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Subject: F-35 news thread III
jessmo_24    1/12/2011 7:23:24 AM
BF-2s 1st vertical landing. *ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS3ngl1GcaI&feature=player_embedded NAVAIRSYSCOM 10 Jan 2011 "F-35B test aircraft BF-2 accomplishes its first vertical landing and conversion back to normal flight mode at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The integrated test team is testing both the STOVL and carrier variants of the F-35 for delivery to the fleet. Video courtesy Lockheed Martin."
 
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keffler25       5/20/2015 12:27:59 AM
You need an LSO to land on and after trap or touchdown on marker, a spotting team (tractor [driver] for plane and at least two guidesmen to keep perimeter watch around the plane as it moves, the guidesmen with chocks at the ready, so you don't roller skate off the flight deck or bump into things as you move the plane to a parking spot for service.   
 
I suppose that's the three required for VTOL or STOBAR. Normal being claimed as abnormal here. (SARCASM)   
 
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jessmo_24       5/21/2015 9:22:35 PM
Wasp class ship sinks from F-35s landing and burning a hole through the deck, and down to the earths core, END SARC
 
Here is a vid of testing
 
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HR    Jessmo   5/22/2015 4:24:54 PM
The drones might be used as bomb-trucks and as decoys... flying alongside the F-35s. You see, right now if an F-35 sights an enemy fighter and it is out of missiles it can fired at it with the missiles of one of its companion F-35 that might not even be aware of the new enemy. So the drones would be a simple extension of that ability to carry more missiles.
 
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keffler25       5/22/2015 5:11:40 PM
That's not how it works. Lol. 
 
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jessmo_24       5/23/2015 12:28:16 AM

 

http://www.defensenews.com/story/military/2015/05/21/air-force-a10-sideline-f35-maintainers/27721491/

The Air Force is moving a small group of airmen off the A-10 to help get the next-generation F-35 operational. But more must be done to help the Air Force meet the August 2016 target date, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the director of the Air Force's F-35 Integration Office, told reporters Thursday.

The service is moving 18 A-10s to backup status, under a compromise approved in the fiscal 2015 Defense Authorization Act. That frees up a small number of airmen to get the F-35 ready. However, the service needs at least 1,100 maintainers -- and possibly some leniency from Congress -- to reach the August 2016 milestone.

There isn't much time remaining, Harrigian said.

"We've got work to do, because it's going to depend on what Congress is saying," he said.

The Air Force is standing up the first operational base of F-35s at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, with training now beginning at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. The service needs its maintainers ready to start training by late summer to have them ready to get the F-35 to initial operating capability by August 2016.

The 2015 law lets the Air Force move up to 36 A-10s to "backup" non-flying status. The service said earlier this year it was moving 18 to that status – nine from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; six from Moody Air Force Base, Georgia; and three from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. All of these are from active-duty squadrons, and the service could sideline the rest of the authorized 36 this year if it needs to. The service has 283 total A-10s.

Despite the maintenance manning issues, the service is still confident it will reach initial operating capability on time. Even if that deadline is met, the service needs to keep working to get airmen ready for the F-35 so it can reach full operational capability by next summer and stand up the first Air National Guard Base at Burlington International Airport, Vermont, along with the first Pacific base at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and the first European base at RAF Lakenheath, England.

The service will need to evaluate how many airmen are leaving the service through accessions, along with the requirement to keep the rest of its fourth-generation fleet of A-10s, F-15s and F-16s flying while trying to stand up the F-35.

"The plan to get to IOC is solid, but as we move beyond IOC, we've got some work to do to sort out, through accessions, what's the right level we have to have in our maintenance fleet," Harrigian said.

The Air Force does not see the demand of the rest of its fighter fleet decreasing, so it needs to stay capable with those aircraft while still bringing F-35s in, he said.

This is all dependent on what Congress lets the Air Force do, with all action on the fiscal 2016 National Defense Authorization Act so far blocking the service from retiring A-10s.

The service doesn't have a Plan B yet. The Air Force, by this fall, needs to have a plan to address its need for manpower, Harrigian said.

The Air Force still hasn't received the first 12 aircraft that it plans to send to Hill to stand up the first operational squadron. The first of the group, tail number 77, is still at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The jet will then need to be upgraded immediately, even though it is still on the production line, he said. The jet will need some upgrades at the depot at Hill, along with other upgrades at the base to reach the planned operational level of Block 3i software. This includes the ability to carry three internal weapons, along with basic ability to do missions such as close air support, air interdiction, destruction of enemy defenses and strategic suppression of enemy air defenses.

"We'd like to think it's easy, but it's hard," Harrigian said.
 
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jessmo_24       5/23/2015 4:08:54 AM
Laser Planes: Air Force Fighter To Fire 100 kW By 2022
18 May 2015 Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

"PENTAGON: By 2022, the US Air Force wants to fire a 100-plus-kilowatt laser from an airplane. And not just any airplane, Air Force Research Laboratory officials made clear on Thursday. In stark contrast to the megawatt Airborne Laser cancelled in 2011, which filled a converted 747, the 2022 demonstration will be fired from a fighter.

Star Wars fans, calm down: This isn’t a real-world X-Wing. It probably won’t even be an F-35A, the planned mainstay of the future Air Force, because that’s a stealth aircraft that carries its weapons internally to reduce its profile on radar, while the 2022 weapon will be built into an external weapons pod....

...A typical modern fighter like the F-16 can carry at most six air-to-air missiles. Shoot six times, hit or miss, and it’s back to base to re-arm. By contrast, said Gunzinger, a laser-armed aircraft could just head back to the tanker. “Instead of landing to reload, air refueling would ‘reload’ [laser]-equipped aircraft in flight,” he said. They could keep fighting until the pilot couldn’t take it any more — or, if unmanned, for longer than any human could endure.

“There are several developmental lasers, including HELLADS, that are making great progress” towards making a weapon compact enough for an aircraft, Gunzinger told me. “Aircraft-based laser weapons could be a near-term reality.”...

...From space, from the air, or from the surface, lasers have genuinely revolutionary potential. “The term game changing is thrown around pretty loosely,” Deptula said, but here it fits. “Since Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier, in the late forties, we’ve been engaging at the speed of sound,” he told me. Now the US, Russia, and China are all developing hypersonic weapons that can travel at Mach 5 or more. But with lasers, he said, “now you’re talking about engaging at the speed of light.”"

Photo/Artwork: "Air Force artwork of a future dogfight with lasers." http://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/u ... 00-001.jpg
 
 
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jessmo_24       5/23/2015 4:15:17 AM
 
General Atomics Claims Laser Weapon Advance

Aviation Week & Space Technology , Feb 16, 2015 , Bill Sweetman

General Atomics (GA) has completed laboratory tests of what it calls its “third-generation laser system,” saying that the weapon sets new standards in efficiency, beam quality and system weight. According to an industry source, the company says the new laser will deliver 150 kw of energy, with three times higher beam quality than the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) now being tested by the U.S. Navy on the amphibious warfare ship Ponce, and will be able to fire 10 shots between 3-min.-long -recharges.

Moreover, the laser is being designed as part of a 3,000-lb. self-contained package that can be installed in the weapon/payload bay of the company’s Avenger turbofan-powered unmanned air vehicle. The same industry source suggests that GA’s technology is mature enough to fly on an Avenger within 18 months, given adequate funding.

According to analyst Mark Gunzinger of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), a 150-kw laser “with decent beam quality” would be a step above previous electrically powered laser weapons, which have demonstrated the ability to engage targets such as mortar rounds and small unmanned air vehicles. The new weapon could be “effective against air-to-air missiles, and against cruise missiles using a crossing shot,” he surmises.
cant find the original source. So Im linking to it on f-16. Notice the F-35 in the concept
 
 
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jessmo_24       5/23/2015 4:16:07 AM
Guys, is this a game changer? is 6th gen based around a combo of DEW and stealth?
 
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keffler25       5/23/2015 10:53:31 AM
Don't know yet.  Wait for December.
 
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HR    jessmo   5/23/2015 5:29:11 PM
Besides bomb-trucks and decoys that could deploy with the F-35 I have another bit of news on this thread... you mentioned the A-10... well, Boeing is talking about taking the decommissioned aircrafts, refurbishing them and re-selling them to other countries. This is an interesting piece of information and refurbished A-10 would be available to third world countries for a number of roles... maybe to countries like the Philippines!
 
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