F-35 JSF engine too big for regular transport at sea

ELP Defense ^ | 11/30/2010 | ELP Defense

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The F-35C’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, contained in its Engine Shipping System, is too large for the cargo door on a standard carrier onboard delivery plane and for the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, the program office acknowledged in a response to a follow-on query from Navy Times. The engine can be broken down into five component parts, but just its power module and packaging alone won’t fit into the COD or the V-22.

The JSF Program Office says the V-22 Osprey, like the MH-53E helicopter, can externally carry the F135 engine module, the heaviest of the five components, at least 288 miles “in good weather.”

One outside analyst, Jan van Tol of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, wondered how the Osprey, in hover mode, could safely lower the module to the flight deck or pick up an out-of-service engine in higher sea states, given the heavy downdraft the aircraft’s 38-foot rotors generate when the engine nacelles are in the vertical position. When so positioned, with the aircraft hovering over the flight deck, the rotor wash can also affect sailors standing nearby – particularly those attaching the load sling, van Tol said. The GAO reported in 2009 that during shipboard exercises, the V-22’s downwash was so severe that in one instance, a sailor was directed to hold in place the sailor serving as the landing guide.

Heat could also be a problem. Depending on the amount of heat generated, sailors involved in sling operations could possibly be forced to wear heat-resistant suits, van Tol said.

Moreover, the Navy has no fleet V-22s and has no plans to acquire them. The Marine Corps flies the MV-22, but the Navy amphibious groups that carry its forces and aircraft to distant shores generally do not operate in the vicinity of carrier strike

[Robert A Cook PE]

“Recommend” to Pres Obama (or anything else coming from the military) means nothing. (Actually, just the recommendation alone gives Obama plenty of cover - there’s nothing that says he’ll do it, but he gets publicity for GE being “recommended” out of the funding.

Then GE gets the funding anyway. Even Goldman Sachs was willing to take a 25 million dollar “fine” in return for a 200 billion bailout package.

[DesScorp]

"I wonder if all these “facts” are accurate or just invented by people who don’t want the JSF?! Do you think it is legit problems?"

Oh, the problems are legit. There's a big community of conservatives that don't like the JSF because we saw it for what it was... a McNamara-esque replay of the TFX fiasco in the 60's. Pierre Sprey... the lead designer of both the A-10 and F-16... has stated that the JSF is exactley the opposite kind of thinking that produces excellent fighters, and that you can't get good airplanes by committee. And the JSF is the ultimate plane-by-committee. It's slower, heavier, louder, and far more expensive than the F-16's it's supposed to replace. It has one real virtue... more range than a teen series fighter, and that's about it. It's "stealth" is weaksauce (stealthy only from a head-on profile), and useless against the newer X-band radars.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Pierre Sprey

one of McNamara's "whiz kids" is well down the road of dementia.