history,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program.
According to Lockheed Martin, more than 1,000 SDD flight test engineers, maintainers, pilots, and support personnel took the three variants of the F-35 to their full flight envelope to test performance and flying qualities. The test team conducted six at-sea detachments and performed more than 1,500 vertical landing tests on the F-35B variant. The developmental flight test team completed 183 weapon separation tests; 46 weapons delivery accuracy tests; and 33 mission effectiveness tests, which included numerous multi-ship missions of up to eight F-35s against advanced threats.
Lockheed Martin noted that the SDD will not be formally completed until the Pentagon has performed an Operation Test and Evaluation (OT&E) and cleared the way for full-rate production (FRP). However, nearly 300 F-35s have already been delivered to six countries and 10 airbases. Lockheed Martin is currently working on the 10th low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract.
This “concurrency” has been a major criticism of the program, as now also is the recent revelation that further development under a program named continuous capability development and delivery (C2D2) will cost more than $11 billion during the next seven years. Lockheed Martin describes C2D2 as “phased capability improvements and modernization [to] the most survivable and connected aircraft ever built.” But C2D2 also includes some deferrals from the SDD program.
A key element of the C2D2 program is a further software upgrade designated Block 4. Aircraft are now being delivered with Block 3F software that was supposed to be definitive. However, in his latest report on the F-35 program, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation said that there are “many open deficiencies” in Block 3F.
F-35 Program Completes Last Developmental Test Flight
Lockheed Martin declared that the F-35 program had completed the “most comprehensive flight-test program in aviation history.” The last sortie in the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase took place from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, on April 11, when F-35C CF-02 collected data on loads that are generated by external carriage of some weapons. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the SDD phase has cost more than $60 billion, a 50 percent increase on that predicted when SDD started in December 2001 (in FY2017-adjusted dollars).
“Since the first flight of AA-1 in 2006, the developmental flight-test program has operated for more than 11 years mishap-free, conducting more than 9,200 sorties, accumulating over 17,000 flight hours, and executing more than 65,000 test points to verify the design, durability, software, sensors, weapons capability, and performance for all three F-35 variants,” said Vice Adm. Mat Winter, F-35 program executive officer.
“The F-35 flight-test program represents the most comprehensive, rigorous, and the safest developmental flight-test program in aviation history,” said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program.
According to Lockheed Martin, more than 1,000 SDD flight test engineers, maintainers, pilots, and support personnel took the three variants of the F-35 to their full flight envelope to test performance and flying qualities. The test team conducted six at-sea detachments and performed more than 1,500 vertical landing tests on the F-35B variant. The developmental flight test team completed 183 weapon separation tests; 46 weapons delivery accuracy tests; and 33 mission effectiveness tests, which included numerous multi-ship missions of up to eight F-35s against advanced threats.
Lockheed Martin noted that the SDD will not be formally completed until the Pentagon has performed an Operation Test and Evaluation (OT&E) and cleared the way for full-rate production (FRP). However, nearly 300 F-35s have already been delivered to six countries and 10 airbases. Lockheed Martin is currently working on the 10th low-rate initial production (LRIP) contract.
This “concurrency” has been a major criticism of the program, as now also is the recent revelation that further development under a program named continuous capability development and delivery (C2D2) will cost more than $11 billion during the next seven years. Lockheed Martin describes C2D2 as “phased capability improvements and modernization [to] the most survivable and connected aircraft ever built.” But C2D2 also includes some deferrals from the SDD program.
A key element of the C2D2 program is a further software upgrade designated Block 4. Aircraft are now being delivered with Block 3F software that was supposed to be definitive. However, in his latest report on the F-35 program, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation said that there are “many open deficiencies” in Block 3F.