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

It's not like the Russian Air force would have thousands of fighter aircraft to oppose them. And once again, they are there to demonstrate a modus of operation and probably train allied air forces that aren't (yet?) customers.
 
https://news.usni.org/2022/03/03/navy-recovers-crashed-f-35c-from-depths-of-south-china-sea
The F-35C Lightning II, assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, crashed while USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) was conducting routine flight operations in the South China Sea on Jan. 24.

The wreckage was recovered from a depth of approximately 12,400-feet by a team from CTF 75 and the NAVSEA’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) embarked on the diving support construction vessel (DSCV) Picasso.
Click to expand...
FM74i3BXMAoyub3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Given the depth and the efforts put to achieve a useful recovery, it might have been worth the trouble.
Given also the robust construction of the plane as demonstrated by the airframe keeping its integrity following the impact with the ship's stern (seriously, that was scary for the Sailors that might now wonder what bend quicker b/w the two (ship vs nose diving Lightning!), it's probable that most of the airframe could have been fished out.
 
100B€ and not a single F-35 would be as foolish as spending all your incomes on sumptuous German cars without feeding the kids!
 
NMaude said:
I won't be surprised if Germany has decided to make a large F-35 order as the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused it to triple its defence budget.
Click to expand...

Current betting is on c30 F-35A specifically for the nuclear mission, then an additional order for Typhoon (on top of the 38 Project Quadriga aircraft) and I suspect its very likely that Typhoon ECR gets the go ahead.

Either way BAE is going to do well...they make a significant chunk of F-35 and of Typhoon...plus the German's are going to have to cough up for a lot of the Project Centurion work that was undertaken...
 
timmymagic said:
Current betting is on c30 F-35A specifically for the nuclear mission
Click to expand...

That doesn't surprise me although hadn't the German government, over significant domestic opposition, been proposing to buy some F/A-18E/Fs as they're wired for special-stores?
 
Last edited:
Try Google Translate - Hebrew > English:
"We will not allow anyone to infiltrate the airspace and violate the sovereignty of the State of Israel." The first operational interception carried out by the "mighty" (F-35I) aircraft in the world was allowed to be published. About a year ago, two Iranian UAVs were intercepted, carrying weapons in order to transfer them to the terrorist organization Hamas. The drones were intercepted before crossing the border into Israeli territory.
 
Yeah all good, but just compare the cost of a drone flight with one of a F-35... as bitterly found by the Saudis against the Houtis, such fight will be rather expensive.
 
NMaude said:
That doesn't surprise me although hadn't the German government, over significant domestic opposition, been proposing to buy some F/A-18E/Fs as they're wired for special-stores?
Click to expand...

Not just the wiring, but the entire integration effort to pay for. Could cost $1bn. You can buy 10 F-35 for that...
 
timmymagic said:
Not just the wiring, but the entire integration effort to pay for.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised that the Eurofighter Typhoon wasn't designed from the beginning to carry special-stores as I'm fairly that at least the UK would want that capability.
 
SgtGungHo said:
Huh, I always thought the US stored at least some tactical nuclear weapons in the UK.
Click to expand...

They did. But they all left in 2006. The US and UK did do nuclear sharing, but it was primarily in the earlier days of the Cold War with the V-Force and Canberra's. Later on the only US nuclear bombs the UK trained to use were from Nimrod as nuclear depth charges. St Mawgan and Kinloss both had US forces attached to guard a 'special' bomb store, Later as WE.177 took on that role it became less important.
 
@NMaude : Not seen anything new lately.

Also,
In a roundtable with reporters Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, the program executive officer for the F-35 Joint Program Office, said the F-35′s critical Joint Simulation Environment testing, which has to happen before the aircraft’s initial operational test and evaluation phase can be closed, is now expected to take place in early spring or summer 2023.
[...]
The Joint Simulation Environment will create high-end threat scenarios to test how well the F-35 will respond in the most dangerous situations. The scenarios the F-35 will face will include varying threat densities, different mixes of aircraft and a variety of ground threats in the simulations, including possible threats the fighter could face in the future, Fick said.

Fick said the Defense Department is “aggressively” working through the validation, verification and accreditation of the simulation’s components. About half of the 88 packages necessary for this step have been completed, he said, and the program hopes to have that done around May 2022.

Once that is done, Fick said, the program moves into system validation verification — bringing components together into broader scenarios for their own validation, verification and accreditation. That is expected be done by this September, he said
Click to expand...


https://www.airforcetimes.com/air/2...-wont-come-until-end-of-fiscal-2023-at-least/
 
Nice artwork:

1647075742570
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom