JSF

[Valerio Ricciardi]

Direi presa d'aria superiore per la componente verticale della propulsione.

[MatteF88]

Si, il portellone serve per dare aria al ventolone, i due sportellini dietro di esso danno aria al PW F135

[richelieu]

[Maxx]

Ha una meccanica veramente impressionante. Ancor più del 104 dà l'idea di un motore al quale sono state attaccate delle ali.

[richelieu]

Particolari .....


35 ..... Lift fan upper door - open .....


13 ..... Engine auxiliary air inlet doors - outward opening .....

Fonte .....



..... Flight International (25 November - 1 December 2003) ..... supplemento speciale 'Creating an international fighter' .....
.

[richelieu]

Un volo simulato per (quasi) tutti .....
..... i militari USA in Europa .....

Troops at some bases in Europe are getting a rare glimpse inside an F-35 Lightning II cockpit, albeit from the stationary vantage point of a somewhat stripped-down unclassified simulator.
Lockheed Martin, the company producing the embattled fifth-generation fighter, is sponsoring the simulator tour to a handful of U.S. military installations in Europe, although the first planes are not due to arrive on the continent until 2020.

Fonte ..... "Troops in Europe getting chance to 'fly' F-35" .....
http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/troo ... 5-1.353812
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[richelieu]

Una delegazione di Singapore ha visitato, nei giorni scorsi, la FACO di Cameri .....

"Delegazione di Singapore a Cameri" .....
http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/News/P ... apore.aspx

Da tempo circolano voci relative all' intenzione della minuscola, ma ricca, repubblica asiatica di acquistare un certo numero di F-35 (in versione non ancora specificata) per la propria moderna e potente forza aerea .....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_ ... _Air_Force

"US Program Chief: Singapore Nearing F-35 Buy" .....
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /23927983/

Se son rose .....
.

[richelieu]

Botta .....

"Test Pilot Admits the F-35 Can’t Dogfight" .....


..... e risposta .....

"Joint Program Office Response to “War is Boring” Blog" .....
https://www.f35.com/news/detail/joint-p ... oring-blog

Riferimento ..... http://www.md80.it/bbforum/viewtopic.ph ... 30#p931921

[MatteF88]

..... e risposta .....

"Joint Program Office Response to “War is Boring” Blog" .....
https://www.f35.com/news/detail/joint-p ... oring-blog

Ovviamente non posso entrare nel merito delle questioni tecniche perché non ne ho le competenze ma...mi sfugge, nella risposta ufficiale, il nesso tra l'assenza della vernice "magica" che lo rende stealth e la manovrabilità (buona o scarsa che sia) in un contesto "visual" come scritto...

[richelieu]

Contro botta .....

"Read for Yourself  -  The F-35's Damning Dogfighting Report" .....

[ELTAR]

Immagino che questa sia la faccia di Pierre Sprey...

[richelieu]

Immagino che questa sia la faccia di Pierre Sprey ...

[richelieu]

Interviene Bill Sweetman .....

"Controversy Flares Over F-35 Air Combat Report" ..... http://aviationweek.com/defense/controv ... t-report-0

====================================================================================================

P.S. ..... fino a pochi minuti fa l'articolo era leggibile ..... poi lo hanno criptato .....

[MatteF88]

P.S. ..... fino a pochi minuti fa l'articolo era leggibile ..... poi lo hanno criptato .....

Va bé, la sezione commenti, in compenso, regala spettacolo come sempre quando si parla di JSF ..

[giragyro]

ennesima dimostrazione come , a volte , i vertici militari ed industriali usa , scusate il francesismo , non capiscono un emerita cippa .
questo aereo è il vietnam del 2000

[richelieu]

P.S. ..... fino a pochi minuti fa l'articolo era leggibile ..... poi lo hanno criptato .....

Va bé, la sezione commenti, in compenso, regala spettacolo come sempre quando si parla di JSF ..

Vero ..... e noto che, in questo particolare caso, il numero dei commenti ha raggiunto, al momento, la ragguardevole quota 131 ..... un record .....

[richelieu]

Interviene Jane's .....

However, while the JPO can point to such discrepancies between the test pilot's comments (as they appeared in the article) and the F-35's mission set, it should be noted that many nations that cannot afford multiple aircraft types are procuring the F-35 as a multirole 'jack of all trades' to perform the full spectrum of missions.
Though advanced sensor and missile technology renders the classic dogfight less likely than at any point during the history of military aviation, rules of engagement and other considerations can sometimes require aircraft to be within visual range before engaging each other.
The point the War is Boring article was trying to make, and the point the JPO has failed to refute in its rebuttal, is that aircraft do not always get to fight on their terms, and that it is no good saying that just because the F-35 is not designed to dogfight it will never have to do so.
With the F-35 set to become the dominant platform in Western (and allied) use over the coming decades (in many cases procured specifically as an F-16 replacement), its apparent lack of a close-in aerial combat capability will raise concern, especially considering the range of new 'fifth-generation' fighters coming out of Russia and China, such as the PAK-FA and J-20.
This concern will persist until the F-35 is able to prove otherwise, regardless of whether the aircraft was designed to dogfight or not.

"JPO counters media report that F-35 cannot dogfight" .....
http://www.janes.com/article/52715/jpo- ... t-dogfight
.

[richelieu]

'War is Boring' ... tiene duro ...

"When Is the F-35 Not a Dogfighter? When It’s Convenient" ...


"One Analyst Predicted the F-35’s Dogfight Failure" ...

[MatteF88]

Per i Marines continua ad avvicinarsi la ioc, nonostante dovesse essere raggiunta il 1 luglio (ormai ritardo in più o ritardo in meno fa poca differenza )...attraverso lo sgancio di ordigni live e inerti...

The Marine Corps conducted its first successful live ordnance drops from a F-35B in late June, the USMC announced on Friday . The Joint Strike Fighters dropped both inert and live ordnance, which consisted of JDAM GPS-guided munitions in both GBU-12 and GBU-32 configurations. The Marine Corps decided in May to push on towards the F-35B’s Initial Operating Capability (IOC) objective timetabled for 1 July, despite the unearthing of software problems. While it appears that the 1 July objective IOC date has now been missed, the jet has until December to achieve this milestone, with the dropping of live ordnance reportedly one of the last remaining items on a checklist of required capability tests required for IOC.

https://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/f- ... 012-07501/

[richelieu]

A volte ritornano .....

Rude Awakening .....

(7/7/2015)

The Air Force will activate the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill AFB, Utah, as part of the base’s transition from F-16 to F-35A operations, according to a base release ..... http://www.hill.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123452556
The unit, known as the 'Rude Rams', stood down in summer 2010 as part of an Air Force-wide restructuring effort that saw Hill lose 24 of its F-16s, leaving a force of 48 fighters there.
Now, with plans to establish the Air Force’s first F-35A operational location at Hill with 72 combat-ready jets, the 34th FS is returning, states the release.
The squadron will be one of three Active Duty units, along with the 4th FS and 421st FS, within the 388th Fighter Wing that will fly F-35As with the support of members Air Force Reserve Command’s 419th FW.
The 34th FS traces its lineage to October 1944 at Seymour Johnson Field, N.C., states the July 2 release.
Its airmen operated P-47 Thunderbolts in the Western Pacific.
Hill is scheduled to receive its first F-35A in September and have 15 jets on hand by August 2016 when the Air Force aims to commence F-35A operations.

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell' AFA .....
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[richelieu]

L'articolo, pur risalendo a circa un mese fa, è comunque di particolare interesse in quanto esamina la situazione del programma alla luce delle recenti prove in mare sulla Wasp e nell'imminenza della dichiarazione di IOC per la versione 'B' da parte del Corpo dei Marines .....

ANALYSIS: F-35B poised for prime time at last .....

By: Stephen Trimble
Source: Flight International (14:57 - 13 June 2015)

On an Arizona runway nearly 4,900nm removed from Le Bourget’s festivities, 10 selected Lockheed Martin F-35Bs will be preparing to make history as the Paris air show gets under way.

The US Marine Corps (USMC) is set to declare later this year the 10 F-35Bs assigned to the VMFA-121 Green Knights squadron at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, as the first unit to achieve initial operational capability (IOC).
Nearly 14 years after the US Department of Defense awarded Lockheed the Joint Strike Fighter development contract, the first of the three F-35 variants will finally be an operational system.

The short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B has still not attended an international air show, but it will soon be available for combat.

Not much is likely to change for VMFA-121 in the months following the IOC declaration.
The unit will be available for operations if called on, but it is not scheduled for its first deployment – to Iwakuni, Japan – until 2017.
By that time, the US Air Force should have declared the first squadron of the conventional take-off and landing F-35A to have achieved IOC, with the US Navy following suit in 2018 with a first squadron of carrier-variant F-35Cs.

“We’re on track to do that [Marines IOC], on track for Air Force IOC the following year,” assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics Frank Kendall told reporters on 29 May adding that, after that, the navy and international partners would start declaring IOC.

“We’re continuing to execute to the plan that was baselined in 2011, so good progress on all of those things.
We’re either meeting or exceeding our projections for cost and schedule.”

Getting to this point has been a struggle, especially for the F-35B.
As the world’s first operational fighter that combines supersonic speed and STOVL capability, the model is a technological breakthrough.
In fiscal year 2015, each propulsion system alone – Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, Rolls-Royce LiftFan and other major components, such as wing-mounted roll-posts and a three-bearing exhaust swivel nozzle – cost $32 million.

Proving the F-35B can operate reliably on an amphibious carrier was the last remaining hurdle before the Marines could declare IOC.
In previous tests aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp in 2013, the F-35B showed that it could take-off and land as it was designed.
But the deployment revealed other issues, particularly in the logistics department.

It was discovered, for example, that the system the USMC currently relies on to automatically monitor and diagnose faults, order repairs and keep track of spare inventories – Lockheed’s autonomic logistics information system (ALIS) – could not physically fit aboard the Wasp.
So, all maintenance actions were co-ordinated remotely from Lockheed’s global F-35 sustainment hub in Fort Worth, Texas.
As a result, the programme funded a deployable version of ALIS, which accompanied the F-35B squadron on the latest round of embarked tests.

One final operational assessment staged aboard the Wasp from 18 to 27 May was intended to answer the ALIS issue and many other questions about the F-35B’s ability to go to war.

Ninety-one marines, including 10 pilots, joined six F-35Bs – a shipboard squadron – aboard the Wasp in the Atlantic Ocean for eight days of flying, which included 108 sorties in 85.5 flight hours.
The pilots flew sorties focused on carrier qualification, air interdiction, defensive combat air, air traffic management and supporting a rescue mission for a simulated downed aircrew.

“I would say highly successful,” says Lt Gen Jon Davis, the Marines’ deputy commandant for aviation.

Although the public focus was on the number of sorties, the USMC were most interested in what was happening on and below deck.
“We focused this carrier period on logistics and sustainability,” Davis says.
“So, what would it be like to go do that and what would it take to include a lot of force maintenance actions, both above deck and below deck. That all kind of worked how we thought it would. There were a couple of small things we discovered – an additional tool here or an additional part there, but the bottom line is we accomplished all of the stuff we wanted to, to include flying an [F135] engine on board the ship on the [Bell Boeing] V-22.”

The size of the F135 engine had raised concerns that one could not be physically loaded and carried by a V-22 from the shore or another ship to an amphibious carrier deck.
However, the US Naval Air Systems Command, Bell Boeing and P&W developed a cradle for the F135 to load inside the tiltrotor, ensuring that spare engines could be dispatched to the ship if needed.

“We flew it on on the 21st of May and flew it off on the 27th, and moved that thing around like we were putting it into an aircraft,” says Davis.

A thermal coating on the deck also “performed well”, Davis adds.
The F135 engine produces nearly twice the thrust of the R-R Pegasus engine on the Boeing AV-8B Harrier, and the heat exhaust emitted by the F-35 during a vertical landing can melt an untreated carrier deck.
So the protective coating makes sure the aircraft can operate safely aboard ship.

Most importantly, the deployable version of ALIS also “worked very well” aboard the ship, Davis says.
That “allows us to achieve our turnaround times,” he adds.
“We have good interoperability with ALIS on board theWasp, and there’s an organic system now on that ship.”

Maintaining the F-35B’s very low observable signature to radar was another objective of the last deployment.
Previous stealth aircraft required extensive post-flight maintenance to re-apply radar-absorbent materials and adhesives that cover gaps on panels.

“We proved we could do that at sea as well,” Davis says.
“All in all, a successful deployment. We got what we wanted out of the shipboard period, and now we are tracking the additional items we have to do to accomplish our IOC objectives.”

In general, the IOC term in the military’s acquisition lexicon simply means that a new weapon system meets the user’s minimum operational needs.
For the F-35B, this is defined as the ability to carry internally two 454kg (1,000lb) bombs or two 227kg bombs and two Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles.

It also includes a suite of software-enabled capabilities that are only partially complete.
In 2010, the Marines agreed to declare IOC in 2015 with a degraded software build called Block 2B, while the USAF is waiting for Block 3I software in 2016, which includes updated hardware.
The navy's IOC declaration is waiting for the availability of Block 3F in 2017.

In March, F-35 programme executive officer Lt Gen Chris Bogdan acknowledged that a portion of the Block 2B software capability would not be ready when the USMC's window for declaring IOC opens in July.

One of the reasons for calling the F-35 a “fifth-generation fighter” is the aircraft’s ability to fuse data from multiple sensors, both on board and from other aircraft.
The pilot can use that information to track and positively identify targets that could not be identified using a single sensor.
But the Block 2B software’s fusion algorithms are still not working properly.

In formations of more than two aircraft, the F-35’s sensor fusion computer often gets confused: each sensor detects a target with varying degrees of resolution, and so the pilot is told by the computer that there are several targets where there is only one.

It is a problem that the navy encountered when developing a similar sensor fusion engine for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, programme manager Capt Frank Morley told Flightglobal in a recent interview.
For the Super Hornet, the air-to-ground capability that is causing problems for the F-35B’s Block 2B software was still challenging, but turned out to be the easy part.
Making the sensor fusion algorithms work in an air-to-air environment in three-dimensional space was much more difficult, Morley says.

“We spent about nine months beyond what we expected just to work out the kinks on that,” he says.

The F-35 programme is scheduled to start testing a fix for the sensor fusion problem in a few weeks, Bogdan says.
But the Marines could declare the first F-35B unit operational before the fix is ready.

“The fixes we are getting ready to flight test for some of the deficiencies we found in our fusion algorithms and some of our pilot vehicle displays are actually being tested on our Block 3I software,” Bogdan says.
“Once we complete that, we will go back and retrofit all the 2B airplanes with those fixes. We intend on taking that 3I software with the fixes to flight test around the last week of June. We’ll spend about 30 days flight testing those fixes, and if they appear to be good, then we will just leave those in 3I for the future airplanes and port them back into 2B.”

As the software is being fixed, the F-35 programme is finally preparing to enter a new phase.
The long period of development and testing will begin to wind down in two years.
Meanwhile, Lockheed’s factory has been stuck in a holding pattern for three years, delivering F-35s at an average pace of about three aircraft per month to US and international customers.

If the Pentagon’s budget proposals are cleared by Congress and international customers buy their expected share, F-35 deliveries could increase by about five-fold over the next five years.
The Department of Defense is continuing to negotiate a block-buy deal for the next two years, but is already looking to negotiate a three-year block buy of more than 400 aircraft.

Bogdan first floated the idea of a multi-year, bulk acquisition of the F-35 at the Farnborough air show last July.
More details of the proposal were released in March.
The programme office issued a pre-solicitation notice for a proposal to buy as many as 477 F135 engines on a single contract covering a three-year period, with no spare engines included.

If Congress authorises the multi-year deal, Lockheed and its supply chain may be able to achieve the economies of scale required to drive the unit recurring flyaway price of the F-35A from $108 million a year ago to about $80 million in FY2019, as programme officials have promised.
Although the programme has invested $170 million to fund cost-saving initiatives, Bogdan has said that four-fifths of F-35 cost reductions come from increasing the production rate to achieve economies of scale.

But Kendall’s staff will be watching the negotiations carefully.
Multi-year acquisition deals are generally approved only when the contractor agrees to reduce unit costs by more than 10%, which in the case of the F-35 can amount to $8-10 million reductions each year of the deal.

“I’d like to see double-digit savings, not very different from what we try to do with a multi-year,” Kendall says.

[richelieu]

ennesima dimostrazione come , a volte , i vertici militari ed industriali usa , scusate il francesismo , non capiscono un emerita cippa .
questo aereo è il vietnam del 2000

Guarda caso .....

"The U.S. Air Force Promised the F-4 Would Never Dogfight ..... Now it’s saying the same thing" .....

.

[richelieu]

Le considerazioni di Bill Sweetman sull' affaire F-35 vs. F-16 .....



"Behind That F-35 Air Combat Report" ..... http://aviationweek.com/blog/behind-f-3 ... bat-report
.

[MatteF88]

Pare Che il governo australiano rinuncerà agli F-35B per la marina:

Australia has reportedly dropped plans to procure the F-35B, owing to concerns over the costs required to complete modifications to the Australian Navy’s two Canberra-class Landing Helicopter Docks (LHDs) which would have deployed the aircraft. The Australian government is expected to officially present this decision in a white paper scheduled for August

https://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/au ... ky-030435/

[richelieu]

Ecco cosa ha scritto in merito AW&ST .....

Australia Abandons Proposal To Order F-35B .....

Bradley Perrett - Aerospace Daily & Defense Report (July 8, 2015)

Australia has dropped consideration of buying the short takeoff and vertical landing (stovl) version of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning for its two largest assault ships, a defense source says.

The decision was made during preparation of a defense white paper that may be published next month.

Deploying stovl fighters, proposed last year by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, would have required costly modifications to the two ships, says the Australian Financial Review newspaper, which first reported that the idea had been abandoned.

There was widespread opposition across the armed services to buying the F-35B, the variant capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, the defense source tells Aviation Week.

Likely operational scenarios would not greatly demand Australian shipborne air-combat capability, analyst Ben Schreer of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute wrote last year in an assessment of the proposal.
To the extent that the aircraft could be useful, the country had more important things to spend its defense budget on, Schreer wrote.

For the Royal Australian Air Force, an F-35B order could have diminished the government’s commitment to buy a total of about 100 units of the F-35A, the version designed for long concrete runways.
So far Canberra is committed to only 72 F-35As.

The two ships are HMAS Canberra and its sister, Adelaide, which is still running trials.
They are LHDs - assault ships with docks and extensive facilities for helicopters, including almost full-length flight decks.
Australia plans to fly mostly army helicopters from them.

.

[richelieu]

ORI (Operational Readiness Inspection) ..... i Marines, nell'imminenza della dichiarazione della IOC, mettono lo F-35B sotto una severa lente d'ingrandimento .....

The Marine Corps added one final test before deciding whether to declare initial operational capability for the Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF): a first-ever Operational Readiness Inspection.
The ORI for the first F-35B squadron, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121, is scheduled to begin today and will last four or five days.
An inspection team – with members from Headquarters Marine Corps, the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1) school and the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFA-T) 501 – will “assess them from a maintenance perspective, a sustainment perspective and an operations perspective,” deputy commandant for aviation Lt. Gen. Jon Davis told USNI News on July 8.

Fonte ..... "F-35B Begins New ‘Operational Readiness Inspection’ This Week Before IOC Decision" .....
http://news.usni.org/2015/07/13/f-35b-b ... c-decision
.

[giragyro]

l'F35 è il peggior caccia di sempre ?

Titolo provocatorio apparso su fighter sweep.com

http://fightersweep.com/2698/f-35-worst-fighter-ever/

[Vultur]

Guarda io non so niente di questo aereo (e manco di quelli prima se è per questo) e personalmente non sono neanche tanto favorevole al suo acquisto per l'Italia (basandomi solo sulla entità della spesa), ma l'F-35 dovrebbe avere capacità multiruolo mai sperimentate prima su nessun altro aereo, quindi è possibile che sappia fare tante cose diverse, ognuna delle quali però in modo non del tutto eccelso, perchè alla fine se fai tante cose non ne fai veramente bene nessuna. E' possibile che quell'F-16 l'F-35 lo avrebbe fatto fuori molto prima che lui arrivasse così vicino da dare il via a un combattimento aereo ravvicinato (o almeno l'idea sarebbe questa: fare fuori i bersagli molto prima che essi arrivino a distanza conveniente per loro). FORSE hanno sperimentato cosa poteva accadere se un aereo con le doti di un F-16 riusciva a sopravvivere abbastanza a lungo da arrivare così vicino da dare il via a un combattimento aereo manovrato.
Il tutto mi pare già sperimentato: in Vietnam i piloti di F-4 rimasero a lungo su un rapporto di perdite 1:1 con i Nordvietnamiti, nonostante che i Nordvietnamiti avessero essenzialmente il Mig-17 e gli americani il Phantom che avrebbe dovuto essere una "generazione avanti". A Washington le teste d'uovo gallonate misero il tutto nel computer del Pentagono e venne fuori che in teoria il miglior aereo per il Vietnam sarebbe stato l'F-106 (cosa che pare si dimostrò anche nella realtà simulata in America); l'F-106 però non era multiruolo (in soldoni: non valeva un fico nell'attacco al suolo), così escogitarono tattiche varie per il Phantom. Ecco: il paragone tra Mig-17/F-106 a me mi pare più o meno lo stesso di quello tra F-16 ed F-35 (perchè l'F-106, checchè se ne dica, pare fosse veramente un pezzo avanti rispetto agli altri).
Rimane comunque sul tappeto la questione del fatto, del tutto marginale ...., che gli americani alla fine, F-4 o F-106, dal Vietnam dovettero andarsene lo stesso, quindi? A che serve tutta la tecnologia se poi un gruppo di contadini da armata Brancaleone ti causa talmente tante perdite umane da andartene (e alla svelta) dal loro Paese? Boh

[richelieu]

Simulazione .....

"Don’t Think the F-35 Can Fight? ..... It Does in This Realistic War Game .....
The Joint Strike Fighter and Russia’s best warplane face off in a simulated battle" .....

[richelieu]

L' USAF riattiva uno squadrone in vista della IOC dello F-35A ..... che avverrà nel mese di Agosto del prossimo anno .....

The first US Air Force fighter squadron destine to fly combat-coded F-35A Joint Strike Fighters has been reactivated at Hill Air Force Base in Utah as the flying branch prepares to declare initial operational capability in August 2016.
The 34th Fighter Squadron, known as the Rude Rams, was re-established last week and expects to start receiving jets from the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, in September at a rate of about one per month.

Fonte ..... "USAF Rude Rams fighter squadron reactivates to support F-35 IOC" .....
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... 35-414917/
.

[richelieu]

Silenzio ..... si spara !

Ground Testing Begins on F-35A Gun .....

Marc V. Schanz (7/24/2015)


An F-35A, tail number AF-2, fires a burst of rounds down range at the Gun Harmonizing Range July 17.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Test Force at Edwards AFB is in the process of testing the F-35A’s newest munitions asset - the GAU-22/A.
The gun is a four-barrel Gatling gun that fires 25 millimeter rounds.
(Courtesy photo by Darin Russell/Lockheed Martin)

The F-35 integrated test force at Edwards AFB, Calif., started ground tests for the GAU-22/A, the internal gun for the Air Force variant of the strike fighter, according to Edwards officials .....

http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123454036

The ITF hopes to finish ground testing in August and begin airborne testing in late September.
The first tests were conducted in June when aircraft AF-2 fired rounds that do not explode on impact at the Gun Harmonizing Range at Edwards.
The gun uses a 25mm shell, a more powerful one than the rounds fired by legacy fighters, such as the F-16, the F-15E, and the F-15C, all of which use 20mm shells, said Maj. Andrew Rollins, the 461st Flight Test Squadron assistant director of operations.
Integration of the weapon is a bit more complicated on the F-35 because it is a stealth aircraft, meaning the gun will be kept behind a retractable door until the trigger is engaged.
Ground testing will help testers determine whether the door opens correctly, if the gun spins up and down as designed, and if air flow is adequate to clear gasses, states the release.
The gun itself was previously tested as a stand alone, and flown during test points without firing to ensure the flight envelope will not stress gun mounts.
A future block upgrade to the F-35 will enable the gun’s combat operations by 2017, officials stated earlier this year.

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell' AFA .....

Il 'famigerato' F-35A, tail number AF-2 .....
.

[richelieu]

"Soon" .....

Marine commandant-nominee Lt. Gen. Robert Neller spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee about a range of topics during his nomination hearing on Thursday, from his views on operations in Iraq to readiness in the Pacific to the entrance of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.
On F-35, Neller said he expects current commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford to make a decision on declaring initial operational capability (IOC) “soon.”
“Our plan was to declare IOC with [Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 121] this month; that’s still the plan,” he said.

Fonte ..... "Neller Addresses F-35, Operations In Iraq During SASC Nomination Hearing" .....
http://news.usni.org/2015/07/23/neller- ... on-hearing
.

[MatteF88]

Intanto ce ne sono 2 in esposizione all'EAA 2015, su youtube si trovano diversi video del loro arrivo

[richelieu]

Intanto ce ne sono 2 in esposizione all'EAA 2015, su youtube si trovano diversi video del loro arrivo

E c'è anche un F-22 .....

Lo si può vedere in questa 'gallery' di AW&ST ..... http://aviationweek.com/oshkosh-2015/f- ... es-1336661
..... una delle ormai rare cose non criptate che la testata statunitense concede ai propri lettori non abbonati .....

[richelieu]

Ci sono quasi .....

Marine F-35B IOC Possibly Imminent .....

John A. Tirpak (7/28/2015)

The Marine Corps is reviewing the results of an operational readiness inspection of the first F-35B unit and will likely decide in the next few days whether to declare the jet “operational.”
According to a statement from USMC spokesman Maj. Paul Greenberg, the ORI was conducted from July 13-17, and evaluated VMFA-21’s readiness to employ the F-35B, in the 2B configuration, for combat.
The evaluation comprised “academics, for both pilots and maintainers, an inspection of the maintenance department, simulator flights, and operational flights” at MCAS Yuma, Ariz., “in each of the five required mission areas.”
The team presented its findings to Deputy Commandant for Aviation Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, who has briefed USMC Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford, who will declare whether the F-35B has achieved initial operational capability.
“We expect a decision before the end of July,” Greenberg said.
It will be announced in a press release and also on social media, he said.
The IOC decision will likely be one of the last decisions Dunford makes for the Marine Corps alone: he has been nominated by President Obama to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and if confirmed, would take up that job Oct. 1.

Fonte ..... il 'Daily Report' dell' AFA .....
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