Zitat:What’s the biggest problem with the F-35? Well, it’s not what you think! ....

The biggest failing of the F-35 is not any of its physical characteristics or even its cost. No, the biggest failing is its time to operation.

It has taken almost 20 years to get this far and we still don’t have operational aircraft. With respect to the Marine’s delusional and fanatical obsession with IOC, which is just a PR spin event, the F-35 still won’t be operational when they finally declare IOC victory. True operational status won’t be achieved for another 2-5 years, if that. So, we’re looking at an aircraft that will be 20+ years old before its first operational use. Most aircraft are at their prime and beginning to look at their downslope and replacement by that point.

Zitat: Fifteen years ago, the F-35 would have been well designed to meet the threats of that time. With normal upgrades and improvements, it would still be relevant today, if starting to show its age and some limitations as the Chinese threat has evolved.

However, because of the extreme development time, the F-35 will be bordering on obsolete when it enters service. Note, that when I say obsolete, I mean obsolete relative to what it was intended to be. It was intended to be the world’s foremost strike fighter – an aircraft unmatched by any other in the world. Now, in another 2-5 years when the F-35 enters service (we hope! – no guarantees with this aircraft) it will not be the world’s foremost strike fighter. It will not be unmatched in the world.

Zitat:As we begin discussing the next generation aircraft, designers should take careful note of the F-35’s main failing and the lesson to be learned that a short development time is paramount.

One last lesson for future designers – the main, indeed only, way to ensure a quick and achievable fielding time is to scale back the degree of magical, fantasy wish list, leap-ahead technology. Designers should incorporate nothing into a design that can’t be guaranteed 100% achievable in five years time. That would also greatly decrease cost.

Development time should be pegged at five years – not a day beyond – from the first pencil on paper sketch to the delivery of a fully functional aircraft.

Zitat:Es ist schlicht und einfach ein Ding der Unmöglichkeit ein solches Flugzeug in 5 Jahren fertig zu stellen. Dafür ist die notwendige Technik zu komplex. Das heißt insbesondere, dass auch die Feinde dies nicht können und Flugzeuge wie die J-31 ebenfalls entsprechend noch lange brauchen werden bis sie voll einsatzbereit sind.

Zitat:Report to Congressional Committees
April 2015 GAO-15-364 United States Government Accountability Office

Zitat:GAO’s prior work has found that the program has experienced significant cost, schedule, and performance problems.

In 2009, Congress mandated that GAO review the F-35 acquisition program annually for 6 years. This report, GAO's sixth, assesses the program's (1) development and testing progress, (2) cost and affordability, and (3) manufacturing and supply chain performance.

Zitat:The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program had to make unexpected changes to its development and test plans over the last year, largely in response to a structural failure on a durability test aircraft, an engine failure, and software challenges. At the same time, engine reliability is poor and has a long way to go to meet program goals. With nearly 2 years and 40 percent of developmental testing to go, more technical problems are likely. Addressing new problems and improving engine reliability may require additional design changes and retrofits. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense (DOD) has plans to increase annual aircraft procurement from 38 to 90 over the next 5 years. As GAO has previously reported, increasing production while concurrently developing and testing creates risk and could result in additional cost growth and schedule delays in the future.

Cost and affordability challenges remain. DOD plans to significantly increase annual F-35 funding from around $8 billion to nearly $12 billion over the next 5 years (see figure) reaching $14 billion in 2022 and remaining between $14 and $15 billion for nearly a decade. Over the last year, DOD reduced near-term aircraft procurement by 4 aircraft, largely due to budget constraints. While these deferrals may lower annual near-term funding needs, they will likely increase the cost of aircraft procured in that time frame and may increase funding liability in the future. It is unlikely the program will be able to sustain such a high level of annual funding and if required funding levels are not reached, the program’s procurement plan may not be affordable. DOD policy requires affordability analyses to inform long-term investment decisions. The consistent changes in F-35 procurement plans indicate that DOD’s prior analyses did not adequately account for future technical and funding uncertainty.

Zitat:The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter programme is considering integration of a new pod-mounted electronic warfare (EW) capability being developed independently, the deputy programme executive officer told IHS Jane's during the during the Navy League Sea-Air-Space conference on 14 April.

"Fundamentally, it's no different than the application of electronic warfare," Rear Admiral Randy Mahr said of the new kit, which he previously referred to as an "offensive cyber" capability. "You pick a target and you apply a signal to that target."

Rear Adm Mahr declined to name the company developing the capability, noting that such industry internal research and development (IRAD) initiatives are treated as proprietary technology.

He said the company is targeting the F-35 programme for sale of the capability because "they're looking at us and the evolution of the platform. We have the processing capability, and we have the knowledge of the battle space."

The admiral described the capability as a more nuanced application of EW than that of legacy systems. "Until now, we've been trying to disrupt radar," he explained. "The next step is to try to gain control of the weapon system."

Rear Adm Mahr likened the advancement of EW in the new system to the difference between gravity bombs and precision munitions. "So far in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, electronic warfare has been the massive application of a lot of energy; we've been able to direct that energy," he said. "Now we're looking to make that energy smaller and to do something with it. This is to get in to their control systems."

Meanwhile, the F-35 programme is also examining ways to open its architecture to the integration of new technology, Adm Mahr said. "We'd like to be able to open our systems so that we can bring more things in, like this cyber capability," he said. However, opening architectures after an aircraft has been completed is a challenging task, he acknowledged.

Still, there is precedent to opening architectures after the fact. The Boeing AV-8B Harrier and the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet are just two of the Pentagon's aircraft that have been subject to such changes that allowed for technology insertion. Asked when the F-35 might have a completely open architecture, Rear Adm Mahr said: "It's probably a decade away." One of the keys to opening the architecture will be integrating international weapons. Those efforts will help the programme "learn how to integrate things efficiently without have to rebuild the whole system", he said.

Zitat:White House Says F-35s Not For Sale to Gulf Arab States

President Obama’s Camp David summit with the Gulf Arab states on Thursday will seek to boost arms sales to the Gulf neighbors but the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been taken off their wish list.

White House officials on Monday sought to tamp down speculation that King Salman of Saudi Arabia canceled his attendance at Camp David when the U.S. made clear that his country would not be permitted to buy F-35s.

“We do not and never anticipated this to be a summit that only focused on one capability, like the F-35, for instance,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy National Security Advisor to Obama.......

revan schrieb:http://www.dodbuzz.com/2015/05/13/white-house-says-f-35s-not-for-sale-to-gulf-arab-states/

Zitat:White House Says F-35s Not For Sale to Gulf Arab States

President Obama’s Camp David summit with the Gulf Arab states on Thursday will seek to boost arms sales to the Gulf neighbors but the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been taken off their wish list.

White House officials on Monday sought to tamp down speculation that King Salman of Saudi Arabia canceled his attendance at Camp David when the U.S. made clear that his country would not be permitted to buy F-35s.

“We do not and never anticipated this to be a summit that only focused on one capability, like the F-35, for instance,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy National Security Advisor to Obama.......

Nightwatch schrieb:Ich geb ihnen fünf Jahre.

WideMasta schrieb:Richtig so! Und das geht noch nicht weit genug. Die Araber unterstützen unverholen IS. Nichts dürften die mehr bekommen. Nicht eine Patrone

Zitat:Air Force's New Unmanned Strategy Has F-35 Pilots Flying Drones

An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilot will one day control a small fleet of nearby drones from the cockpit while in flight -- according to a new Air Force report on autonomous systems, Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley said.

The Air Force is poised to unveil a new strategy for unmanned aircraft systems next month. The report will discuss more teaming with manned aircraft such as the F-35, greater levels of automation and a wider scope of missions for UAS -- such as transporting cargo......

....Need for Manned Fighters

Despite these developments, Endsley emphasized that software algorithms have not yet progressed to the point such that a remotely flown fighter jet can maneuver and react to fast-changing dynamics in a combat environment anywhere near as effectively as a manned jet[/u].....

Zitat:Laser Fighters: 100 kW Weapons By 2022

PENTAGON: Star Wars fans, calm down. The US Air Force wants to fire a 100-plus-kilowatt laser from a small plane. And not just any airplane, Air Force Research Laboratory officials. The last laser on an airplane — the megawatt Airborne Laser, which filled a converted 747 and cancelled in 2011 — the 2022 demonstration will be fired from a fighter.....


....But this isn’t a real-world X-Wing. It probably won’t even be an F-35A because that’s a stealth aircraft that carries its weapons inside to give it a smaller radar cross section. Instead, the 2022 weapon will be built into an external weapons pod....