F-35 Lightning II developments

[Melchior Timmers]

See http://www.codeonemagazine.com/images/n ... 4_2203.jpg

taken 29oct, so I think there are 2 coded VM-12 at the moment (but for how long...?)

[Coati]

F-35A AF-36 First Flight (with EG tail code)

Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti was at the controls for the first flight of F-35A AF-36 (US Air Force serial number 11-5025). The flight occurred on 14 November 2013 with takeoff and landing at NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas.


http://www.codeonemagazine.com/f35_news ... em_id=1209

[marcelburger]

According to press agency Reuters the South Korea will buy 40 F-35s with options for another 20. The F-15SG seems to be totally of the table. See: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/11/1 ... JQ20131115

[Coati]

Correct, final decision Will be made in early december. Koreans apparently wants to get the first 6 F-35s already ordered in LRIP-9.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Coati]

complete story here:


S. Korea Joint Chiefs set to back deal for 40 Lockheed F-35s -sources

Reuters

Published: Friday, 15 Nov 2013 | 9:02 AM ETBy: Andrea Shalal-Esa


DUBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff were expected to endorse an "all F-35 buy" of 40 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets and an option for 20 more at a meeting on Nov. 22, two sources familiar with the competition said on Friday.

The Joint Chiefs' decision must be approved by a committee chaired by the South Korean defense minister at a meeting in early December, according to the sources, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

A decision by the Joint Chiefs to purchase only F-35s would be a setback for Boeing Co, which had hoped to sell Seoul at least some F-15 fighters as a hedge against delays in the F-35 fighter program, which is completing development.

One source said South Korea was sticking to its initial plan to buy 60 jets to preserve the terms of an industrial offset package that accompanied the Lockheed offer and included a satellite to be launched and placed in orbit.

Any changes in the number of planes ordered would require reopening negotiations with Lockheed, said the source.

The South Korean Air Force has asked for enhanced stealth capability for the fighter jets, a move seen as bolstering the F-35's chances ahead of the Joint Chiefs meeting.

U.S. officials have said Seoul needs to make a decision by the end of the year to ensure delivery of initial F-35s in 2017 since the U.S. government must order advanced materials for the planes in coming weeks. Seoul is said to be looking at buying six F-35 fighter in the ninth batch of early production jets.

The South Korean government voted down a bid by Boeing to supply 60 F-15s in September despite its offer, even though it was the only one of three bids submitted that was under budget. At the time, South Korean officials said they would restart the 8.3 trillion won ($7.8 billion) tender process to get a more advanced, radar-evading jet, but Boeing and its supporters had hoped the government would opt for a split buy of F-35s and F-15s.

"Clearly the U.S will be pleased with this direction," said one of the sources. "By committing to accept early production planes, (South) Korea will help bring down the price for early production aircraft purchased by the United States, Japan and others."

The Eurofighter consortium, which includes BAE Systems Plc , EADS NV and Finmeccanica SpA, also submitted a bid in the South Korean competition.

The sources said there was still a chance the committee that is chaired by the South Korean defense minister could reverse the expected Joint Chiefs decision, but that was seen as unlikely.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101201964

[Coati]

As expected, a new F-35 user:

S. Korea decides to buy 40 Lockheed F-35s from 2018


By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea decided Friday to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin's F-35A stealth fighters for four years starting in 2018, with an option to buy 20 more later depending on the security situation and budget, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

JCS Chairman Choi Yun-hee held a meeting of top commanders to approve the plan to buy the 40 F-35 Block 3s, which are capable of conducting air-to-air and air-to-ground missions with internal carriage and external stations for missiles and bombs. The software configuration is expected to reach the initial operating capability around 2015, according to the company.

As the F-35 is sold only through the U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) program, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) is expected to purchase the aircraft through a government-to-government deal and without an open bid.

The government-to-government FMS condition requires a foreign government to pay the amount specified by the U.S. government for the F-35s at the time of payment.

The move comes as the Air Force had asked the government to buy the combat aircraft with a lower radar cross section, one of the key stealth functions, and advanced avionic warfare capabilities.

"The F-35A will be used as a strategic weapon to gain a competitive edge and defeat the enemy in the early stage of war," the JCS said. "The South Korean military will also use the aircraft to effectively deal with provocations."

The purchase plan has been scaled back from the previous one that called for buying 60 aircraft worth 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion). Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle was the only bid within the budget for the past bidding, but it was voted down due to relatively weak stealth capabilities.

For an additional 20 jets, the South Korean government will reconsider the required operational capability and security situations with a goal of deployment between 2023 and 2024, giving Boeing and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EDAS), which participated in the past bidding, an opportunity to secure a contract.

Boeing earlier proposed a mixed purchase of F-15s and F-35s to minimize a security vacuum, while EADS highlighted an offset deal, including the transfer of technology and industrial participation for South Korea's indigenous fighter jet project in synergies between the aircraft procurement and development program.

The state arms procurement agency can extend the funding up to 120 percent of the total budget assigned for the past program, but such a decision needs approval from the finance ministry and the parliament. Assigning an increased budget for the costly fighter acquisition could also draw complaints from other military branches that are eager to upgrade their equipment.

Unlike the fierce competition for the past project, industry experts say the one-way bid gives Seoul less room to negotiate other conditions such as a technology transfer or industrial cooperation in connection with the program.

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/nationa ... 0315F.html

[sijm]

Videos about the first RNLAF personnel to train with the F-35:
http://nos.nl/video/579907-testteam-jsf ... -slag.html
http://nos.nl/video/579950-nieuwe-straa ... ieger.html

audio:
http://nos.nl/audio/579716-vliegen-in-d ... e-f16.html

[tally]

11-5022 delivered from NAS Fort Worth to Eglin yesterday (Dec 2, 2013).

Tally.

[tally]

168728/VK-10, 168731/VK-13, and 168732/VK-14 delivered to MCAS Yuma today, Dec 3, 2013. Credit to Mike.

Tally.

[Coati]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/ ... 1Y20131205

Pentagon focused on weapons, data fusion as F-35 nears combat use
By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON Wed Dec 4, 2013 11:44pm EST
1 Comments
inShare.2Share thisEmailPrint 1 of 2. The flight deck crew secures an F-35B Lighting II aircraft aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp following testing in this handout photo taken off the coast of North Carolina in this August 24, 2013 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/U.S. Navy/Handout
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp's (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet is making good progress as it nears initial combat use by the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2015, but the company must still finalize the software needed to deliver weapons and fuse data from its many sensors, the Pentagon's F-35 program chief told Reuters.

"Getting to 2015 there's a whole lot of things that have to be put in place, not the least of which is the software on the program," said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, the Air Force three-star general who took over the helm of the $392 billion F-35 program around one year ago.

Software was the program's No.1 critical issue, he said, noting that the jet alone had more than 8.5 million lines of code, while its related systems had 11 or 12 million more.

Officials have also launched an "earnest effort" to ensure that planes already built for the Air Force and Marine Corps are modified to adjust for issues found in flight testing so they are ready for initial combat use, Bogdan said.

The Air Force has said it plans to start using its conventional takeoff F-35 jets from mid-2016. The Navy will follow suit in late 2018.

Lockheed is building three models of the radar-evading warplane for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped fund its development: Britain, Canada, Norway, Australia, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. Japan and Israel have also ordered F-35 jets.

Bogdan told a defense logistics conference on Wednesday that the Pentagon's biggest weapons program - which is years behind schedule and 70 percent over initial cost estimates - had a "tragic past," but was now making good progress.

Bogdan said it was time to take "that baggage from the past and put it aside and judge the program where it is today."

He said Lockheed is on track to deliver 36 jets this year, and the cost of the plane was coming down year after year. Flight testing was about 60 days behind schedule after two separate groundings early this year, but the delay could be absorbed by the margin built into the development program.

At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday, the program hit a new single-day record of F-35 flights, flying 45 training missions with all three models of the new jet, said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 program office.

The total included 32 flights with the Marine Corp's B-model, which can land like a helicopter, 10 flights with the conventional A-model, and three flights with the Navy's C-model, designed to land on aircraft carriers. In addition, one Dutch F-35 returned to Eglin from Maryland.

In an interview after his speech, Bogdan rejected criticism that the Pentagon is plowing ahead blindly with a program that is too complex and expensive. He said the government knows "an awful lot" about the airplane and its cost and is doing better holding its manufacturers accountable for their performance.

Bogdan said critics of the F-35 focused on the program's delays and technical shortfalls, but the U.S. military and its allies were growing more confident in the plane every day.

He said there was growing international interest in the new stealth fighter, and South Korea, Singapore and other countries could place orders in coming years. Such orders were good for all the countries involved because they would drive down the cost of each airplane and associated infrastructure, he said.

By some measure, including the F-35's ability to maneuver tight turns, the F-35 is on par or even slightly below that of current fighter planes, Bogdan said.

But the plane's ability to combine data from a host of different sensors and share it with other aircraft made it "a vastly superior airplane" than current warplanes, he said.

"What makes the airplane leaps and bounds better than legacy airplanes," he said, "is the ability to know what's going on around it when it comes to other airplanes and other threats, and its ability to take that information and give the pilot a very clear picture and then give that picture to a lot of other people who don't have the sophisticated sensors that we have."

He declined to give details since some of those attributes are classified, but said testing of the software that would provide the "360-degree situational awareness" was going well.

"Some of that stuff is in the classified realm, so people don't understand it and we can't talk freely about it," he said. "Until we get out there and prove that, people are going to be naturally hesitant because that is a leap above what we have today. It makes everybody in the battlespace smarter."

Bogdan said relations between the government and the prime contractors on the program - Lockheed and engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) - had improved sharply since he became deputy director in July 2012.

Just over a year ago, Bogdan described that relationship as the "worst" he had ever seen in decades of working on acquisition programs.

Since then, the Pentagon had dramatically increased its oversight of the program and had become far more vigilant about holding the companies that build it accountable, he said.

But the F-35 program office and the contractors also communicate more often and more openly than before, he said.

"What we embarked on over the last 18 months is constant...'straight talk' with our contractor and our stakeholders," he said, noting that he had spoken three times on Wednesday alone with Lockheed's F-35 program manager, Lorraine Martin. "The communication between the program office and them is much more constructive now than destructive."

"The more we talk and the more we communicate, the more we understand each other's position, we can get past the blame game and get on to finding solutions for things," he said.

Bogdan said the Navy version of the new fighter was also making progress and testing of a redesigned tail hook that allows the plane to land on aircraft carriers would begin in coming months after completion of a critical design review.

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Matt Driskill)

[Piet Luijken]

New Sortie Record for Eglin F-35s

A United Kingdom F-35 Lightning II breaks left out of a formation flight with other F-35 aircraft over Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., Dec. 4. The joint-program reached a new single-day record for F-35 sorties Dec. 4 with 45 training missions between all three models of the aircraft. The Marine B-model completed 32 of the flights, the Air Force A-model had 10 flights and the Navy C-model flew three missions.

[Piet Luijken]

This friday the 100th F35 will be inaugurated acc twitter.

[thebaseleg]

F-35B(s) from Yuma to visit Luke AFB today (10 Dec) at the request of Singapore's defence officials. We could see the confirmation of Singapore's order placed today(?)

http://thebaseleg.blogspot.com.au/2013/ ... se-on.html

[Starman]

Two interesting (but not entirely F-35 related) points come out of this:

1) Luke will not be hosting media for the event, but media and the general public are welcome to observe the aircraft flying in the pattern from public areas outside the base. Perhaps cut out and keep this for next time you get jostled over there!

2) Luke Air Force Base will host Forging Sabre, an exercise involving the 425th Fighter Squadron, 428th Fighter Squadron from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, and members of the Republic of Singapore armed forces, Tuesday, Dec. 3 to Sunday, Dec. 15. Flying will also occur during the weekends of Dec. 7 to 8 and 14 to 15 at Luke AFB and the Barry M. Goldwater Range complex.

The areas around Luke and the BMGR may experience more noise than usual as a result of the increased air activity and types of aircraft involved. Aircrafts involved will include F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-15E Strike Eagle, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache helicopters. There will be an increased military presence with military movements along Highway 85 south of Gila Bend as military position themselves within the Barry M. Goldwater range.

The last aircraft is expected to land at approximately 9:00 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 15.

All good news!

[Coati]

Norway authorizes purchase of six more F-35s

Dec 11 (Reuters) - Norway's parliament authorised the government to purchase another six Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets for about 4 billion crowns ($654.7 million), the parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee said on Wednesday.

The six jets, to be delivered in 2018, bring the Norwegian order to 16 planes, a small boost for a programme suffering from repeated delays and a 70 percent increase in costs over initial estimates.

Norway plans to buy a total of 52 F-35s by the end of 2024, but purchases for each year have to be separately approved by parliament.

The government expects the total lifetime cost of its F-35 programme at 248 billion crowns, it said earlier.

Lockheed is developing three models of the new radar-evading warplane for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped fund its development: Britain, Canada, Turkey, Italy, Norway, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Israel and Japan have also placed orders for the jet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/ ... KE20131211