F-35 Program - General Discussion

The centerline is 300 gal and wings are 370 gal.

I've seen the chased stay up longer than the f35...- I guess that's why the gas bags....

Also they so time support 2 aircraft as chaser often changing call sign strike 1-2 t o lightning 1-2

Dave c
 
here are 3 of Lockheed martin chaser.. the 2 seater have the all dark grey Hav glas 2 scheme and the single seat is the plain jane F-16C scheme.

DaveC
 
The F135 is a monster. F-16 pilots flying chase are often required to employ afterburner simply to keep up with the F-35s in MIL power . That would empty the Viper's internal tanks rather quickly hence the EFTs.
 
F-35A last week

Caught some of the F-35A from Luke doing test runs!

DAveC

www.airwingspotter.com

Mod edit: Appreciate you sharing dude, but you don't need to create new F-35 threads, every time you see one. The existing ones should be fine... :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
airwingspotter said:
Caught some of the F-35A from Luke doing test runs!

DAveC

www.airwingspotter.com

Mod edit: Appreciate you sharing dude, but you don't need to create new F-35 threads, every time you see one. The existing ones should be fine... :)
Click to expand...

Dave, did you happen to catch the callsign used by AU-2 on its Oct 1 first flight? I know AU-1 used 'Lightning 31'. Thanks
 
HI Magoo

No I did not catch the Aussie call sign ...However, I ave caught 3 F35 sortie in a day and they launch with Lightning 1-1, 1-2, strike 1-1 , 1-2 and alternate back to Lightning 2-2 ......

Next time perhaps! I have yet caught my Aussie F35A yet!

DAveC
 
Lockheed, Pentagon Agree on Eighth F-35 Lot | Defense News | defensenews.com

LRIP 8 has been agreed

  • 19 F-35A - USAF
  • 6 F-35B - USMC
  • 4 F-35C - USN
  • 2 F-35A - Israel
  • 4 F-35A - Japan
  • 2 F-35A - Norway
  • 2 F-35A - Italy
  • 4 F-35B - UK

Exact costings haven't been released, but an average reduction of 3.6% between all 3 variants is expected compared to LRIP-7 values. Pratt and Whitney are expecting a 4.5% reduction in engine costs compared to LRIP-7.

As expected, producing more reduces the unit cost, who would have thunk it?
 
Here's the official airframe (excluding engines) cost.

Pentagon negotiates unit price reduction for next F-35 lot - IHS Jane's 360

  • 3.6% reduction for the A - $95.7million USD (106million)
  • 1.7% reduction for the B - $101.8million USD (113million)
  • 0.1% reduction for the C - $115.6million USD (126million)

Green denotes the unit cost for each aircraft in LRIP-5 which was only 2011. Kind of an obvious indicator about the downward trending cost of the aircraft which is undeniable.

To be honest that's expected, the A is being produced in significantly higher quantities than the other two so you'd expect the A to have the largest reduction. The total numbers for production worked out at

  • 29 -A
  • 10 -B
  • 4 -C

Can't expect the C to move a whole lot until the USN starts buying in greater quantities which won't be until the end of the decade.
 
RobWilliams said:
Here's the official airframe (excluding engines) cost.

Pentagon negotiates unit price reduction for next F-35 lot - IHS Jane's 360

  • 3.6% reduction for the A - $95.7million USD (106million)
  • 1.7% reduction for the B - $101.8million USD (113million)
  • 0.1% reduction for the C - $115.6million USD (126million)

Green denotes the unit cost for each aircraft in LRIP-5 which was only 2011. Kind of an obvious indicator about the downward trending cost of the aircraft which is undeniable.

To be honest that's expected, the A is being produced in significantly higher quantities than the other two so you'd expect the A to have the largest reduction. The total numbers for production worked out at

  • 29 -A
  • 10 -B
  • 4 -C

Can't expect the C to move a whole lot until the USN starts buying in greater quantities which won't be until the end of the decade.
Click to expand...

Some death spiral we got here. :)

Well good to see the prices dropping, I'm pretty certain that as prices drop across the variants, more countries will come on board with orders. (Yes, Singapore I'm looking at you!)
 
caught 4 f35 sortie in a day last week. VFA-101 Grim Reaper and VMFAT-501 Warlords

Navy F-35C Strike 21 and spotter F16 Strike 22 took off for an hour testing .

Marine F35B callsign Strike 31 was out after Strike 21 and 22 took off. a Warlords F35B doing SVTOL take off and landing.. it was an awesome sight.

Please read full report here with all pix

Airwingspotter.com | JRB 11-13-2014

She came back on after 45min of flight and did a few hovering and than landed.

DAveC
Airwingspotter.com | Military Aviation Photography and Spotting


DAveC
 
Interesting nugget from FlightGlobal about the F135 fix.

Lockheed seals $4.7bn deal for latest lot of F-35 fighters - 11/21/2014 - Flight Global

Pratt & Whitney has found both an interim and permanent fix for the third-stage rotor friction that caused the malfunction and has agreed to shoulder 100% of the cost to modify fielded engines and redesign future production examples
Click to expand...

Also another interesting stat is that the current F-35 prices are 57% lower than the initial orders. So much for 'rising costs'.

LRIP-8 will be delivered from 2016.
 
airwingspotter said:
great info... I would love to catch those Japanese and Isrealis F35..

According to Lockheed martin they suppose to deliver another 14 aircraft by the end of year ! hope to have more F35 traffic in the testing...

Caught some great actions on the F35B VMFAT-501 Warlords ( my 1st catch on the WArlords) :p:. doing vertical take off testing

DaveC
Airwingspotter.com | Military Aviation Photography and Spotting
Click to expand...

These are very "slik" airframes, the fit and finish are just unbelievably clean, yes I "know" they are new, but this airplane is like glass, just so "pristine" very nice work Airwing.
 
Service Delay Due to Canon Software

Hi Guys

Several websites are promoting more negative news today; no need to post links. They are saying that due to further software glitches the 25mm canon will not be available on the aircraft until 2019.

Is this just more negative propaganda?
 
Lazy reporting.

There is no 'glitch' in the software because the software hasn't been developed yet.

AFAIK it's been down to be in block 3f for a while now, so I'm a bit surprised as to why everyone is suddenly being so shocked.
 
The "rumour" started with the Daily Beast, that doyen of reporting accuracy, innuendo and outright fallacy, and then picked up by such Defence "experts" as the UK Daily Telegraph who came up with this amazing statement.............

However, according to the Daily Beast website, the F-35 still does not have the software it needs to operate the four-barrelled rotary cannon.

This would be a particular problem when the aircraft is being used to support ground troops as a gun is more precise than dropping a small bomb — with the latter more likely to cause friendly-fire casualties
Click to expand...
.

Obviously this clown has no idea what SDB is, nor a clue about the reality of aerial warfare and CAS in particular.

Have a thunk, four years to develop software to fire the gun, really? Seriously? And the reality is far removed from this nonsense.............is there a "problem"?

Possibly, but most likely its just part of their development path to complete Weapons Integration, and CAS with gunfire is WAY down that path. Air-to-air is a whole different ball-game...........

Daily Beast is virulently anti-F35 and just about everything else Military especially Obama Military..............THAT is where they are coming from.

Regards, BUG
 
RobWilliams said:
Interesting nugget from FlightGlobal about the F135 fix.

Lockheed seals $4.7bn deal for latest lot of F-35 fighters - 11/21/2014 - Flight Global



Also another interesting stat is that the current F-35 prices are 57% lower than the initial orders. So much for 'rising costs'.

LRIP-8 will be delivered from 2016.
Click to expand...
Errr ..... . . . were you aware that taking account of the reduction in price from the first batches, & including further expected price reductions, the estimated unit price over the whole programme is 73% higher in real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation) than in 2001?

This sort of increase is not unusual for military programmes, but since one of the chief aims of the F-35 programme was to break the rising prices trend, it's important, & it's silly to deny it.
 
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