The Navy has increased its projected annual use of the F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter, adding in 60 hours per plane per year as the service refines its training plans.
The naval aviation community bumped its operational forecast from 25 hours per month in a 2014 estimate to 30 hours a month in the 2015 estimate – or from 300 hours a year to 360 hours a year, Navy spokeswoman Lt. j.g. Kara Yingling told USNI News. ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
The Marine Corps did not revise its forecast of how many hours a month it would fly its F-35B planes, spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Burns told USNI News, but it did add about 70,000 flight hours into its program over the life of the planes.
I Marines lo amano .....
..... e si stanno preparando a mettere in campo un nuovo reparto entro Giugno .....
The Navy’s top acquisition official told a key congressional panel Wednesday that “Marines absolutely love this aircraft” and expect to be fielding a new squadron of F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters in June.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, said the aircraft “was designed and built for the future, for high-end threat.”
As to the Marine squadron, it wasn’t immediately clear if Stackley was including the existing, non-deployable F-35B training squadron in his tally of three squadrons.
The Marines said late last year they planned to field their third operational squadron sometime in 2018.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II will soon count Raytheon's AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) among its list internally carried munitions after “cleanly” releasing the 475kg (1,050lb) inert glide bomb during a trial off the coast of Maryland.
The drop test on 23 March by the Naval Air Station Patuxent River-based CF-05 test aircraft is the first of many that will take place in 2016 to qualify the bomb for use by the stealthy combat jet.
La prossima revisione della politica di difesa non influenzerà la scelta del successore (in passato avrebbe dovuto essere lo F-35) dei CF-18 canadesi .....
Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan, who assumed the cabinet position in November, has appointed a four-member advisory panel to oversee the wide-ranging defence policy review, which seeks input from citizens, experts, parliamentarians, allies and the nation’s closest neighbour and collective security partner, the USA.
When released in early 2017, the new defence policy will influence everything from the Canadian armed force's role in military operations at home and abroad to resourcing and capability requirements.
But a spokesman for Sajjan's office confirmed that the review is running independent of the government's plan to hold a competition to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force's outdated CF-18s.
..... il Ministero della Difesa britannico annuncia provvedimenti destinati al finanziamento dei lavori di potenziamento della base aerea di Marham .....
Un' importante esercitazione che prefigura i futuri dispiegamenti operativi .....
Six operational test and evaluation F-35s and more than 85 Airmen of the 31st TES travelled to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to conduct the first simulated deployment test of the F-35A, specifically to execute three key initial operational capability mission sets: suppression of enemy air defenses, close air support and air interdiction. ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
The operational test run in February by the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron brought the F-35 one step closer to the projected goal of declaring the airframe’s initial operation capability later this year.
While at Mountain Home AFB, six F-35s went through combat testing scenarios that included the mission sets of air interdiction, limited suppression of enemy defenses and basic CAS.
To assist with the testing process, the fighter jets flew each scenario alongside F-15E Strike Eagles from the 366th Fighter Wing and A-10s from the 124th Fighter Wing.
Nonostante nell' articolo venga citata la partecipazione degli A-10 ..... nella foto-gallery che lo accompagna non figura alcuna immagine dei 'facoceri' .....
Dimenticanza casuale o ..... voluta ?
Precipita un F-35 britannico ..... ma si tratta solo di un' esercitazione .....
Four community agencies joined Edwards Air Force base emergency responders for Exercise Desert Wind 16-02 April 4.
The scenario for this training exercise was a crash involving a United Kingdom F-35 based out of Edwards. The crash site was in the middle of California City, 20 minutes north of the base.
The Edwards Fire Department, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Inspector General Office and Emergency Management, partnered up with the California City Police and Fire Departments and the Bakersfield and Kern County Fire Departments.
Air Force officials announced April 12 that Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas; and Whiteman AFB, Missouri, are candidate bases for the first Reserve-led F-35A Lightning II location.
..... Trasvolata atlantica ..... in senso inverso .....
Se ne era già parlato un paio di mesi fa ..... sarà dunque un F-35A olandese a vincere la gara (ammesso ve ne sia in corso una) per portare in Europa dagli Stati Uniti un pugno di Lightning II che parteciperanno ai Saloni estivi britannici ..... battendo in tal modo USAF e USMC (e, molto probabilmente, RAF) .....
The F-35 joint strike fighter will fly across the Atlantic Ocean this summer to make its international debut — but the United Kingdom won’t be the JSF's first stop.
At least one Dutch F-35A will appear at the Leeuwarden Air Show in the Netherlands in June, according to Lt. Col. Sidney Plankman, chief of public affairs for the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF).
The aircraft will be on static display at the show, and the RNLAF is looking into doing a flight demonstration of the plane along with the Dutch F-16s during the show as well, he said.
The Dutch plane will make the transatlantic crossing from Edwards Air Force Base, California., to Leeuwarden Air Base in late May, Plankman said.
Le impressioni di un pilota dei Marines ..... che, nonostante la cattiva reputazione di cui gode l'aereo, la pensa diversamente .....
Headlines haven’t been kind to Lockheed Martin‘s F-35.
“America’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet is Also Its Worst,” Maxim wrote.
“Report: The F-35’s Pilot Eject System Could KILL You And Definitely Will Maim You,” according to the Daily Caller.
“The Pentagon’s Official F-35 Bug List is Terrifying,” said ExtremeTech.
Government reports of the $400 billion program have also been scathing.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is a major critic, and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said he’d consider dropping the program if he gets elected.
But a Marine pilot who has been flying the F-35 for nearly four years feels differently, even if some bugs still need to be worked out.
The first test of a new, lightweight F-35 helmet was successful, according to the program office, a promising sign that the Pentagon can qualify and implement all three fixes to the jet’s escape system by the end of the year.
On March 31 at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, Lockheed Martin's F-35 conducted the first test combining all three solutions designed to reduce the risk of neck injury to F-35 pilots during ejection, according to spokesman Joe DellaVedova.
Once the full gamut of testing is completed, hopefully by the end of the summer, the JPO can begin implementing the two modifications to the ejection seat and issuing the new Generation III “light” helmet to the fleet, he said.
The Spanish Navy has a midterm problem to tackle or maybe it would be more accurate to say it has a dilemma the country’s next defense minister must solve: Should the force continue with fixed-wing combat aviation and, if yes, is the F-35B the solution?
According to Admiral Chief of Naval Staff Jaime Muñoz-Delgado, "Our fleet of Harrier aircraft has a useful life until the period between 2025 and 2027. And there is only one short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) option on the market: Lockheed Martin's F-35B. This is the reality."
Australia could become the first foreign nation to buy the radar-guided Raytheon AIM-120D air-to-air missile under a $1.1 billion foreign military sales package approved by the US government this week. ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Canberra has requested 450 missiles – as well as instrumented test vehicles and spare guidance sections – for integration and carriage on the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler fleets as well as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
richelieu ha scritto:Prossimo obiettivo ..... la Spagna .....
Era scontata, visto che non esistono alternative agli Harrier II sul mercato dei caccia nuovi, ed la spagna ha una marina militare abbastanza simile alla nostra.
richelieu ha scritto:Prossimo obiettivo ..... la Spagna .....
Era scontata, visto che non esistono alternative agli Harrier II sul mercato dei caccia nuovi, e la spagna ha una marina militare abbastanza simile alla nostra.
“The Air Force attempted two alert launch procedures during the Mountain Home deployment, where multiple F-35A aircraft were preflighted and prepared for a rapid launch, but only one of the six aircraft was able to complete the alert launch sequence and successfully takeoff,” the Pentagon’s top weapons tester disclosed in written testimony to Congress on 26 April.
“Problems during startup that required system or aircraft shutdowns and restarts – a symptom of immature systems and software – prevented the other alert launches from being completed.”
Una struttura faraonica ..... per un programma faraonico .....
It takes 2,590 military personnel, government civilians and full-time equivalent contractors and $70 million per year to run the world’s largest and most expensive military aircraft programme, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
That’s according to the US Defense Department's F-35 chief Lt Gen Christopher Bogdan, who disclosed the staff count and annual budget of the F-35 Joint Programme Office (JPO) at a congressional hearing about the $379 billion fighter procurement this week.
The numbers include the two F-35 test forces located Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland and Edwards AFB in California.
Nonostante l' aereo sia tuttora gravato da numerosi problemi ..... il Comitato per i Servizi Armati della Camera dei Rappresentanti autorizza l' acquisto di altri 11 esemplari .....
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II might be the world’s costliest and most divisive warplane, but there’s something to be said for the seemingly Teflon-coated Joint Strike Fighter’s resiliency.
On 28 April, just days after the developmental aircraft’s many flaws were enumerated at a Senate hearing, the US House Armed Services Committee agreed on a defence policy that would fund 11 more F-35s in fiscal year 2017, on top of the 63 aircraft already requested by the US services.
Congress, despite many members being vocal critics of the aircraft, has made adding money for F-35s something of an annual tradition, having also added 11 more Lightning IIs than requested in the current fiscal year 2016 defence budget.
Al tempo stesso ..... l' Air Force continua a trovarsi alle prese col rompicapo relativo alla scarsità di manutentori adeguatamente formati ..... e si vede costretta a rivolgersi a fonti esterne .....
E la colpa di chi è ?
Dello A-10 ..... va da sé .....
It’ll cost the Air Force “tens of millions” per year out of hide to hire contractors to do F-35 maintenance through at least 2020, because the service doesn’t have enough people to do the work, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski said Thursday.
Pratt & Whitney expects to wrap up system development and demonstration (SDD) of the F135 propulsion system for the F-35 Lightning II in July after 15 years of work, but the company will remain engaged with the wider Joint Strike Fighter flight test effort which runs until late 2017.
The P&W's head of military engines Bennett Croswell tells Flightglobal that the F135 team is also about 85% of the way through correcting an engine fault inherent in 180 early-model units and caused one aircraft to catch fire on the runway at Eglin AFB, Florida in June 2014.
The problem was traced to hard rubbing in the engine’s compressor section.
Now a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identifies a new ALIS-related concern - that if a single ALIS server were to go down, whether from loss of electricity or sabotage, it could cripple the entire F-35 fleet.
"Users are concerned that ALIS’ current design results in all F-35 data produced across the fleet to be routed up to the Central Point of Entry and then to the Autonomic Logistics Operating Unit, with no backup system or redundancy,” according to the April GAO report.
“If either of these fail, it could take the entire F-35 fleet offline.”
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets look likely to be chosen ahead of Boeing’s Super Hornet, the other contender for the Danish contract, despite Boeing's aggressive advertising campaign in Denmark.
Radio24syv reported on Thursday that the F-35 came top in a series of strategic, military, economic and industrial evaluations carried out by the Ministry of Defence.
F-35B USMC ..... l' anno prossimo operativi in mare .....
The Marine Corps' version of the joint strike fighter's maiden deployment is set for late 2017 and its bound for the Western Pacific, the Navy's top officer in the Pacific said Tuesday.
The F-35B jump-jet stealth fighter will deploy aboard an amphibious flattop, enhancing its combat might, and the service is planning a more powerful escort force to support it, according to Adm. Scott Swift, head of Pacific Fleet.
..... e, per quanto riguarda i problemi relativi al radar, i velivoli dei Marines, a quanto pare, ne sono al momento esenti in quanto viene ancora utilizzato un software di vecchio tipo .....
The Marine Corps has not been affected by a software glitch that left the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters with radar resets and other software stability issues, the Marines’ top aviator told the Senate last week.
The Marines are flying both an older 2B software version and the new 3I software, but the software problem resides in a 3I software update that the Marines never loaded, Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Aviation Lt. Gen. Jon Davis told the Senate Armed Services seapower committee on April 20.
“The last iteration of the 3I software that we’ve had stability problems with – we didn’t load that. So we’re not having those problems in the Marine Corps right now,” Davis said.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $1,271,800,000 not-to-exceed undefinitized modification to the previously awarded low-rate initial production Lot 11 advance acquisition contract N00019-16-C-0033 for aircraft added by the U.S. services in fiscal 2016 budget deliberations and by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016.
This modification provides for the delivery of 13 F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Marine Corps (six F-35B); Air Force (three F-35A); and Navy (four F-35C).
Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (55 percent); El Segundo, California (15 percent); Warton, United Kingdom (10 percent); Orlando, Florida (5 percent); Nashua, New Hampshire (5 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (5 percent); and Cameri, Italy (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2019.
Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy) funds in the amount of $311,900,000 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the fiscal year.
This modification combines purchases for the Marine Corps ($574,200,000; 45.2 percent); Air Force ($252,000,000; 19.8 percent); and Navy ($445,600,000; 35 percent).
The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
I progressi col software Block 3i aprono la strada alla IOC dell' USAF .....
The F-35 Joint Programme Office (JPO) has stabilised a glitch-prone combination of software and hardware called Block 3i, potentially clearing the way for the US Air Force’s first Lightning II combat squadron to declare initial operational capability (IOC) between August and December.
F-35 critics often point to the Pentagon's decision to start building the fifth-generation fighter before design and testing is complete as the root of the program's problems.
Even now, as the Air Force prepares to declare its F-35A jets operational this year, so-called "concurrency" remains an obstacle.
These ongoing challenges were on full display at Edwards last week during a development test flight of an Air Force F-35A, when the jet's team was on the ground troubleshooting for nearly two hours before the aircraft finally launched.
The problem, which revolves around a glitch in the next increment of F-35 software, is a recurring one that causes the plane’s systems to shut down and have to be rebooted – sometimes even mid-flight.
I pro e i contro ..... secondo i piloti e gli specialisti USAF della Edwards AFB .....
As the Air Force races to declare its F-35 jets operational before the end of the year, observers are still warning about schedule delays, a faulty logistics system, and software glitches.
But here at Edwards, the pilots, maintainers and technicians of the F-35 integrated test force say they are happy with the plane – in fact, in many ways the joint strike fighter is a huge improvement over legacy systems.
Danimarca ..... il Governo raccomanda ..... ma sarà il Parlamento a decidere .....
The Danish government is recommending Denmark buy 27 Lockheed Martin F-35s to replace its aging F-16 fighter jets, top government officials announced during a press conference Thursday.
The Danish Prime Minister and the Defense Minister announced that the government is recommending Denmark purchase 27 F-35s at a price of 20 billion Danish Kroner, or about $3 billion.
The next phase is an open debate in the Danish parliament, which is expected to last about a month before Denmark makes a final decision.
The Danish government chose the F-35 as the best option for its next-generation fighter fleet over Saab’s Gripen NG, Eurofighter’s Typhoon, and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet.
During the assessment, the Typhoon was ranked second – but most expensive – and the Boeing candidate third.
A summary document notes: “the small group of Super Hornet users and the geographical location of those users far from Denmark’s neighbouring areas have been contributing factors”.
![[smilie=i love you1.gif]](./images/smilies/I%20love%20you1.gif "I love you1")
..... Trasvolata atlantica ..... in senso inverso .....
