The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth
multirole fighters is undergoing final development and testing by the United States.
The pentagon began the F 35 program in 2001 with an aim to develop a cost effective replacement
for U.S military's F 15 fighters, F 16 and F 18 bombers and reconnaissance aircraft,
and a-10 close air support warplanes.
Apart from United States, the primary customer and financial backer, the United Kingdom,
Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Norway and Denmark are also part of the program.
The nine major partner nations, including the U.S., plan to acquire over 3,000 F-35s
through 2035, which, if delivered will make the F-35 one of the most numerous jet fighters.
The fighter aircraft will be in service till 2050 (may even be 2070).
But the fighter jet has been plagued with delays, prompting Donald Trump to describe
it as 'out of control' and demanding a price cut from Lockheed Martin.
A Pentagon report in January this year has warned the jet still has hundreds of faults
- and won't be ready to even begin full combat testing until 2019.
The Pentagon's latest brutal assessment of this high-priced aircraft was part of an
annual report from the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation
Michael Gilmore.
The dossier includes a five-page evaluation of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program,
the results of which are damning.
The Services have designated 276 deficiencies in combat performance as "critical to correct"
in Block 3F, but less than half of the critical deficiencies were addressed with attempted
corrections in 3FR6.
That's not all.
In addition to these hundreds of flaws that have already been found in the aircraft, the
Pentagon expects to keep finding more.
As per Pentagon, deficiencies continue to be discovered at a rate of about 20 per month,
and many more will undoubtedly be discovered before and during IOT&E (Initial Operational Test and Evaluation)
In this video Defense Updates, check out 5 most important issues plaguing the fighter
that needs to be fixed.
Lets get started.
Called the Gun Airborne Unit, or GAU-22/A, the weapon is engineered into the aircraft
in such a manner as to maintain the platform's stealth configuration.
The cannon will bring a substantial technology to the multi-role fighter platform, as it
will better enable the aircraft to perform air-to-air attacks and close-air support missions
to troops on the ground.
The four-barrel 25mm gun is designed for rapid fire in order to quickly blanket an enemy
with gunfire and destroy targets quickly.
The weapon is able to fire 3,300 rounds per minute, according to a statement from General
Dynamics.
The cannon currently has stability issues and vibrates excessively.
This in turns makes the aircraft unstable and has a major negative impact on its performance.
The F-35 features 6 cameras stationed around the jet and a helmet display that allows pilots
to literally look through the jet as if it wasn't there.
It features the only infrared radar on a US fighter since the F-14, and uses unprecedented
sensor-fusion capabilities to paint an incredibly vivid picture of its surroundings for miles out.
All the information is presented to the pilot through the display embedded in the helmet.
In a perfect scenario the pilot should be able to target the missile and the gun by
just pointing to the target with his helmet.
But currently there are issues in this feature and targets are not properly aimed through the helmet.
The stealth capabilities in the F-35 are unprecedented in military aviation.
The F-35 achieves low observable (LO) stealth performance through its fundamental design.
The F-35's external shape, internal carriage of weapons and fuel, embedded mission systems
sensors, and state of the art manufacturing processes all contribute to the F-35's unique
stealth performance.
An integrated airframe, advanced materials and other features maximize the F-35's stealth features.
But these components have been shown to be rather fragile.
Overheating, premature wear of components in the vertical tails and vulnerability to
fire have been identified has major issue.
Supersonic travel is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach1).
Speed determines the effectiveness of a fighter jet in a combat situation.
All modern fighters can reach supersonic speeds.
But the important aspect is how the aircraft performs when it transitions into supersonic
zone from subsonic zone.
Because the propagation speed of sound waves is finite, sources of sound that are moving
can begin to catch up with the sound waves they emit.
As the speed of the object increases to the sonic velocity, these sound waves begin to
pile up in front of the object.
If the object has sufficient acceleration, it can burst through this barrier of sound
waves and move ahead of the radiated sound.
The change in pressure as the object outruns all the pressure and sound waves in front
of it is heard on the ground as an explosion, or sonic boom.
According to Pentagon, F 35 has 'objectionable or unacceptable flying qualities' while crossing
the sound barrier.
The exact details have not been divulged, but the harsh words used emphasis the criticality of the issue.
F-35s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona have been temporarily grounded after starving their
pilots of oxygen.
The announcement was made by the 56th Fighter Wing after five F-35A pilots reported "physiological
incidents" after which they had to draw on backup oxygen supplies before landing.
Since 55 of the 220 F-35s currently flying worldwide are at Luke, the grounding takes
out one-quarter of the world's squadron.
The incidents have been happening between May 2nd and, June 8th, when the base decided
to suspend flights.
A total of 5 hypoxia incidents happened in that period – roughly one a week.
The F-35 program is nearly a decade behind schedule, and has failed to meet many of its
original design requirements.
It's also become the most expensive defense program in world history, at around US$1.5
trillion before the fighter is phased out in 2070.
The unit cost per airplane, above $100 million, is roughly twice what was promised early on.
It remains to be seen how Trump administration handles this program.
No comments:
Post a Comment