JSF F-35 Lightning II

Sujet: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mer 17 Oct 2007 - 15:25

Rappel du premier message :

Bonjour à tous,

Le F-35 est l'avenir de beaucoup de forces aériennes, il remplacera les F-16, A-10, Harrier et autres. Je propose que soient postées ici, si vous êtres d'accord, toutes les infos au sujet du F-35. Merci de m'avoir lu.

Article (en anglais) fort intéressant sur l'avion qui comprend un pdf avec les différents armements que pourra emporter le F-35, tant en soutes, que sous les ailes. Furtif, moins furtif...

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2007/articles/apr_07/lightningstrike/index.html

Dans cet autre article, une image montre qu'il serait aussi possible de rajouter de l'armement en bout d'aile, info, intox?

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2002/articles/arp_02/jsf/index.html

Rafi

Citation :: F-35 Helmet-mounted display system

The F-35 need not be physically pointing at its target for weapons to be successful. This is possible because of sensors that can track and target a nearby aircraft from any orientation, provide the information to the pilot through his helmet (and therefore visible no matter which way they are looking), and provide the seeker-head of a missile with sufficient information. Recent missile types provide a much greater ability to pursue a target regardless of the launch orientation, called "High Off-Boresight" capability, although the speed and direction in which the munition is launched affect the effective range of the weapon. Sensors use combined radio frequency and infra red (SAIRST) to continually track nearby aircraft while the pilot's helmet-mounted display system (HMDS) displays and selects targets. The helmet system replaces the display suite-mounted head-up display used in earlier fighters.
The F-35's systems provide the edge in the "observe, orient, decide, and act" OODA loop; stealth and advanced sensors aid in observation (while being difficult to observe), automated target tracking helps in orientation, sensor fusion simplifies decision making, and the aircraft's controls allow action against targets without having to look away from them.
The problems with the current Vision Systems International helmet mounted display lead Lockheed Martin to issue a draft specification for proposals for an alternative on 1 March 2011. The alternative system will be based on Anvis-9 night vision goggles. It will be supplied by BAE systems

*Can someone please pass the night vision goggles?*

Citation :: F-35B Hovers at Night

F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing aircraft BF-4 hovers in the darkness during a night test flight at NAS Patuxent River, Md., Dec. 13, 2012.

JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 333330_10152245427388538_1901828500_o

JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 8290886767_77022dee65_b

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 A10-na10

franchement ça doit être chaud de piloter au NVG ...

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Sign_v10

Citation :: F-35 during high angle of attack testing Dec. 5, 2012, over Edwards Air Force Base.

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Ven 11 Jan 2013 - 14:02

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Sign_v10

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Lun 14 Jan 2013 - 11:26

Citation :

Fuselage cracks found in tests on next-generation US F35 jet

Cracks in the fuselage and other problems have been found in performance tests of the next-generation U.S. F35 fighter jet, which the U.S. Defense Department has been developing by investing a record amount of funds.

Citing an 18-page report submitted Friday by the Pentagon to Congress, Bloomberg said the testing of the F35-B model showed "multiple new cracks in a bulkhead flange on the fuselage’s underside during an inspection after the equivalent of 7,000 hours of testing.” As a result, testing of the aircraft, which is being developed for the Marine Corps, has been halted again for the second time since December last year.

Three models of the F35, namely A, B and C for the Air Force, Marines and large aircraft carriers, are being developed. Reuters also said the testing of the F35-A model found problems with the air refueling system and peeling of stealth coat, while testing of the F35-B model exposed problems with engine lift fan for vertical take-off and landing. The F35-C model had serious problems in its video image transmission system and coolant.
Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon official in charge of performance testing who submitted the report, said, “Two more years of structural testing is required to test the performance of the F35.”

english.donga.com

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Captur10

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mer 16 Jan 2013 - 12:26

Citation :: Inside the F-35, the world's most futuristic fighter jet

An aviation fantasy from the realms of Star Wars, the F-35 is the most sophisticated, expensive and controversial jet fighter ever produced. Jonathan Glancey takes its flight simulator for a spin

The Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter Photo: Reuter

A blazing hot December morning. High blue skies. Wide open spaces. This is Fort Worth, Texas, famous for its frontier atmosphere, its stockyards, rodeos, Art Deco downtown – and the vast Lockheed Martin factory.

Boasting a mile-long aircraft assembly plant, opened on April 18 1942 – the day Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle led the first Army Air Corps raid on Japan – this is where, for the next quarter of a century, the world’s most sophisticated, controversial and expensive jet fighter will roll off a surgically clean production line.

One of the first of these £100 million supersonic aircraft, a Lockheed Martin F-35B, hot from trials and shimmering in the 80-degree heat, is perched over a 'hover-pit’, a deep concrete well absorbing the fierce downward blast of the STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) jet. The F-35B is tethered like some momentarily quietened bucking bronco.

This is not only an American beast. There is a strong likelihood that from 2030 the F-35 will be the only high-speed fighter in service with the RAF and the Royal Navy.

The much-loved Harrier was retired two years ago; the Tornado follows between now and March 2019. This will leave us with the Typhoon Eurofighter (introduced in 2003, and made in Britain and Europe), yet when that is scheduled to fly into the sunset a decade or so later, and with no Typhoon Mk2 in the wings to replace it, the Lockheed Martin F-35 may well be the one front-line jet able to defend British airspace and coalition interests.

By then, the nation that created the Spitfire and the Harrier will have long stopped making fighter aircraft of its own. Airfix, yes; Supermarine, Hawker and their successor BAE Systems, no.

Even if we had the will, we are unlikely to have the money. We will depend on our special relationship with the United States more than ever before. These are weighty matters that have drawn critics and supporters into a frenzied debate over the virtues of the F-35.

Just as I near the restrained grey jet at Fort Worth to talk to its test pilot, a bright orange butterfly catches my eye. A Gulf fritillary, it flutters innocently within feet of the supersonic warbird. It makes me think of the need we feel to protect the simplest freedoms with the most complex and terrifying weaponry, machines that, like the proverbial wheel, can break a butterfly.

We need the assurance of jet-powered, digitally guided, mechanical windhovers – fabricated from the most advanced materials and loaded with the latest digital sorcery and Star Wars weaponry – to assure a future in which we, or a young girl on her way to school in Afghanistan, can stop and stare at a fleeting fritillary.

'Darth Vader never had a helmet like this,’ says Billy Flynn, a senior Lockheed Martin test pilot with combat experience flying Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18s in Serbia and Bosnia, showing me his Vision Systems International 'bone-dome’. Made of carbon-fibre, the Israeli-US-designed augmented-reality helmet is packed with hi-tech gadgetry, and displays all the data the pilot needs inside its visor.

^{The F-35 pilot's augmented-reality helmet (Reuters)}

'This is an essential part of the F-35. It’s what makes such a difference,’ Flynn says. 'It’s been laser-scanned to fit my head, bumps and all. Through it, I can see 360 degrees all around the airplane. It’s wild seeing the undulations of the Red River along the Texas border beneath your feet. It’s virtual reality! Strange? Different, sure, but there’s not a pilot who would trade it for anything else. It needs refining, but it’ll make pilot and airplane an integral, all-seeing weapon.’

Everyone I meet involved in the F-35 project talks lyrically about the computer wizardry of this digital-era aircraft. I ask the same analogue question, over and again, of the test pilots: so what’s it like to fly?

'A no-brainer,’ they chorus.

They talk so fervently about the Star Wars aspects of the F-35 partly because it is the easiest aircraft any of them has ever flown: pilots are free to manage the weaponry while the F-35, more or less, flies itself.

Interactive graphic: explore the F-35 fighter jet in more detail

Tucked away inside the Lockheed Martin complex, Dr Mike Skaff, the chief engineer of pilot/vehicle interface for the F-35 programme, and a former USAF F-16 pilot, guides me through the simulator.

The seat is comfortable, the view commanding, the controls minimal. Turn on the battery. Press the starter. In 90 seconds, the virtual F-35B is ready to fly just as the real aircraft would be: unlike most aircraft, the F-35 performs all necessary safety checks automatically and extremely quickly. The instrument panel is a glass screen measuring 20x8in. As with an iPad, you touch it to bring up the information you need. Pilots can also talk to the aircraft; it talks back.

Pushing the left-hand throttle forward and pulling ever so gently on the stubby right-hand control stick, take-off is smooth, almost imperceptible, and the climb rapid. Up we go, above what I take to be a 3D map of Afghanistan.

The aircraft rolls, loops and darts about with minimal input from the pilot. You might expect this of any existing 'fourth generation’ fighter jet, such as a USAF F-16 Fighting Falcon or RAF Typhoon, but it is a revelation to someone like me, a qualified pilot with experience of piston engines and no more than a 'second generation’ Hawker Hunter jet.

The F-35B, however, is 'fifth generation’. Not only is it stealthy in the military sense – all but undetectable by radar because of its origami form, its special coating, its hidden engine and low heat emission – but it can also perform truly extraordinary tricks through its continuously upgradeable computer software and complex engineering. What sort of tricks? Well, here I am turning towards the airfield. Not only will the F-35B land itself, but it will also hover at the touch of a button. Where hovering a Harrier is not unlike spinning plates on a pole on the tip of your nose while riding a trick bicycle on a circus high-wire – and no mistakes are affordable – the F-35 stops in the air, just like that, the pilot’s hands off the controls.

With a second push of the button and a touch of throttle and stick, the F-35 soars back into the sky. Skaff suggests I might like to take out a 'bad guy’.

I don’t play computer games, but surely none could be as easy as this? With its complex radar, stealth capability, sensors and lasers, the F-35 finds enemy aircraft invisible to the eye. I trace my finger across a matrix on the glass screen and lock on to the enemy. I am not even pointing the aircraft in their direction. I don’t need to. The F-35 can see and sense across huge distances in all directions. I select a missile from the store of weapons concealed in the fuselage, squeeze the trigger and, pulling away, watch a digital countdown. Zero: enemy destroyed.

^{Picture: Michael D Jackson/Lockheed Martin}

My simulated flight may have been a little all-over-the-sky, yet given a couple of hours I’m sure I could be a Top Gun, ready to climb into the cockpit of the real thing and, armed with that Darth-Vader-eat-your-heart-out helmet and a stiff dose of the Right Stuff, ready to take on the enemy wherever they may be threatening freedom on land, sea or air.

It seems all so simple, so certain and seductive. Who wouldn’t want this all-but-invisible, all-but-invincible sky warrior on their side? There is no other military aircraft like it in the pipeline, much less in production; Russian and Chinese 'rivals’ are still essentially fourth generation. So why is the F-35 controversial? Why is Canada threatening to cancel its order? Why have there been so many spats between the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin?

Because the F-35 programme is at least five years behind schedule. Because costs have risen by more than 90 per cent. Because design, development and testing have thrown up many problems that insiders view as teething problems – the helmet needs further work; early tailhooks failed to catch the wire when planes landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp; computer software is not all it should be, or not yet – and outsiders are determined to see as fundamental flaws.

Earlier this year, Winslow T Wheeler of the US Center of Defense Information called the F-35 a 'gigantic performance disappointment’, adding, 'It’s the problem of paying a huge amount of money thinking you’re getting a Ferrari; you’re not, you’re getting a Yugo.’ While this is hardly true, it shows how high passions have run as the F-35 has been delayed.

The F-35 emerged from the US Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter Project, a strictly American venture, announced in 1993, that metamorphosed in 1996 into the US Joint Strike Fighter Program (JSF), in collaboration with Britain and other international partners. The purpose of the project was to develop a stealth fighter to replace several frontline aircraft including the F-16 Fighting Falcon (a design from the mid-1970s still in production at Fort Worth, with more than 4,500 built), the F/A-18 Hornet and the AV-8B Harrier II.

'It’s what we call a South West policy,’ says Steve O’Bryan, Lockheed Martin’s fast-talking vice-president for F-35 business development, referring to America’s most popular budget airline, the inspiration behind EasyJet and Ryanair. A former F/A-18 US Navy pilot – O’Bryan flew the first 'shock and awe’ missions to Baghdad in 2003 – he cites the efficiency and profitability of the Texas-based airline, which operates a single type of aircraft, the Boeing 737. 'Like South West, everything’s the same,’ says O’Bryan, predicting sales of 3,100 F-35s between now and 2037 when production is scheduled to end, 'so everything’s easier and cheaper, too.’

^{The top of the F35, showing its lift fan (Lockheed Martin)}

The US government plans to buy 2,443 F-35s in three variants: the F-35A is a 'conventional’ Air Force fighter; the F-35B is the STOVL version for the Marines, and the variant Britain has pledged to buy (it can operate from more or less anywhere); the F-35C is the Navy version with folding wings, designed for carriers, launched by steam-catapults and fitted with arrester hooks to catch the wires that stop the aircraft on deck. The remaining 500-600 F-35s are to be bought, incrementally, by JSF partner nations.

Along with the US, Britain is the only 'level one partner’. We’ve stumped up $2 billion to date, or four per cent of the costs, yet, as O’Bryan says, we 'get 25 per cent of the say in the project and 100 per cent of the benefits. Also, the first operational F-35s will be in 2015 with US Marines, while the RAF airplanes won’t be in service till 2018, so you’ll get the results of three years of testing and training.’

The enthusiasm of partner countries – the 'junior’ partners are Italy, Holland, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Israel and Japan – has ebbed and flowed since 1996, and has notably waned since 2007, when the global economy stalled. Governments have come and gone, with long-term defence projects unsettled by political turbulence and indecision.

In December 2006 the Labour government announced it was keen to buy 138 F-35s, but the current coalition government figure is only 48 F-35Bs, with future orders dependent on the findings of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

At the moment, no one is fully certain that Britain will hang on to its new F-35-equipped aircraft carriers – HMS Queen Elizabeth II and HMS Prince of Wales – currently under construction, nor whether future orders for F-35s may be cancelled in favour of pilotless drones. And who knows how big the British Armed Forces will be by the time the Queen Elizabeth II is ready for action in 2020?

'The RAF is down to 33,000,’ Group Capt Harv Smyth tells me. A Harrier veteran, in combat from 1996 to 2010, Smyth is Britain’s JSF National Deputy, and my guide on this trip. 'The Navy is 30,000; you could seat the two forces comfortably inside Old Trafford. But because we’re asked to do a lot, around the world, and because over the past 20 years every major mission we’ve undertaken has been a surprise, we really do need to be prepared. We need the tactical and strategic advantage F-35 offers. Even with the Harrier, we cut down the number of ground troops needed in Afghanistan by huge numbers. Stealth fighters are expensive to buy, but they’ll save governments and taxpayers a lot of money in the long run, and save the lives of troops, airmen and innocent civilians, too.’

The F-35A first flew in December 2006. The F-35B followed in June 2008, with the British test pilot Graham Tomlinson making the first full-stop in mid-air in March 2010 and the first vertical landing the following day. The Navy’s F-35C took to the air that June. A symbolic handover of the first F-35B to the British government, represented by the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, was made at a ceremony at Forth Worth in July last year, and in November US Marines took delivery of three F-35Bs at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. To date there have been just over 2,500 F-35 test flights, as programme and production – running concurrently – have come up to speed. No one doubts that there are development problems to overcome, yet even the most vociferous naysayers have tended to go to ground as F-35s have taken, increasingly confidently, to the air.

^{An F-35 lands on the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (US Navy/DoD/Crown Copyright)}

Money, though, remains the aircraft’s Achilles’ heel. Delays have caused serious friction between the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin. The total cost to the USA for development and procurement has been estimated at $323 billion, with a total lifecycle cost of $618 million per aircraft. The life expectancy of an F-35 is 30 years. Meanwhile, according to a 2012 US government accountability report, F-35 costs have increased 93 per cent, in real terms, over the 2001 estimate.

But unlike other military aircraft the F-35 can be reprogrammed and updated throughout its life. As the aircraft will be flying into the late 2060s, perhaps this is just as well. The Lockheed Martin F-16 has been in service since 1978. By chance, four of these nimble fighters barrel low over the company’s Fort Worth offices as I leave the lobby after my four-mile walk through the complex. As Steve O’Bryan says of the very able F-16, 'It has the computing power of a Commodore 64 in comparison to an F-35.’

Turkey vultures wing low over the magnificent wooded estate of the US Naval Air Station Patuxent River – Pax River – on the fringes of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, as I drive in with Harv Smyth. It’s winter here, breezy and close to freezing. In warmer times of the year, ospreys and bald eagles circle the 14,500-acre base and the 22,000 personnel who live and work here, including 22 British pilots, engineers and commanders lodged with the F-35 team who are carrying out extensive tests on the aircraft. They include the RAF’s quietly spoken Sqd Ldr Jim Schofield, who flew 70 hours in Harriers in combat in Iraq in 2003. He learnt to fly, on a Piper Super Cub, before he could drive.

'I’ve flown 10 frontline fighters,’ Schofield says. 'The F-35 is by far and away the easiest. I’ve flown the aircraft up to Mach 1.6 and pulled up to 7g. The helmet gives me a God’s-eye view. And when you press that hover button it’s as if engineering and electronics have overcome the laws of physics.’

Peter 'Wizzer’ Wilson flew Sea Harriers with the Royal Navy from 1990 to 2000. 'The new technology takes workload and risk away from the pilot. It’s amazing how one press of a button will set in motion so much magic around you. The one time you get to hear something mechanical working hard is when the big [vertical lift-off] fan behind you spools up; it sounds like an angry mosquito. The [Rolls-Royce] fan is also very smooth in motion, which has really helped as we’ve practised precision deck landings at sea on USS Wasp; it’s a quantum step in every way from the Harrier.’

Flying the F-35 is neither as 'visceral’ nor as 'thrilling’, to use Schofield’s word, as the old British Harrier, yet it is clearly more comfortable and far less demanding on the pilot than its Anglo-American successor, the AV-8B Harrier II. The F-35 has an Anglo-American pedigree, too. As everyone I talk to at Forth Worth and Pax is keen to stress, 15 per cent of each F-35 put into service over the next 25 years will be made in Britain. From Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems to Martin-Baker, the family-run manufacturer of the world’s finest ejector seats, and a further 130 companies spread, serendipitously – not by political design – the length and breadth of the country, British industry will continue to take part in the design and manufacture of military aircraft, their weapons, equipment and software.

'It’s impossible for Britain to go it alone,’ says Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, the head of RAF Strike Command, 2003-6, Commander in Chief of British forces in Iraq in 2003 and, today, very much involved with Italian-built I F-35s – the only aircraft to be built outside Texas – as the vice-president of strategic marketing for Finmeccanica UK. A highly experienced pilot with a first-class Cambridge degree in physics, Burridge is also a member of the council of the Defence Manufacturers Association.

'The MoD has to think very hard in its 2015 review whether it wishes to develop the Typhoon, or to buy further F-35s and nothing else,’ he says. 'This would have quite profound consequences for European industry. Not to develop the Typhoon, which still has potential sales in Oman, UAE, Saudi and Malaysia, would mean that British expertise would wither on the vine.’

Burridge, like others concerned for British and European industry, would like to see F-35s operating alongside upgraded Typhoons. But economic conditions, the ways of warfare and the public’s diminishing appetite for deaths of soldiers and civilians are having an effect on the very nature of fighter aircraft. 'We could go 100 per cent unmanned after F-35,’ Burridge says. 'It’s a plausible position; but there’s a limit, politically and morally, to robotic warfare, and a lot of questions concerning the ethics of extra-territorial attacks and extra-judicial killings.’

Shortly before Christmas Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton, Chief of the Air Staff, announced the formation of a new grouping known as Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) pilots. Because they will have to gain basic flying qualifications, this new generation of pilots will wear the same 'wings’ RAF pilots have cherished for generations. The 'lethal precision of their weapons’, Sir Stephen told the Royal United Services Institute, means that RPAS pilots will be seen increasingly as 'a cost-effective way to conduct warfare’. They will not be chasing the shouting wind alone in the cockpits of Typhoons, nor flying F-35s through footless halls of air; instead, they will be flying computer screens in remote underground bunkers.

'We’re making these [F-35s] for our kids to fly,’ Steve O’Bryan says, meaning future generations. Military pilots such as Jim Schofield, Harv Smyth, 'Wizzer’ Wilson, Billy Flynn and Brian Burridge will always want to fly in real airspace, and yet it is chastening to learn that the X-35B, the prototype F-35B, is already perched silently in the Boeing Aviation Hangar of the Smithsonian Institution in Virginia – a museum piece. Today’s fifth-generation fighter, hugely impressive, deeply seductive, upgradable and so very important and perhaps necessary to so many people’s security, jobs and freedom, is, oddly, already beginning to seem a part of military aviation history.

www.telegraph.co.uk

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mer 16 Jan 2013 - 16:25

Le F35 manque encore de maturité............
http://www.opex360.com/2013/01/16/le-f-35-manque-encore-de-maturite/

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mar 22 Jan 2013 - 13:57

Le F35 clouer au sol "encore"....
http://www.opex360.com/2013/01/21/le-f-35b-encore-cloue-au-sol/

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mer 23 Jan 2013 - 11:47

Citation :: F-35C Completes First In-Flight Dual Refueling

Photo by Andy Wolfe

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., Jan. 22, 2013 - For the first time, two Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35C Lightning II carrier variant test aircraft refueled together with a Lockheed Martin KC-130 Hercules in the sky above Patuxent River, Md. recently. The CV aircraft, known as CF-1 and CF-2, completed the milestone as part of an F-35 flight test program that will accomplish more than 1,000 flights in 2013. Later this year, Eglin AFB, Fla., will receive its first CV aircraft joining the F-35 pilot and maintainer training program there.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 120,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

lockheedmartin

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Sam 26 Jan 2013 - 22:28

Citation :: Last week, a KC-130 refueled two F-35C carrier variants at the same time for the first time.

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mar 29 Jan 2013 - 9:39

Citation :

Engineers discover culprit behind F-35B fueldraulic line failure

Engineers working on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) have identified the likely culprit behind a fueldraulic line failure on 16 January that led to the temporary grounding of the US Marine Corps' B-model aircraft.

"Government and industry engineering teams investigating the origins of a failed propulsion fueldraulic line on an F-35B Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant have identified the probable cause and are developing a return to flight plan to lift the suspension of flight operations," the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) says.

According to the JPO, engineers have ruled out any design or maintenance problems. "Evidence revealed a quality discrepancy from the company that produces the fueldraulics line," the JPO says. "The investigation determined the line was improperly crimped."

JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 GetAsset

JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 GetAsset

Lockheed Martin

The investigating team found that six other aircraft had the same manufacturing defect. The faulty parts have been returned to F-35 propulsion system prime contractor Pratt & Whitney for replacement. The fueldraulic line is built by Stratoflex. The company, along with Rolls-Royce and Pratt &Whitney, has "instituted corrective actions to improve their quality control processes and ensure part integrity," the JPO says.

The fueldraulic line powers the actuator movement for the F-35B's STOVL vectoring exhaust system. Instead of traditional hydraulic fluid, the system uses fuel as the operating fluid to reduce weight.

NAVAIR and the JPO are currently "developing a return to flight plan which details the removal and inspection requirements of currently installed fueldraulic lines on the 25 F-35B variants affected by the flight suspension." The B-model has been grounded since 18 January, but the US Air Force's F-35A and US Navy F-35C were not affected.

flightglobal

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mar 29 Jan 2013 - 10:33

Citation :: F-35 Flight Test at Edwards AFB

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Mer 30 Jan 2013 - 11:29

Citation :: Sales of F-35 fighters to Israel could violate Japan's export ban

Potential U.S. sales of F-35 stealth fighter jets, which include Japanese-made parts, to Israel could send Japan into turbulence because of the nation's ban on weapons exports to designated countries.

Lockheed Martin Corp. of the United States is developing the radar-evading aircraft. Japan has allocated 29.9 billion yen ($330 million) to acquire two F-35s--the first to be manufactured with the participation of Japanese companies--in the draft fiscal 2013 budget adopted on Jan. 29.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera admitted at a news conference the same day that F-35s that use Japanese parts may be exported to Israel.

The sale would conflict with the government’s three principles on arms exports, which ban exports to communist countries, countries subject to arms export embargoes under U.N. Security Council resolutions and countries involved in or likely to be involved in international conflicts.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said maintaining consistency with the ban is “under discussion within the government.”

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will consider granting an exemption, but allowing such exceptions could undermine the three principles and render them meaningless.

In 2011, the previous Democratic Party of Japan government relaxed the three principles and exempted exports of weapons that are jointly developed with foreign countries and contribute to national security.

But the relaxation was based on the assumption that countries participating in weapons development will maintain strict controls when selling to other countries.

The government's position is that the principles “are based on the peace-loving nation’s idea that exacerbation of international conflicts should be avoided.”

Israel is embroiled in ongoing military and political tensions with surrounding nations in the Middle East, and its acquisition of the sophisticated F-35s, which feature some of the most advanced capabilities in a military fighter aircraft in the world, could lead to fomenting hostilities.

Until the principles were relaxed in 2011, the government had allowed an exemption on a case-by-case basis, and the chief Cabinet secretary had announced the decision each time.

In relaxing the principles in 2011, however, general standards to admit exemptions were introduced, and that has made it ambiguous as to how the government should consider waiving the prohibition, or if it needs to, as well as how it should announce such a decision.

ajw.asahi.com

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Sujet: Re: JSF F-35 Lightning II Jeu 31 Jan 2013 - 12:02

Citation :: 100th F-35 On Lockheed Martin’s Production Line

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 30, 2013 – Assembly of the 100th Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Lightning II is well underway at the F-35 production facility here. F-35 technicians are in the final phase of building the wings that will be installed on the 100th aircraft known as AF-41. AF-41, a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, is one of 88 F-35s in various stages of completion on Lockheed Martin production lines Fort Worth and Marietta, Ga., and supplier locations across the world. The jet will be delivered to the U.S. Air Force and is slated for pilot training at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 120,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The Corporation’s net sales for 2012 were $47.2 billion.

www.lockheedmartin.com

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Citation :: Lockheed F-35 program head to retire

Tom Burbage, a former Navy fighter pilot who ran Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for 13 years, plans to retire at the end of March, Lockheed said on Thursday.

"After 32 years of working with Lockheed Martin and legacy divisions, Tom Burbage has decided to retire. His impact to the F-35 Program and other areas of aeronautics is immeasurable," said Lockheed spokeswoman Laura Siebert.

Siebert said no successor had been announced yet, but Steve O'Bryan, who oversees international programs for the F-35, is widely seen as the likely candidate to take over from Burbage.

Burbage, who had long signaled his plans to retire this year, joined Lockheed in 1980 after 11 years of active duty in the Navy, where he logged more than 3,000 flight hours in 38 types of military aircraft. He retired as a captain in the Naval Reserve in 1994.

Burbage took over as executive vice president and general manager of the F-35 program in 2000, and helped lead Lockheed's successful bid to win the biggest weapons program in history. It beat out Boeing Co for the contract -- now valued at $396 billion over the next two decades -- in October 2001.

Before that he ran Lockheed's F-22 fighter program and oversaw Lockheed's operations in Marietta, Georgia.

The change in leadership comes at a critical time for Lockheed, which is building three models of the new warplane for the U.S. military and eight countries helping to fund the plane's development: Britain, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Turkey, and the Netherlands.

All 25 Marine Corps versions of the F-35, which take off from shorter runways and land like a helicopter, are currently grounded after a problem with a fuel line during a training flight. Flights are expected to resume next week or sooner, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Mounting budget pressures have intensified scrutiny of the F-35 program, which has been restructured three times in recent years to allow more time for technologies to mature before the company ramps up production.

Burbage gave a wide-ranging speech about the history of the F-35 program to the Royal Aeronautical Society at the British embassy in Washington in November, noting that it was 21 percent ahead of schedule with test flights at that point.

After the speech, he told Reuters that he felt positive about the F-35 program after the ups and downs of recent years.

"I'm pretty sanguine about most everything on this program," he said at the time. "It's all going to be fine. The progress that we're making right now is pretty dramatic, and that's in all areas."

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; editing by Andrew Hay)

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/01/31/lockheed-f-35-program-head-to-retire/#ixzz2JdtxpQp4

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

C'est pour Yaku le tech et les autres collegues.

AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System for the F-35 or DAS ,new tech for F35 awsome

Citation :

IN FOCUS: Lockheed claims F-35 kinematics ‘better than or equal to’ Typhoon or Super HornetLockheed Martin is claiming that all three versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will have kinematic performance better than or equal to any combat-configured fourth-generation fighter. The comparison includes transonic acceleration performance versus an air-to-air configured Eurofighter Typhoon and high angle-of-attack flight performance vis-à-vis the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
"The F-35 is comparable or better in every one of those metrics, sometimes by a significant margin, in both air-to-air, and when we hog-up those fourth-generation fighters, for the air-to-ground mission," says Billy Flynn, a Lockheed test pilot who is responsible for flight envelope expansion activities for all three variants.
But the Lockheed claims are strongly disputed by other sources, including one veteran Super Hornet test pilot with thousands of hours in that aircraft. "These claims are technically inaccurate from my point of view as a professional test pilot," he says. "An aircraft with small control surfaces intended for stealth cannot produce such fantastical results in maneuverability; a little wing cannot produce a lot of lift period."

Lockheed Martin

Flynn says "that the F-35 can go out on any given day, and we have, gone to the red line of the airplane" with a full internal weapons load. Going to the limits of the aircraft's envelope with a full load of weapons is "inconceivable in any of the other fourth-generation airplanes, including Typhoon, which most would say has the best performance of those four fourth-gen jets," says Flynn, who is a former test pilot for the Eurofighter and Lockheed F-16. All variants of the F-35 are capable of flying at Mach 1.6 and 50° angle-of-attack, he says. The A and C models have a maximum speed of 700 knots calibrated airspeed (KCAS-1296 km/h) while the F-35B can fly at 630 KCAS (1167 Km/h). The A, B and C variant are rated at 9g, 7g and 7.5g's respectively.
But at issue is exactly what constitutes a combat load out. An F-35 loaded up with two 2000lbs bombs and two air-to-air missiles internally is not carrying an equivalent payload to a Eurofighter Typhoon with four 2000lbs bombs and five air-to-air missiles or a Super Hornet armed with a mix of bombs and air-to-air missiles. "What was the combat load out?" the Super Hornet pilot asks. "If you compare apples and oranges --you can make claims like that." One highly experienced pilot flying the Lockheed F-22 Raptor adds, "They need to compare the performances based on similar amounts of ordnance carriage."
Another point that must be considered, however, is that the F-35 will only be relying on its internal weapons payload during operations against a very robust threat environment. "Internal carriage is only required if you need the stealth," another F-22 pilot says. "At which point a fourth generation jet may not even be able to deliver on the target."

Eurofighter

Stealth is a point that Lockheed emphasizes. "The game-changer is stealth," Flynn says. "No one is going to see us coming or going." But exactly how many targets an F-35 could attack with its internal payload versus a non-stealth platform during a campaign is debatable. "There is a whole other story on how many targets the F-35 could hit with the limited internal carry versus the fourth-gen plus jets," the second Raptor pilot says.
Asked to address the issue of transonic acceleration compared to the best performing fourth-generation machines, in this case an air-to-air configured Typhoon, Flynn reiterated that the F-35 was better than or equal to that aircraft. Even with the reduced transonic acceleration times mentioned in the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation 2012 report, the F-35, including the C-model which had its specifications reduced by 43 seconds, still out accelerates competing aircraft in a combat configuration, he says.
But others are skeptical. "Forty-three seconds tells me there is a massive decrease in the expected performance because of some serious shortcomings," the Super Hornet pilot says. "How that's parlayed into 'we're better than the rest of the world combined' on every measure, I don't know, and I don't believe it." More important is the question of how the reduction in performance impacts aircraft survivability. "So what if you can accelerate better than a [F-16] Viper or Typhoon, can you live against an SA-20?" asks the second F-22 pilot.

Lockheed Martin

If one were to overlay the energy-maneuverability (E-M) diagrams for the F/A-18, F-16 or Typhoon over the F-35's, "It is better. Comparable or better than every Western fourth-generation fighter out there," Flynn says. That applies even to the F-35 B and C models with their respective 7g and 7.5g limits. "You're not going to see any measurable difference between the aircraft," Flynn says. In terms of instantaneous and sustained turn rates and just about every other performance metric, the F-35 variants match or considerably exceed the capabilities of every fourth-generation fighter, he says.
The first F-22 pilot says he is surprised to hear that there are already E-M diagrams available. "The reality is that I would be floored if they had accurate E-M diagrams right now," he says. "They are probably computer generated, and very inaccurate. Also, 'real' E-M diagrams come from OT/DT [operational test/developmental test], not the contractor."
In terms of high angle of attack (AOA) performance, Flynn says the F-35 is better than the Boeing F/A-18E/F, even though the Super Hornet is capable of reaching higher angles than the JSF's limit of 50°. "We are better than any airplane out there," says Flynn, a veteran Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet pilot who has also flown thrust-vectored prototype variants of the F-16 and F/A-18 Hornet at NASA. "You can go to higher degrees of angle-of-attack in the F/A-18, the flight control system will not limit you, but that's not necessarily controlled flight." In the F/A-18, Flynn says that past 50° there is a lot of very violent buffeting.

NASA

"You maneuver the airplane much like an F-22 or a lot like I maneuvered the prototype F-16 20 years ago with thrust vectoring," Flynn says. "You maneuver the airplane back and forth with amazing controllability at the highest degree of angle-of-attack, and that is not the case with the only other Western airplane that can go to high AOA, the F/A-18." The one other exception is the Raptor, which Flynn does acknowledge as having better high AOA performance than the F-35 due to its thrust vectoring capability. The Typhoon, by comparison, has a 25° AOA limit. In the F-35, Lockheed made the decision to limit the AOA to 50°, but test pilots have flown the aircraft well past that.
The high AOA limit gives the F-35 "great" instantaneous turn performance. "We knew that 50°, from our years of research, is about as far as you need to go to take advantage of the aerodynamic performance" of the jet, Flynn says. "There is no reason to be there [at extreme AOA]; you're not going to get much more capability at 75° than you would at 50°." The limiter will allow an F-35 pilot to fly with "reckless abandon", which Flynn says is not possible in a Hornet because an F/A-18 can depart from controlled flight.
Both Raptor pilots take strong exception to the phrase "reckless abandon" that Flynn uses. The same terminology was used in the F-22 Dash-1 manual until one particular incident where a Raptor pilot experienced an "inverted spiral". Both say using the phrase is a serious mistake.

US Navy

The Super Hornet test pilot, who also has thousands of hours in the older A to D model Hornets, refutes Flynn's statement as dated. He clarifies that early model F/A-18 Hornets could depart from controlled flight if maneuvered very aggressively at high AOA with a heavy external weapons load back during the 1980s. Subsequent updates to the flight control system, particularly the 10.7 software load, "has made all the older Hornets extremely robust and very maneuverable and with a great deal of departure resistance," he says.
The Super Hornet has always been extremely capable at high angles of attack right from the outset. "We have no angle of attack limits in any symmetric configuration, and we can maneuver without any lateral stick or pedal input limitations at any angle of attack. The Super Hornet still has complete roll control at 50° AOA and has demonstrated this many times while flying at low altitude with a full combat load because there is no departure issue," the Super Hornet pilot says.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed declined to compare F-35 performance to clean configuration fourth-generation fighters saying such comparisons are irrelevant. "This comparison doesn't mean much, because a clean fourth-gen isn't carrying weapons," the second F-22 pilot says. The assumption for such a comparison would mean that a fourth generation fighter was forced to jettison its weapons and, if taken literally, its weapons pylons too. "Losing pylons is not a good thing during a protracted air campaign," he says.

flightglobal

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

impossible qu´il soit equivalent a ses 2 la,surtout pas l´EF,encore il emporte pas leur loading

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 A10-na10

Et le Rafale ........ JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Icon_mrg

Citation :

Northrop Grumman AAQ-37 Sensor System Demonstrates Hostile Fire Detection Capability AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System Detects and Locates Hostile Ground Fire
BALTIMORE, Feb. 11, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) AN/AAQ-37 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (DAS), developed for the F-35 Lightning II, has added hostile ground fire detection to its capabilities by successfully detecting and locating tanks that were firing live rounds during preparations for a military exercise. A video accompanying this release is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/fHZO0T5mDYU. While being flown on Northrop Grumman's BAC 1-11 test aircraft, the DAS detected and located tank fire from an operationally significant distance. In addition to artillery, the system is able to simultaneously detect and pinpoint the location of rockets and anti-aircraft artillery fired in a wide area. The AN/AAQ-37 DAS provides passive spherical awareness for the F-35, detecting and tracking aircraft and missiles in every direction simultaneously, providing visual imagery for day or night navigation and targeting purposes. "The DAS continues to show its ability to gather and analyze data for a wide range of missions not initially contemplated for this sensor system. These flight test results are just the latest example of the situational awareness capability of this revolutionary technology in action," said Mark Rossi, Northrop Grumman's DAS business area director. Although hostile fire detection is not an F-35 requirement for the DAS, the system design makes it ideal for this mission. This inherent capability enables DAS to harvest, process and deliver key battlespace information to ground forces and other aircraft autonomously, without the need for cueing or increasing pilot workload. The ability to gather this live fire data expands the mission possibilities of the sensor to include close air support and ground fire targeting. Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cybersecurity, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information. CONTACT: Alleace Gibbs 410-765-1294 alleace.gibbs@ngc.com

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JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Le Prophéte (saw) a dit: Les Hommes Les meilleurs sont ceux qui sont les plus utiles aux autres JSF F-35 Lightning II - Page 26 Star3

Citation :: F-35 grounding latest setback for troubled program

Defense officials have grounded Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II over an engine problem, POLITICO learned Friday, in the latest setback for the world’s most expensive weapons program one week before automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions are set to take their bite.
The Defense Department has suspended flight operations for all three variants of the F-35 as a “precautionary measure,” officials said. The suspension comes after engineers discovered a crack in an F-35 engine blade in California, according to Kyra Hawn, a spokeswoman for the F-35 Joint Program Office.

Inspectors found a crack in a low-pressure turbine blade aboard an Air Force-model F-35A on Tuesday, Hawn said in a statement, and engineers are sending it back to manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut for “thorough evaluation and root cause analysis.”
Meanwhile, however, “as a precautionary measure, all F-35 flight operations have been suspended until the investigation is complete and the cause of the blade crack is fully understood,” Hawn said. “The F-35 Joint Program Office is working closely with Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin at all F-35 locations to ensure the integrity of the engine, and to return the fleet safely to flight as soon as possible.”
Lockheed Martin said it’s working with a “joint inspection team” to ensure “the integrity of the engines across the entire fleet so the F-35s can safely return to flight as soon as possible.”
“Lockheed Martin is fully engaged and working closely with the JPO and Pratt & Whitney to determine the root cause of the blade crack found during a routine inspection of an F135 engine on an F-35A at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,” the company said in a statement. “Safety is always our first consideration.”
Pratt & Whitney said that until it completes its investigation of the cracked turbine blade, “it is too soon to tell if there is a fleet wide safety concern” but the grounding makes sense just in case.
The jets have suffered from several problems over the past decade, most recently last month, when an issue was discovered aboard an F-35B, the Marine Corps variant, prior to takeoff. The incident led to the grounding of all 25 F-35Bs for several weeks as government and industry engineers investigated the problem, later attributed to the fueldraulic hose being “improperly crimped,” said Joe DellaVedova, another spokesman for the F-35 office. The B-model later returned to flight.
F-35s have been grounded before over electrical system problems.

http://www.politico.com

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."قال الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم : "أيما امرأة استعطرت فمرّت بقوم ليجدوا ريحها فهي زانية

usine aemmerdent ce programme................... Rolling Eyes

Invité

Un budget 70 pour cent plus élevé que ce qu'on a prévu Shocked

Du miel pour attirer ,des yeux pour pleurer aprés...................