I've said here before that I wished the USA had just built more F22s and abandoned the "cheaper" (snicker) JSF idea in the first place, but we are where we are.
Some positive statements coming from the USMC recently - or course I take all of these with the grain of salt as everyone else here does, could be guys defending budgets/whatever, or the truth, or in the middle. Time will tell, but I certainly hope the F35 program works out.
I do hope the bottom USAF bit is accurate - 8 F15E with that superb AESA and targeting pods the Strike Eagle has for IRST/Sniper pod (IIRC the Lantrin has been replaced by the Sniper? Anyone know what the deal is with that?) - either way, that's a very potent set of systems, one of the best AESA radars in the world and a superb IRST pod, and if no F35s were engaged it makes me think none were likely seen, or at least tracked long enough to get into a weapons engagement envelope.
I still wish the USA would take the newer skin tech and some of the sensor stuff, and maybe even the helmet, and plunk ALL of that into a new build of about 1000+ F22s instead of the 2440 F35s they plan on building, sell 1/3 or 1/2 to allies, and modify the lower time current gen 4/4.5 fleet with some wizzy stuff. Save a bunch of $, and get more capability overall for the USAF/USN IMO. Tell the USMC they are out of the vertical jet biz, save $ on modifying/rebuilding the assault ships for the F35B, let the USMC use attack helos/V22 and the USN/USMC CVN strikers instead. I realize this is wishful thinking now, and that this needed to happen 5 years ago, and never will now - we are where we are, so this single engine F35A/B/C better work.
Recent USMC statements -The U.S. Marines’ top aviation officer offered an upbeat assessment of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter to the House Armed Services Committee during testimony July 6: The stealthy new jump-jet is performing well during training exercises despite using an interim software configuration that affords the pricey aircraft only a fraction of the capabilities the Pentagon requires of it.
To illustrate his point, Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the U.S. Marine Corps’ deputy commandant for aviation, described a training evolution at the service’s elite Weapons and Tactics Instructor course — which is run by the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One at Yuma, Arizona — where the F-35 was a participant.
Whereas normally half of a 30-aircraft strike package including Boeing AV-8B Harrier IIs, F/A-18Cs and EA-6B Prowlers would not make it through high-end air defenses, the new F-35s struck their targets with virtual impunity.
“The F-35’s 24-to-zero kill ratio killed all the targets,” Davis said. “It was like Jurassic Park, watching a velociraptor — kills everything, does really well. We can’t get that airplane fast enough into the fleet.”
Davis did not elaborate on the details of what kind of high-end threats the F-35B flew against. But Davis did say that the Marines have performed operational readiness inspections with the F-35 and are standing up additional squadrons equipped with the new aircraft.
However, the F-35B — as currently configured — has only an interim capability with a limited flight envelope and a limited ability to carry weapons. As the aircraft matures, the Air Force, Navy and Marines will need larger and more capable training ranges to cope with the demands of preparing for a high-end “near-peer” fight.
But the F-35 has one other serious liability, Kofman said — adding that U.S. Navy pilots are skeptical about single-engine designs. The F-35’s single Pratt & Whitey F135 engine — while immensely powerful, producing about 43,000 pounds of thrust — also runs extremely hot.
Unlike the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, where the exhaust from its F119 engines are flattened to reduce their infrared signature, the F-35 does not have any substantive measures to reduce the visibility of its exhaust from the enemy.
The Russians — who build excellent infrared sensors — could use the F-35’s thermal signature to develop a weapons quality track to engage the stealthy new jet.
“It probably has the hottest engine on the face of the planet,” Kofman said.
Recent USAF tests in an exercise 8 F15E tasked with Red air to go after the F35s didn't kill one.https://theaviationist.com/2016/06/27/f-15e-strike-eagles-unable-to-shoot-down-the-f-35s-in-8-dogfights-during-simulated-deployment/“0 losses in 8 dogfights against F-15E Red Air”
The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe.
Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.”
Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests which involved local-based 4th Generation F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the 366th Fighter Wing.
In a Q&A posted on the USAF website, Col. David Chace, the F-35 systems management office chief and lead for F-35 operational requirements at ACC, provided some insights about the activities carried out during the second simulated deployment to Mountain Home (the first was in February this year):
“The F-35 recently deployed from Hill to Mountain Home where crews, maintenance and support personnel conducted a number of missions. During that deployment, crews attained a 100 percent sortie generation rate with 88 of 88 planned sorties and a 94 percent hit rate with 15 of 16 bombs on target.
These numbers provide a positive indication of where we are when it comes to stability and component performance.”
“Feedback from the events at Mountain Home will feed into the overall evaluation of F-35 capabilities. The second evaluation will take place in the operational test environment with F-35 mission sets the Air Force intends to execute after IOC. All reports will be delivered in July and feed into the overall F-35 capabilities report. The ultimate goal is to provide a needed capability to the warfighter to execute the mission. It is not calendar-based or event-based.”
“The feedback from unit operators in place today has been very positive for the F-35, not just concerning performance but the ability the aircraft has with other platforms. In particular at Hill, integration with the F-15E (Strike Eagle) has gone very well. We’ve also been demonstrating the ability to put bombs on target. All of that information will be provided to us in the formal IOC readiness assessments.”
The following interesting chart accompanies the Q&A.
It shows some stats about the deployment.
F-35 deployment
The fourth column shows something interesting: during the exercise, the F-35s were challenged by some F-15Es and suffered no losses.
Even though the graphic does not say whether the F-35s did shoot back at the F-15Es some analysts (noticing also the “pew pew pew” in the chart….) have suggested the JSFs achieved stunning 8:0 kill rate against the Strike Eagle.
However, the “zero losses” may simply mean that the F-35s were able to complete their assigned strikes without being shot down by the aggressors of the Red Air: considered that the F-15Es were probably equipped with the AN/APG-82 AESA radar and the Sniper ATP (Advanced Targeting Pod), the fact that the Strike Eagles performing DCA (Defensive Counter Air) were not able to “find” and/or “engage” the almost-IOC F-35s can be considered a huge achievement for the pricey, troubled 5th generation multirole combat plane.
Actually, this is not the first time the F-35 proves itself able to fly unscathed through a fighter-defended area: not a single Lightning II was shot down during Green Flag 15-08, the first major exercise conducted, more or less one year ago, on the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, during which the F-35 flew as main CAS (Close Air Support) provider.
At that time, several analysts claimed the participation of two test aircraft in the exercise was just a PR stunt, since the aircraft was still quite far from achieving a combat readiness required to really support the troops at war.
Let’s see what happens this time…
