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Subject:
F-35 won't work well in hot climates?
reefdiver
4/13/2009 10:57:10 AM
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link
Not necessarily the best source but does bring up some points. Heat management, particulary in light of increasing electronics requirements, has always been a substantial issue for the F-35.
excepts from the article:
....will not fly properly in hot weather
...early versions of the showpiece F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter are ?very limited? in the heat.
...In America, F-35s are only doing limited flying in hot weather while the makers try to fix the problem.
...(the F-35) jets will have limited range and may even have problems landing with weapons on board. That could mean pilots having to dump any bombs that have not been used.
...The F-35 risks overheating because designers want it to be ?stealthy? ? so it won?t show up on enemy radar. That means it can?t have the usual air scoops and vents to cool its engine, since they would show up as infra-red hotspots.
So pilots need lots of fuel on board to keep the jet cool, restricting mission range.
It is an even bigger headache for the British F-35B jump jet model, which already has less range than other versions because its big fan for hovering takes up a lot of fuel space.
Defence Technology International editor-in-chief Bill Sweetman told us: ?JSF in its current form will be very limited in hot-weather performance and modifications intended to fix the problem won?t start to be tested until 2011 or 2012.
?But by that time the UK will be well down the road to building ships that can only operate JSFs.?
The Ministry of Defence admits sorting the F-35 for hot weather is ?a demanding task? but insists they are on top of the problem and ?it is not a programme risk?.
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