Today’s F-35As Not Worth Including In High-End War Games According To Air Force General
Comments from one of the Air Force’s top officers adds fuel to a newly-swirling and already fiery debate about the future F-35 program, as a whole.
Tag: F-35 Saga
Lightning Rods Protect F-35 Lightnings From Lightning At Exercise Northern Lightning
There is a real risk that a lightning strike could cause a fire or an explosion if dangerous gases are not purged from the jet’s fuel system.
Approval Of Mega F-35 Sale For Japan Is A Huge Step Towards Its Aircraft Carrier Ambitions
Japan would become the second-largest Lightning II operator in the world if it bought all 105 jets in the proposed deal.
British Government Says It Might Pass On $27M Upgrade For Some Of Its F-35s
Aircraft without the still-in-development Block 4 update would be left with reduced functionality and more limited capabilities.
Turkey Tests F-16s And F-4s Against S-400 Radars In Defiance Of U.S. Sanctions Threats
Turkey has begun tests of the radars associated with its new Russian S-400s using American-made F-16 Viper and F-4 Phantom II fighters, defying warnings from the United States that this “activation” of the surface-to-air missile systems could prompt new sanctions. U.S. officials had been concerned that the Turkish military might conduct exactly these sorts of tests with the F-35, potentially giving Russia insights into the jets’ capabilities, an issue that remains at the center of the spat over Ankara’s deal with Moscow to buy the air defense system in the first place.
Whoops! First F-35A Based In The Netherlands Got A Foam Bath By Mistake
Crash trucks at the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s Leeuwarden Air Base were supposed to provide a water cannon salute to mark the arrival of the country’s first operational F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, but covered it in firefighting foam by accident instead. The base firefighters had reportedly responded to an actual emergency involving an F-16 Viper fighter jet earlier and forgot to switch back to shooting regular water for the ceremony.
Here’s The Air Force’s Questionably Ambitious Plan To Develop New Fighters In Five Years
The U.S. Air Force’s top acquisition official has given new details about an ultra-ambitious plan to push defense contractors to design and build new fighter jet designs at a rate of once every five years. It’s a concept that is completely reversed from how the U.S. military has handled its latest fighter jet program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and one that faces its own not insignificant challenges in producing viable results.
The F-35A Is Set To Finally Get Chaff Countermeasures To Confuse Enemy Radars
U.S. Air Force is hoping to integrate a new, advanced chaff countermeasure onto its F-35A Joint Strike Fighters next year, according to a report. The cartridges, which release radar reflective material to blind and confuse enemy aircraft and air defenses, are a staple across many of the service’s other combat aircraft, but have been curiously absent from the stealthy F-35’s otherwise extensive defensive suite.
“We’re Buying This One?” Turkey’s Erdogan Asks Putin In Front Of Su-57 Fighter At Air Show
Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the biennial MAKS air show outside of Moscow alongside Turkish President Recep Erdogan and they then toured the air show together receiving briefs about various aircraft and helicopters, including the Sukhoi Su-57 advanced combat jet. Erdogan made an offhanded comment about buying Su-57s during the event, something the Kremlin has offered to sell Turkey now that it is locked out of the F-35 program.
U.S. F-35s Won’t Hit 80 Percent Mission Capable Goal Amid Spare Parts Supply Problems
Mark Esper, the nominee to become the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, has told Congress that F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleets across the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy fleets will not reach an 80 percent mission capable rate goal by the end of the present fiscal year. This revelation comes as the Pentagon moves ahead with efforts to find alternate suppliers for certain components for the stealthy fighters to fill the gaps left by the Turkish government, and the country’s defense contractors by extension, getting kicked out of the F-35 program over its purchase of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems.