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

GTX said:
jeffb said:
Reductions in F-35 flying hours? Is this a thing?
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Statement from Chief of Air Force – Flying Hours for the F-35A Lightning ll​

15 February 2022


I reject criticisms made in The Australian article ‘Defence revises down planned availability of the F-35A jet fleet’. The criticisms contained are completely unfounded.

The Royal Australian Air Force has revised the expected flying hours based on our maturing understanding of the F-35A capability requirements and our expected build-up of the capability.

Forward estimate flying hours are based on training and capability requirements, not availability.

To use the basic singular metric of flying hours, to suggest that the F-35A is not satisfying its operational and training requirements, is misleading and simply false.

I can confirm the JSF program has met all of its tasking commitments, such as exercises, verification and validation activities and training requirements.

In total, Australia has flown more than 15,000 hours in the aircraft.

The project is delivering to the 2014 Government approved budget and schedule and has already achieved the key initial operational capability milestone of one operational F-35A squadron and training unit by December 2020. In 2021, the program stood up a second operational squadron and a third is occurring in 2022.
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Thanks GTX. More media bullshit, who'd have guessed it?
 
6 to 8 deployed F-35 from US to train European allies how to integrate seamlessly with their quarterback role.

www.airforcetimes.com

US, NATO air forces mobilize as war comes to Europe

“The United States set the tone for this type of attack in 1991 in the opening hours of [Operation] Desert Storm,” Air Force Lt. Col. Tyson Wetzel said Wednesday. “It is a methodology that still works today.”
www.airforcetimes.com www.airforcetimes.com
 
TomcatViP said:
6 to 8 deployed F-35 from US to train European allies how to integrate seamlessly with their quarterback role.

www.airforcetimes.com

US, NATO air forces mobilize as war comes to Europe

“The United States set the tone for this type of attack in 1991 in the opening hours of [Operation] Desert Storm,” Air Force Lt. Col. Tyson Wetzel said Wednesday. “It is a methodology that still works today.”
www.airforcetimes.com www.airforcetimes.com
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8 fighters will make zero different if ..... really wanted to overrun these countries
 
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.
 
news.usni.org

UPDATED: Navy Recovers Crashed F-35C From Depths of South China Sea - USNI News

This post was updated with a photo from U.S.7th Fleet. Navy salvage crews operating from a commercial salvage ship have recovered the F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter that suffered a ramp strike on the deck of USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70 and crashed into the South China Sea, a U.S. 7th Fleet...
news.usni.org news.usni.org

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.
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FM74i3BXMAoyub3.jpg
 
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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.
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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
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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?
 
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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www.airforcetimes.com

F-35 production decision won’t come until end of fiscal 2023 — at least

If the testing process were to slip further, "there's not a lot of leeway" to reach a decision on full-rate production by the end of fiscal 2023, Lt. Gen. Eric Fick said.
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