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

It's pre-approval for a possible sale. Whether or not Japan actually places the order however...
 
Grey Havoc said:
It's pre-approval for a possible sale. Whether or not Japan actually places the order however...
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It still had to have been triggered by a request from the Japanese. Its not as though the DSCA just goes around randomly approving sales...
 
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AN/AWW-14(V) said:
The Navy plans to field its AGM-88E AARGM on F-35, and the Air Force is considering the weapon, as well.
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www.airforcemag.com

Lockheed to Retrofit F-35s for Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses Role | Air & Space Forces Magazine

Lockheed Martin won a $26.7M contract to develop a structural mod for the F-35 to enhance its Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses capability.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com
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"The need for a structural modification.." why was this not in the original builds... more cups of gravy off the Gravy train.
 
It sounds like the aircraft are being modified to be able to carry the AGM-88 externally. I assume this is a stop gap measure until the SiAW enters service. As for the HTS, I would not have thought integration would be necessary, since the F-35's ability to geolocate emissions is probably already superior to that system. I assume there is some software associated with providing the HARM with the right bearing/coordinates that would need to be updated.
 
AARGM-ER will fit internally in the Alpha/Charlie bays. The modification is solely to allow the carriage of aft-heavy weaponry. It was a KPP for AARGM-ER to fit in the F-35A/C weapons bay, but the weight distribution is a bit different and needs to be accounted for.

F-35s have no need for the HTS, the ASQ-239 is more than capable of performing the role.
 
I didn't realize the USAF was buying AARGM-ER? I thought it was adopting the similar SiAW instead?
 
That article references the SiAW...it is clear that the USAF is supporting the project, but it isn't clear to me that they are buying exactly the same product as the USN. If they are, then they are also buying an additional variant, which is fine...I think it would be stupid for the USAF *not* to be invested in this program, given how much they can leverage it across their F-35A fleet. But everything I've read indicates they aren't buying the USN version but are instead getting the SiAW. If I'm wrong and they are buying exactly the same product, bully for them - not sure why they need a separate weapon.
 
SiAW is AARGM-ER with a new warhead and seeker. As far as weapons handling and separation testing are concerned it should be identical.
 
My point being, I didn't think the USAF was buying AARGM-ER. I thought they had their own version with a different warhead, and the USN version was not going to touch a USAF F-35A. I thought that weapon would not see service for a while. Presumably the F-35 is already getting modified for the USN to take the AARGM-ER, so what exactly is this contract for? Just so the 'A' version can carry it as well as the C?
 
Luckily enough we are not in the 30's anymore - when instructions inside the cockpit were written into the customer language. Imagine, if US pilots had to become fluent in Turkish language to fly their F-35s.

Most startling example: 1940 France requisition of Potez 63 to be sold to varied countries... including Romania, and so french pilots had to be versed into romania language. :p

I can think of some cases like this - it happened to other air forces across time. Pretty fun to see those things still happen nowadays
(also: in your face, Erdogan !)
 
good news for the F-35s finding a new home
bad news for Turkey. I don't think the trade off for the S-400 with the F-35 was worth it.
 
But I recall several years ago the story being we were selling less stealthy jets overseas than what the USA bought. So we are buying less stealthy jets? Either way a smart move
 
Well, THAT will boost numbers purchased. Might be a bit of a nuisance for the cleanup squads though.
 
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good lawd
its hard to believe there's that many F-35s already delivered in both the US and globally.
I've always felt like it's been in development for so long, as well as me being influenced by the generally slow procurement of other similar 90s aircraft..
 
helmutkohl said:
good lawd
its hard to believe there's that many F-35s already delivered in both the US and globally.
I've always felt like it's been in development for so long, as well as me being influenced by the generally slow procurement of other similar 90s aircraft..
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About 500 delivered (all variants) to all customers. USAF got half of them.
 
On Aviation Week: Pentagon rethinks ALIS - F35-logistics system.
The Pentagon is in the early stages of replacing the troubled Lockheed Martin F-35’s autonomous logistics system with a new, cloud-based network, and hopes to get it up and running by the end of 2022.

The Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN) is intended to reduce workload and increase F-35 mission readiness rates by using a smaller, deployable, commercial and cloud-native architecture. Right now, F-35 users operate the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) that collects inflight information for maintainers to predict part failures.
[...]
ODIN initial delivery is planned for September 2021.
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So much for kill switches...
(except for backdoors on Boeing fighters!)

EfoGPrEXoAEGFyb.jpg
(statement by Gen Holmes, transcribed by Stephen Trimble @thedewline)
 
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