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

GTX said:
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The PDFs are nice too because you can click on the links
 

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Finland's Patria Group has completed its F-135 facility. It will assemble F-135 engines and perform MRO&U for Finland and other European nations.
www.patriagroup.com

Assembly and maintenance facility for F-35 fighter jet engines completed in Linnavuori, Nokia | Patria

www.patriagroup.com www.patriagroup.com

This was originally announced in 2024: "The agreement covers the assembly of F135 engines and components between 2025-2030, followed by a transition to F135 engine Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade (MRO&U) operations, beginning in 2030."
www.patriagroup.com

Patria and RTX’s Pratt & Whitney sign agreement for production of F135 engines within Finland´s F-35 industrial participation programme | Patria

www.patriagroup.com www.patriagroup.com

Patria also recently opened their facility for the "large-scale assembly" of F-35 forward fuselage segments.
www.patriagroup.com

Patria celebrates opening of F-35 production facility in Jämsä, Finland | Patria

www.patriagroup.com www.patriagroup.com

Patria will be manufacturing 400 forward fuselages and landing gear door sets for F-35 fighters from 2026 to 2040, both for their own fighters and for those of other nations.
www.patriagroup.com

Patria to join the global supply chain of F-35s | Patria

Patria begins production and assembly of structures and engines for F-35 fighter aircrafts.
www.patriagroup.com www.patriagroup.com

This is because Finland has an agreement that their industrial participation in the program will be 30% of the procurement contract price of their F-35s
www.defmin.fi

First HX Fighter Programme agreements signed

Ministry of Defence of Finland
www.defmin.fi www.defmin.fi
 
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joshjosh said:
Finland's Patria Group has completed its F-135 facility. It will assemble F-135 engines and perform MRO&U for Finland and other European nations.
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Errr..Finland's F135 depot is ONLY for Finland's fleet. They are not part of the Global Support Solution for the F135.
 
GTX said:
Errr..Finland's F135 depot is ONLY for Finland's fleet. They are not part of the Global Support Solution for the F135.
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You might be right. I can't find anything pointing to MRO&U for other nations now that I check.
 
joshjosh said:
You might be right. I can't find anything pointing to MRO&U for other nations now that I check.
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Trust me. The Patria depot is only for Finland. There are already multiple depots for the F135 that are part of the global sustainment solution: 1 (soon 2) in CONUS, 2 in Europe (other than Patria), 1 in Australia and 1 in Japan. They all work on engines for all operators. There is actually a global oversupply of depot capability and no need for anyone else in that network. The only option for new depots (such as the Patria one or one being considered by the Canadians) is that they are only there for individual country sovereign desires. They are only allowed to support their own country needs though.
 
Is the F-35 by now capable to carry any cruise missile internally or is this capability still absent, around a decade after introduction, on the Joint Strike Fighter?
 
there's also AGM-158, but not sure how far along its integration with the F-35 is. Supposedly its supposed to be done by block 4, which is facing delays.
 
helmutkohl said:
that was already answered by the earlier post about Norway's JSM.
they're smaller than the AGM-158 and can fit internally

www.twz.com

USAF F-35s Are Officially Getting Joint Strike Cruise Missiles That Fit In Their Bays

Joint Strike Missiles will give Air Force F-35A new options for conducting stand-off strikes, especially in the maritime domain.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
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Your phrasing in #7190 implies that AGM-158 is also available as an internal option but not yet integrated, hence my clarification.
 
It is not the UK's problem for the lack of F-35's being delivered it is rather Lockheed Martin's fault for not getting the block 4 software ready in time.
 
GTX said:
Belgium introduced a 4th model of the F-35 …. The F-35 CH(ocolate) :cool:

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The ultimate in VLO materials. This evolved out of two programs, Project Melting Point and Have Cacao. Have Cacao has bean around for a number of years and was previously linked to Project Hyperglycemia.
 
That is true missile_man, a new requirement of late was the addition of B-61 nuclear bombs which required the further purchase of twelve F-35As which won't be delivered until 2030 at the latest.
 
EmoBirb said:
Is the F-35 by now capable to carry any cruise missile internally or is this capability still absent, around a decade after introduction, on the Joint Strike Fighter?
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There are NO powered air to ground munitions integrated and operational on any F-35 variant....10 years and 3 months past its IOC with a user (USMC). And there won't be until late 2026 at the earliest (but would anyone sane bet on that?).

JSM may have been delivered to Norway as operational weapons....in their storage containers....but it is not integrated, cleared and operational on F-35A yet...if anyone thinks that it is....please forward video of a live weapon being dropped from an F-35 and transitioning to powered flight....because I can guarantee that if Kongsberg had actually managed that they would publish it immediately...

I believe this is the list of currently cleared stores for F-35....if anyone thinks anything is missing let me know...

Gun
GAU-22 - Internal Gun - A variant only
GAU-22 - Optional External Gun Pod - B and C variants

Air to Air missiles
AIM-9X - All variants
AIM-120C/D - All variants
AIM-132 Asraam - B variant only

Nuclear Freefall Munition
B-61/12 - A variant only

Freefall Munitions
Paveway IV - 500lb - B variant only
GBU-12 Paveway II - 500lb - All variants
GBU-31 JDAM - 2,000lb - All variants (I need to do some digging on this...not sure if I've seen them on F-35B external pylons, doubtful for B though...)
GBU-32 JDAM - 1,000lb - All variants
GBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II - 500lb - A and B variants (thanks @ST21)

Gliding Munitions
SDBI - A variant only (not used by USN or USMC on the B or C)
JSOW - C variant only (this might have been cleared on A variant as well for international users, but I've not established it 100%, doubtful for A though..).

Other Stores
Baggage Pod (internal only) - A variant only (made by Kihomac, no idea why this hasn't been cleared for B and C though)

EDIT - Just to note - Paveway IV, GBU-12 and GBU-49 are all 500lb Paveway series laser guided bombs, and are in the main, functionally the same...PWIV and GBU-49 have GPS/INS guidance on top of the laser guidance, GBU-12 is laser only. Paveway IV is the more advanced of the 3, and is made in the UK with insensitive warhead from Rheinmetall Italia. It is also more expensive than the other 2. You could make an argument that in terms of their general capability they are a single munition type, 500lb LGB..... The UK does use Paveway II and Enhanced Paveway II (and the 2,000lb EPW III, but is retiring both) but it is only in the GBU-16/EGBU-16 1,000lb version that is not cleared for F-35.

So....that's all folks....clearance on one variant does not mean that it is available on all (although clearly easier to integrate as a result)...and just because a munition has been test fired does not mean its actually operational....

There are obviously munitions on the way. SDBII will probably be next, but won't be fully operational until TR-3 is combat capable, which is currently planned to be September 2026 (that may slip though). 500 lb Laser JDAM and the Norwegian/US Joint Strike Missile (JSM), which will be the first powered air to surface munition integrated and operational, are the likely next candidates for going operational beyond that....however...JSM and Laser JDAM will be A variant only, SDBII should be across all 3 variants.

As above you could argue, accurately in my view, that Laser JDAM (GBU-54/B) is just another 500lb class LGB and joins Paveway IV, GBU-12 and GBU-49 in that category...if you wanted to be really harsh (or accurate depending on your view) you could say that there are in fact only 4 'types' of air to ground munitions integrated; 500lb LGB (inc. enhanced), small gliding munition (SDB1), large gliding munition (JSOW) and satellite guided freefall bomb (JDAM, both sizes). And that in reality only 3 'types' of air to ground munitions are available, at most, to each individual F-35 variant.....19 years after first flight....and over 10 years since IOC.

Worth also noting (and often ignored) is that if an integrated weapon requires the TR-3 processor upgrades, or Block IV enhancements, then the vast majority of users will not be able to use the weapon until they either receive new F-35 with TR-3 built in, upgrade their existing fleets from TR-2 to TR-3 processors or undertake Block IV enhancements (which have not been contracted or released for retrofitting yet)...in Norway's case with JSM it might mean that only a handful of their total fleet will be able to actually carry and fire JSM even when TR-3 is cleared for combat (cSeptember 2026 in current planning). Norway received its final 2 of 52 F-35A in April 2025 so will have at least 2 aircraft that can use JSM....until the rest are upgraded which will take years....and upgrades of the existing fleet are not even on contract yet with anyone...

UK commentators often think the fact that Spear and Meteor have been waiting for an age, and now won't arrive until 2032 (originally it was 2024, so a dismal 8 year minimum delay), is due to the US deliberately holding back on their integration to favour US munitions....there might be a very small sliver of truth in that....but....its also clear as day that the US, and everyone else, is also waiting on munitions to arrive....I suspect with as much frustration as the UK.

The list of weapons/stores that we know of that are planned to be integrated in the future is:

SDBII
JSM
Laser JDAM - (GBU-54 500lb variant)
Spear - (possibly including Spear variants like Spear-EW and SpearGlide)
Meteor
ASRAAM Blk VI
AARGM-ER
SiAW
JASSM-ER
LRASM
JAGM

Beyond that there is the possibility of...

MACE - Affordable missile for USN (has been mentioned for F-35A as well)
ERAM - Affordable missile for USAF and Allied countries
AIM-260A JATM
Stratus LO
Quicksink JDAM variants
Israeli weapons have been mentioned before, specifically the Spice 1000 and Spice 250ER, but it remains to be seen if these actually are real on F-35
External tanks (660Gal mentioned before, inner wing pylon only)
Re-use of the Terma external gun pod shape for other roles like EW and Recon
Gliding variants of existing weapons like JDAM and Paveway series with wing kits
Powered JDAM - If ERAM and MACE don't steal its lunch...
SOM-J - Could we see the return of the US/Turkish SOM-J cruise missile? All dependent on Turkey getting F-35...
Upgrades of existing munitions, Meteor MLU for example. Potential for some upgrades to arrive before initial integration.
 
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