F-35 Lightning II (Lockheed Martin)

[Terminator]

700,000+ Flight Hours...

 

[Terminator]

The US Marines just landed an F-35B Joint Strike Fighter on an old 50-foot-wide highway in Southern California, refueled and rearmed, and took back off again...

 

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First Belgian F-35 Enters Final Assembly Stage...

 

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Four Italian F-35 Jets Have Arrived In Japan Completing A +10,000 Km Trip From Italy...

 

[Roni]

Értem én hogy sok f.-35 gépet építettek de mennyi van a jenkiknél szolgálatban ?

 

[Terminator]

Lockheed Could Adapt F-22 Stealth Fuel Tanks for the F-35?

 

[Terminator]

The Ministry of Defence and the Defence Safety Authority have released the findings of the Service Inquiry into the loss of the F-35B Lightning ZM152 (BK-18) of 617 Squadron. The aircraft, which was stationed on the HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, crashed into the Mediterranean around 11:00 hrs local time on 17th November 2021...

 

[Terminator]

‘Regional hub’ for F-35 work: Australia boots up stealth coating factory for Indo-Pacific

Not only does the Williamtown stealth-coating facility provide Australia with a valuable sovereign capability and cut down on cumbersome timelines for sustaining Australian F-35s in the United States, it will also serve as a second source of service for US aircraft in the region...

 

[Terminator]

A Lockheed Martin azt állítja, hogy jelenleg az F-35 alkatrészeinek mintegy 25%-át Európában gyártják...

 

[Terminator]

 

[perceptron]

The F-35 Strike Fighter Continues to Be a Massive Waste of Taxpayer Money

But hey, one day, the thing might really be something, so get in on the ground floor while you can.

www.esquire.com

The F-35 Strike Fighter Continues to Be a Massive Waste of Taxpayer Money

Charles P. Pierce
7 - 9 minutes

With everything else that's going on, we've lost track of one of the shebeen's favorite obsessions — the F-35 strike fighter, aka The Flying Swiss Army Knife, aka The Great Money Pit in the sky. Fortune (via Yahoo Finance) would like you to know that, while the F-35 continues to be an historic lemon, Lockheed-Martin has managed to make some sweet, sweet lemonade out of it.

Almost since the F-35 program was announced in 2001, it has been the symbol of America’s dysfunctional military-industrial complex. The jet is 10 years behind schedule for final approval and almost 80% over budget, its production repeatedly stalled by defects and miscalculations...Nonetheless, Germany ended up buying nearly 40 of the jets, at a reported cost of $8 billion. Soon after Scholz’s speech, Canada announced that it wanted 88 planes. As the war in Ukraine dragged on, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Singapore all expressed interest in the F-35. And this came on the heels of massive new orders in 2021 from Finland and even the famously neutral Swiss.

One of the defects was that the plane had trouble working in the rain. Nevertheless, Lockheed Martin is selling these planes with both fists overseas.

The program is also a measure of the health of Lockheed Martin, the largest weapons company that has ever existed. Lockheed brought in about $66 billion in revenue in 2022, virtually all of it for arms. (The company makes missiles, missile defense systems, warships, and a host of other combat aircraft, among other products.) It sits at the top of an industry that’s more important to national security than ever: About 58% of the Pentagon budget went to private contractors in 2020, the highest share in 20 years, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Ultimately, the F-35 is a test case of Lockheed’s and the Pentagon’s ability to deliver results. Put simply, the calculus runs like this: Either the F-35 was a massive waste of resources—the worst-ever example of the defense industry overpromising and underdelivering—or it was a savvy long-term investment that gives America and its allies a substantial advantage over their enemies.

If that's not the definition of what Rep. Barney Frank used to call "military Keynesianism," I don't know what is. Sure this boondoggle has cost the sucke...er...taxpayers a few trillion dollars that could have been spent elsewhere, but, hey, one day, the thing might really be something, so get in on the ground floor while you can. Oh, and by the way, two decades of glitches were exactly what we needed to make great leaps skyward.

Contrary to popular belief...the F-35 does work. Lockheed has delivered about 960 of the jets so far, with about 630 going to the U.S. military—and the plane has performed effectively in combat multiple times. The F-35 has yet to face protracted battle against a sophisticated foreign military. But if or when it does, its design incorporates technological breakthroughs that could confer a huge edge in battle, enabling it to evade detection while linking U.S. and allied forces in a data-sharing network that could outmaneuver and overwhelm an enemy. The F-35 is indeed plagued by cost overruns and delays. But those problems are inextricably linked to the advances that have gradually won over pilots and governments—advances that until recently have, almost literally, flown under the radar.

Great. Here's what some of those advances have cost you, me, and the rest of the country.

In the late 1990s, Lockheed won the Pentagon contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter. But the program was a fiasco almost from the start. Lockheed and the Pentagon immediately slammed into technological hurdles. The F-35 version for the Marines, which was designed to take off vertically rather than from a runway, proved to be exceedingly difficult to get right. (The program eventually abandoned the uniform-chassis idea.) By late 2009 Lockheed had delivered only four of 13 promised test aircraft. The number of labor hours it took to build each plane had ballooned by about 50%. The effort was also plagued by the Pentagon’s decision to make the program “concurrent,” which meant that Lockheed was contracted to keep building F-35s even as it invented capabilities that impacted their design—which in turn required the government to pay for constant upgrades to earlier versions of the jets.

Ah, good old Uncle Sucker, always good for a bailout, as long as he doesn't use that ejector seat, I guess.

Over the next decade, the F-35 continued to falter in very public ways. In 2015, it performed poorly in a dogfight against older F-16s. Its engine, made by subcontractor Pratt & Whitney, burned so hot that it turned atmospheric sand and grit into glass inside the plane, hurting performance and requiring redesigns. And yet, as new capabilities were added to the F-35, it became apparent that the engine wasn’t powerful enough to provide energy to cool the plane’s internal systems. Maybe most frustrating, the F-35 required several million lines of software code to operate. That code, like all code, turned out to be buggy and in need of constant rewriting. By 2021, the cost of the F-35 had nearly doubled—overall outlays for the project, originally estimated at $233 billion for the first 20 years, had in fact reached $416 billion.

The piece then goes to a place of wonderment at the technological marvel that all these overruns hath wrought, before returning once again to what the marvel has cost the rest of us.

But the system’s long, slow development illuminates the core of Lockheed Martin’s business strategy. The company is patient, quietly matching its engineering talent against the desires of the Pentagon until it achieves the right fit. It’s sort of like building a house when the client keeps asking you to add new rooms and, along the way, to invent a new kind of air-conditioning system. At the same time, Lockheed endures public humiliation in the town square of congressional hearings. One hangover from the F-35’s 2010 budget crisis: Every year, Congress’s General Accounting Office publishes an audit of the program, which inevitably (and accurately) reports that the F-35 is late and over budget—stoking more ugly headlines.

Every improvement, it seems, begets expense, delays, or both.

You think? This is the thinking behind the derisive nickname, The Flying Swiss Army Knife. Originally, the F-35 was supposed to be a replacement for the A-10 "Warthog," a kind of flying tank beloved. by infantrymen. Interservice rivalries and the limitless military-industrial troughs soon pushed it beyond its original mission of close air support. All of the services wanted their own version. (The Marines wanted a vertical takeoff plane.) Now, if you listen to the people making a buck off it, through grotesquely expensive trial and error, Lockheed Martin has stumbled into inventing the Starship Enterprise. Don't think about all the places all this money would have done the most good. Just keep writing the checks. Lockheed Martin has your best interests in mind.

 

[Roni]

 

[SirHiggins]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1696078615220232391

 

[SirHiggins]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1696078615220232391

Itta teljes, 148 oldalas jelentés is ha vkit érdekel:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1176707/Service_Inquiry_Loss_of_F-35B_Lightning_ZM152_BK-18.pdf

 

[bel]

Sziasztok,

"...40° frontal sector of Su-57 is 8 times higher than a clean F-35A and 7 times higher than F-35A loaded with AIM-9X"

Ez azt jelenti, hogy az X savos radarok atlatnak a zart fegyverajtokon?

 

[Negan]

Sziasztok,

"...40° frontal sector of Su-57 is 8 times higher than a clean F-35A and 7 times higher than F-35A loaded with AIM-9X"

Ez azt jelenti, hogy az X savos radarok atlatnak a zart fegyverajtokon?

Erre a kongfira gondol,külső függesztéssel.

 

[Negan]

Sziasztok,

"...40° frontal sector of Su-57 is 8 times higher than a clean F-35A and 7 times higher than F-35A loaded with AIM-9X"

Ez azt jelenti, hogy az X savos radarok atlatnak a zart fegyverajtokon?

Erre a kongfira gondol,külső függesztéssel.

Azért az elég durva,hogy az általánossan használt frekvenciákon mennyivel rosszabb a Su57 helyzete.VHF tartományban meg jobb-de nyugati VHF radar nincs is....Tudtommal már az utolsó Marconi távolfelderitő VHF radarok is rég kipusztultak.ExVSZ/Szu NATO tagországokban vannak csak VHF radarok,meg radarfejlesztések.
Szóval gyönyörű gép a Su57,nagyságrenddel szebb az F35 gépeknél-csak ez a szépség a harcmezőn nem sokat ér.....

 

[Aladeen]

Izrael további F-35-ösöket vásárol...

Israel to boost Air Force power with new F-35 squadron

In mid-December 2022, an F-35 aircraft crashed in the US, leading both America and Israel to ground a significant portion of their F-35 fleets.

www.jpost.com

 

[Terminator]

700,000+ Flight Hours...

2023 September

 

[Terminator]

WASHINGTON, September 13, 2023 -

The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Republic of Korea of F-35 Aircraft and related equipment for an estimated cost of $5.06 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of the Republic of Korea has requested to buy up to twenty-five (25) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft; and up to twenty-six (26) Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines (25 installed, 1 spare).

Also included are AN/PYQ-10 Simple Key Loaders (SKL); KIV-78 Cryptographic Appliques; Electronic Warfare (EW) Reprogramming Lab support; Cartridge Actuated Devices/Propellant Actuated Devices (CAD/PAD); classified software delivery and support; Contractor Logistics Support (CLS); aircraft and munitions support and support equipment; spare parts, consumables, accessories, and repair/return support; aircraft engine component improvement program (CIP) support; secure communications, precision navigation, and cryptographic devices; major modifications, maintenance, and maintenance support, to include Block 4 upgrade; transportation, ferry, and refueling support; personnel training and training equipment, including simulators; classified and unclassified publications and technical documents; studies and surveys; U.S. Government and engineering, technical, and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated total cost is $5.06 billion.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a major ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in the IndoPacific region.

The proposed sale will improve the Republic of Korea’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing credible defense capability to deter aggression in the region and ensure interoperability with U.S. forces. The proposed sale will augment Korea’s operational aircraft inventory and enhance its air-to-air and airto-ground self-defense capability. Korea already has F-35s in its inventory and will have no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The principal contractors will be Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, TX, and Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, CT. The purchaser typically requests offsets. Any offset agreement will be defined in negotiations between the purchaser and the contractor.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the Republic of Korea.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law. The description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and dollar value based on initial requirements. Actual dollar value will be lower depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded.