F-35 Lightning II developments

[Coati]

First aircraft of LRIP-3 (AF-14) took to the sky (three F-35B of LRIP-2 still have to fly):

Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti flew the ninth production model of the F-35 Lightning II, F-35A AF-14 (Air Force serial number 09-5001), on its inaugural flight on 2 March 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB.

AF-15, F-35A the 10th poduction model, flew one day later, the 3rd of March!

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/news_ite ... tem_id=615

[Coati]

Norway government has announced that soon they will work out the purchase of about 50 F-35As (after the initial order of four).

Today flight operations will start at Eglin AFB. (and they did although the first flight ended in an emergency landing due to a fuel leak...)

[Coati]

It is busy at Fort Worth, again a first flight, this time the 4th production F-35B, the BF-9. Two more LRIP-2 aircraft need to do their first flight (BF-10 and BF-11).

Code one article:
Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti flew the eleventh production model of the F-35 Lightning II, F-35B BF-9 (Navy Bureau Number 168060), on its inaugural flight on 6 March 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB.

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/news_ite ... tem_id=618

[Richard from Rotterdam]

Why buy an jsf with all these hardpoints.

But, against a more technically savvy opponent, the pylons will be removed preserving stealth characteristics. After all, the internal weapon bays are really small.

Hans.

... make that "too" small...

[Coati]

Why buy an jsf with all these hardpoints.

But, against a more technically savvy opponent, the pylons will be removed preserving stealth characteristics. After all, the internal weapon bays are really small.

Hans.

... make that "too" small...

Too small for what???

[Stratofreighter]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/13 ... been-made/

Tory about-face on F-35 jets as minister denies ‘definitive decision’ on $16B deal

Postmedia News Mar 13, 2012 – 2:02 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 13, 2012 7:01 PM ET

Two years of unwavering Conservative support for the F-35 took a major hit Tuesday as Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino said the government has not ruled out walking away from the troubled stealth fighter program.

Fantino also revealed a team of defence department officials have been considering “all kinds of contingencies” should the F-35 not be ready to replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18s and acknowledged the government does not know how much each F-35 will cost.

The Conservative government initially announced in July 2010 that Canada would buy 65 F-35s for $9 billion to replace the country’s CF-18 fighters.

The decision was made without an open bidding process and would be this country’s largest-ever military purchase. Others pegged the price tag at up to $30 billion.

http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress ... a-eps1.jpg is a large file, but perhaps interesting to some.
This JPG shows the various weapon options etc. of the F-35A

[Coati]

Two more first flights, this time BF-10 and BF-11 at the 15th and 21st of March, means that all LRIP-2 aircraft have flown. BF-10 and 11 will be delivered in due time to Eglin. BF-9 is still at Fort Worth, awaiting delivery to Eglin as well.

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/news.html?category=12

[tally]

BF-13 (VM-08) had its first flight earlier this month as well. And today BF-12 (VM-07) almost made it but got an issue that could not be resolved. She did however made it to the runway and sat there for about 15 minutes. Too bad they had south winds.

[Richard from Rotterdam]

Some food for thought: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... e_pentagon


The Jet That Ate the Pentagon
The F-35 is a boondoggle. It's time to throw it in the trash bin.

BY WINSLOW WHEELER | APRIL 26, 2012

Click here to see pictures of the supersonic albatross.

The United States is making a gigantic investment in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, billed by its advocates as the next -- by their count the fifth -- generation of air-to-air and air-to-ground combat aircraft. Claimed to be near invisible to radar and able to dominate any future battlefield, the F-35 will replace most of the air-combat aircraft in the inventories of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and at least nine foreign allies, and it will be in those inventories for the next 55 years. It's no secret, however, that the program -- the most expensive in American history -- is a calamity.

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This month, we learned that the Pentagon has increased the price tag for the F-35 by another $289 million -- just the latest in a long string of cost increases -- and that the program is expected to account for a whopping 38 percent of Pentagon procurement for defense programs, assuming its cost will grow no more. Its many problems are acknowledged by its listing in proposals for Pentagon spending reductions by leaders from across the political spectrum, including Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and budget gurus such as former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and Office of Management and Budget.

How bad is it? A review of the F-35's cost, schedule, and performance -- three essential measures of any Pentagon program -- shows the problems are fundamental and still growing.

First, with regard to cost -- a particularly important factor in what politicians keep saying is an austere defense budget environment -- the F-35 is simply unaffordable. Although the plane was originally billed as a low-cost solution, major cost increases have plagued the program throughout the last decade. Last year, Pentagon leadership told Congress the acquisition price had increased another 16 percent, from $328.3 billion to $379.4 billion for the 2,457 aircraft to be bought. Not to worry, however -- they pledged to finally reverse the growth.

The result? This February, the price increased another 4 percent to $395.7 billion and then even further in April. Don't expect the cost overruns to end there: The test program is only 20 percent complete, the Government Accountability Office has reported, and the toughest tests are yet to come. Overall, the program's cost has grown 75 percent from its original 2001 estimate of $226.5 billion -- and that was for a larger buy of 2,866 aircraft.

Hundreds of F-35s will be built before 2019, when initial testing is complete. The additional cost to engineer modifications to fix the inevitable deficiencies that will be uncovered is unknown, but it is sure to exceed the $534 million already known from tests so far. The total program unit cost for each individual F-35, now at $161 million, is only a temporary plateau. Expect yet another increase in early 2013, when a new round of budget restrictions is sure to hit the Pentagon, and the F-35 will take more hits in the form of reducing the numbers to be bought, thereby increasing the unit cost of each plane.

A final note on expense: The F-35 will actually cost multiples of the $395.7 billion cited above. That is the current estimate only to acquire it, not the full life-cycle cost to operate it. The current appraisal for operations and support is $1.1 trillion -- making for a grand total of $1.5 trillion, or more than the annual GDP of Spain. And that estimate is wildly optimistic: It assumes the F-35 will only be 42 percent more expensive to operate than an F-16, but the F-35 is much more complex. The only other "fifth generation" aircraft, the F-22 from the same manufacturer, is in some respects less complex than the F-35, but in 2010, it cost 300 percent more to operate per hour than the F-16. To be very conservative, expect the F-35 to be twice the operating and support cost of the F-16.

Already unaffordable, the F-35's price is headed in one direction -- due north.

The F-35 isn't only expensive -- it's way behind schedule. The first plan was to have an initial batch of F-35s available for combat in 2010. Then first deployment was to be 2012. More recently, the military services have said the deployment date is "to be determined." A new target date of 2019 has been informally suggested in testimony -- almost 10 years late.

If the F-35's performance were spectacular, it might be worth the cost and wait. But it is not. Even if the aircraft lived up to its original specifications -- and it will not -- it would be a huge disappointment. The reason it is such a mediocrity also explains why it is unaffordable and, for years to come, unobtainable.


Winslow Wheeler is director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information. Previously, he worked for 31 years on national security issues for Republican and Democratic senators on Capitol Hill and for the Government Accountability Office. He is editor of the anthology The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It.

[Coati]

BF-14 (VM-09) first flight at NAS Forth Worth at the 24th of April.

[Coati]

Australia decided to delay the purchase of 12 out of 14 aircraft announced as ordered earlier. Australia has to take delevery of the other two of the aircraft due to contractual commitments. Those two will be delivered in 2014 and will be stationed in the US for training purposes. The other 12 aircraft will be delayed two years.

[Glidepath]

For comparison:
The new F-15 Silent Eagle (with some degree of stealth features), costs some 100 million a piece incl. training and associated stuff.
Seems we are looking at 3 or 4 new twin engined Eagles to only 1 F-35 moneywise.

How does the Super Hornet compare pricewise nowadays to the unproven yet massively expensive F-35?
and where is the Gripen NG pricewise nowadays?

[Polecat]

clear point you make here... The only thing that confuses me; when I talked to organising staff of a Red Flag exercise, and asked them if they wouldn't rather have 4 Super Hornets doing 2 CAP's than only a single F-22 in a huge FAOR, without hesitating both guys (at seperate bases) said they'd go for the single Raptor! I'm not deep enough an expert in this matter, and this puzzled me a bit, but appearently the 4th/5th generation planes can do tricks others can't..

(Besides, what are the costs of: 4 Hornets need four shelters, four ground crews, 8 engines, 4 pilots, 4 ACMI pods 4 maintenance cycles etc etc...)

I think by delaying the 12 aircraft the Aussies will at least get more mature F-35's in due course, saving some money in the process!

[ehusmann]

(Besides, what are the costs of: 4 Hornets need four shelters, four ground crews, 8 engines, 4 pilots, 4 ACMI pods 4 maintenance cycles etc etc...)

And don't forget the bonus of still having three Hornets when one goes tech....

Erwin

[Wildpicture]

but appearently the 4th/5th generation planes can do tricks others can't..

The million (or in this case multiple billion) dollar question is: For how long? It will be be at least 10 years before the JSF can be operational in significant numbers. By then the Russian and Chinese radar systems will be painfully ably to deal with present day stealth techniques. So the bonus we pay now, might be better spent on a larger number of other fighters.