Posted on 02/05/2024 6:09:04 AM PST by Fish Speaker
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — For several years, a problem has been brewing for Lockheed Martin’s F-35: future upgrades will make the jet run even hotter than it does now, more than its current cooling system is believed to be able to handle.
In the near term, Pentagon officials expect that a high-profile upgrade to the plane’s F135 engine will avoid most of these cooling issues. But in the longer term, the military fears future aircraft upgrades needed to keep pace with threats decades down the line will push the heat factor even higher, and officials have recently suggested they’re casting about for new cooling options.
Their choices boil down to this: either upgrade the plane’s current Power and Thermal Management System (PTMS) made by Honeywell Aerospace, or seek solutions for a new PTMS from competitors like Collins Aerospace, which has bet some serious time and money on the possibility.
Earlier this week reporters from a small number of outlets, including Breaking Defense, were invited to a lab at Collins’s facilities here, where years of internal investment has culminated in a new cooling apparatus for the F-35 called the Enhanced Power and Cooling System (EPACS), what would be Collins’s PTMS replacement.
Rigged up to simulate certain operating conditions of the stealth fighter and instrumented extensively to measure results, the EPACS has demonstrated a key benchmark, Collins announced Tuesday: a capacity for 80 kilowatts of cooling.
(Excerpt) Read more at breakingdefense.com ...
Fly at night...........................
The F-35 has been a dog from the get-go.
It never should have gone in to production.
We should cut our losses and begin acquisition of a new fighter.
No, it’s not.
Retired Air Force here.
Ask the troops who fly them; not the biased and sensationalist media.
The SAME thing was said about the F-117, F-16, F-111, F-4, F-86, B-52, B-47, etc. etc...
The F-35 has been a dog from the get-go.
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Why is it that in these high-end fighters, something as major as a properly designed cooling system isn’t engineered into the system from the get-go? It looks to me like the contractors are playing the Pentagon and the contractors should be made to eat the cost of their design shortcomings. That doesn’t even address the downtime and current performance limits being placed on the aircraft. By the time they eliminate all the flaws in this lemon, a new fighter will be needed.
If the aircraft becomes low on fuel, non-flight critical avionics systems must be shut down to lower the thermal load.
Not retired Air Force here, just a one four year enlistment Avionics Maintenance tech (SSgt).
How soon people forget all of the teething pains the F-22 had.
If I had my way Lockheed would be punished for building such a dog but they had a lot of DoD help to do it so there is that.
We should ask the people who maintain them.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105341
Maintenance challenges negatively affect F-35 aircraft readiness. The F-35 fleet mission capable rate—the percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of its tasked missions—was about 55 percent in March 2023, far below program goals. This performance was due in part to challenges with depot and organizational maintenance (see fig.). The program was behind schedule in establishing depot maintenance activities to conduct repairs. As a result, component repair times remained slow with over 10,000 waiting to be repaired—above desired levels. At the same time, organizational-level maintenance has been affected by a number of issues, including a lack of technical data and training.
A colleague was an avionics tech on the B-36. The unplanned addition of electronics bays was one reason it could hardly get off the ground.
“The F-35 can only tolerate supersonic speeds at high altitudes for short bursts before it sustains lasting structural damage and the loss of stealth capabilities. During high speeds, the jet’s stealth coating, which makes it invisible to radar, is known to bubble.”
“There are currently no plans to correct the problem. The F-35 JPO told Defense News the issue was closed under the category of ‘no plans to correct’ due to cost overruns and the time it would take to correct. Instead, the Pentagon set a time limit for supersonic flight to less than a cumulative minute for all models.”
Maybe I am wrong but I think that limitation puts our fighters at a pronounced disadvantage in a dog fight.
As I said, ask the military pilots who fly them and the technicians who maintain them.
All I see is opinion and news media articles. ALL of that is craftily wordsmithed opinion.
Then, get some history lessons, and read about all of the challenges and discussion about the F-16, F-111, F-117, F-4, B-1, B-52, B-47...
fighters at a pronounced disadvantage in a dog fight.
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The 35 is not even designed to be a fighter, let alone win a dogfight.
Former USAF officer here, involved in F-35 development.
Heat was an issue from day 1. The GPS receiver aboard was designed to have jet fuel flow through it, to act as coolant.
If the F-35 is an attack aircraft why the F designation?
Why are all foreign governments who can possibly afford/qualify clamouring to get it, almost 1,000 manufactured and sold already?
“Maybe I am wrong but I think that limitation puts our fighters at a pronounced disadvantage in a dog fight”
“Dog fight” lol. The F-35 is designed to never even be detected by adversary aircraft, much less engage in WW1 maneuvers and combat.
“Why is it that in these high-end fighters, something as major as a properly designed cooling system isn’t engineered into the system from the get-go?”
Because the scope of future upgrades can’t be anticipated at original design time. You can’t over engineer every support system by 100% or you end up with twice the cost and twice as heavy and half the performance.
So, what happens when our adversaries defeat our stealth tech?
If the airframe can’t accommodate sustained supersonic flight and stealth the aircraft is toast.
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