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RAF'S BLUNDER AND LIGHTNING Neil Chandler THE £9billion supersonic jump jet seen as the future of the RAF and Royal Navy will not fly properly in hot weather, say experts. British forces are still flying over hotspots Iraq and Afghanistan – and are expected to be involved in the latter conflict for decades. But early versions of the showpiece F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter are “very limited” in the heat. The new plane will replace the Harrier jump jet and also fly from the new £3.8billion aircraft carriers HMS Prince Of Wales and Queen Elizabeth. In America, F-35s are...

The defense establishment is reconsidering the purchase of American F-35 fighter jets due to the unexpected high cost and disagreements with the manufacturer regarding the installation of Israeli systems in the planes. "This is undoubtedly the ideal fighter plane, and we'd like to have it very much, but not at any price," a senior defense establishment official said. A defense establishment evaluation concludes that the Israel Air Force can maintain its operational and technological supremacy even without the advanced fighter aircraft. This could be achieved by upgrading the IAF's F-15 and F-16 aircraft and buying their advanced models. Advertisement The...

The debate over whether to continue production of the F-22 Raptor has been one of the most politically charged and controversial budget issues in recent memory, spawning lobbying efforts that include contractor-sponsored newspaper ads and letter-writing campaigns. The F-22 is, unquestionably, the most capable fighter in our military inventory. Its advantages include stealth and speed; while optimized for air-to-air combat, it also has a ground attack capability. [snip] It was also prudent to consider future F-22 procurement during the broader review of President Obama's fiscal 2010 defense budget, rather than as an isolated decision. During this review, we assessed both...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force on Monday endorsed the Pentagon in its plan to end production of Lockheed Martin Corp's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets after having pushed to buy more for years. "This is the time to make the transition from F-22 to F-35 production," Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and General Norton Schwartz, the service's top uniformed officer, wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

Taiwan seeks advanced U.S. jet fighters 14:23 | 26/ 03/ 2009 BEIJING, March 26 (RIA Novosti) -- Taiwan is looking to buy U.S. "fifth-generation'' fighter jets featuring stealth and vertical takeoff capabilities, a Chinese daily reported on Thursday. "Taipei has plans to buy an F-35 modification with vertical takeoff to provide support to naval infantry operations," Jin Nian Jiancao said. It said there were two main reasons Taipei wanted to buy F-35s. "Firstly, the existing fleet of Taiwanese fighters can be easily destroyed with Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missiles deployed in mainland China," it said. "Secondly, F-35s will make Taiwan less...

Fighter and attack aircraft are aging faster than they can be replaced. The way out of this crisis has been blocked by the cut in F-22 Raptor production and budget-driven delays in production of the F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). As a result, the service is trying to figure out how to do what it has never done: accept into its aircraft mix a large number of less-capable legacy forces.

The Australian think-tank, Air Power Australia (APA), has released another in their series of techno-strategy papers, this time analysing the advancements in Russian-built Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) (http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-2009-02.html), and what it means in global strategic terms for the Americans. The APA report is direct and unequivocal – Russian radar and missiles have improved to the point where the US fleet of F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s, as well as the planned Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), are not capable of surviving against these systems and unless the Americans build another four hundred-plus F-22s, they will lose the strategic advantage they have...

F-35 Air Combat Skills Analyzed Mar 5, 2009 By Andy Nativi The F-35’s ability to win an air-to-air engagement is drawing increased attention as the U.S. military and industry’s focus includes expanding the Joint Strike Fighter’s customer base beyond the core purchasing nations. For years, prime contractor Lockheed Martin seemed content to promote the F-35’s “strike fighter” capabilities, if only to avoid competing against its other major fighter program, the F-22 Raptor. But with the F-22 not exportable, Lockheed Martin seems keen to talk up the F-35’s air combat skills to bolster its chances for new foreign military sales—namely, to...

S. Korea Eyes Fighter Jet for Landing Ship F-35B fighter jet By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea is looking at introducing the U.S. Lockheed Martin-built F-35B fighter variant, to fly from its 14,000-ton Dokdo large-deck landing ship, along with the F-35A air force version, as part of mid- and long-term force improvement plans, a source here said Sunday. The move comes as the country's arms procurement agency, Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), is preparing to open the third-phase F-X fighter acquisition program in the coming years, he said. DAPA said earlier that it would launch the next-phase F-X bid...

PALMDALE - Employment at Air Force Plant 42 picked up during the last six months of 2008, thanks primarily to hiring at Northrop Grumman Corp. That hiring trend is expected to continue as the company ramps up development of the Navy's unmanned demonstrator aircraft, the X-47B, and production of the F-35 joint strike fighter. "We did hit our staffing target last year; however, we're still looking to add another 500 people by the end of the year," Northrop spokesman Jim Hart said. The Air Force production flight test facility reported employment of 7,039 at the various contractor sites, up from...

During the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce’s annual retreat this year attendees were given an in depth briefing by both Lt. Gen. Gary L. North of the U.S. Air Force and Charlie Savage, regional manager of Lockheed Martin, on the latest happenings at Shaw Air Force base and more specifically, the latest arrival date and progress update of the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter to Shaw. During the third day of the retreat held in Myrtle Beach, North, commander with the 9th Air Force, updated local business leaders on the status of the F-35 fighter, also known as AF-1,...

Three military bases in South Carolina are likely to become future homes for the F-35 fighter. The jet still is under development. But its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, is building three versions that can be used by the Air Force, Marines and Navy. The first test models are expected to roll out of the company’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant in May or June. Shaw Air Force Base reportedly is on that service’s “short list” to receive the first F-35s, which will replace the F-16 Fighting Falcons now at Shaw. But it probably will be 2012 before the fighter lands in South...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2009 – Decisions about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 Raptor aircraft programs are expected early in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration. The F-35 program manager said yesterday he sees strong support for the F-35 from the services, allied partners and, so far, on Capitol Hill. Based on initial indications and inquiries from Obama’s transition team, Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles R. Davis said he’s confident the F-35 program begun during the Clinton administration will continue, even if budget restraints force scale-backs. Davis made the comments here as keynote speaker at a Brookings Institution forum, “The...

The Norwegian government has decided to replace the aging fleet of F-16's with American F-35 fighters, according to a press release from the Prime Ministers office. JSF is assessed to be better than the Gripen within all the main tasks: - Intelligence gathering and surveillance. - air to air combat - air to ground and sea surface

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter flew supersonic for the first time yesterday, achieving another milestone. The aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.05, or about 680 miles per hour. The test validated the F-35 Lightning II's capability to operate beyond the speed of sound and was accomplished with a full internal load of weapons on the one-hour flight. "The F-35 transitioned from subsonic to supersonic just as our engineers and our computer modeling had predicted," said Jon Beesley. "I continue to be impressed with the aircraft's power and strong acceleration, and I'm pleased that its precise handling qualities are retained in supersonic...

China 5th Generation Fighter XXJ J-16 PIc???? The Google translation <3>: f-16 -medium-sized fourth-generation supersonic fighter planes take off and land vertically short-range: from f-16 -611 research and development. Development of the plane from Russia's Jacques -141 aircraft. Use of stealth aircraft design, with transonic, supersonic cruise capacity. Can be on multiple targets simultaneously over-the-horizon attacks, the enforceability of the sea and空等a variety of tasks, the main cruise engine aircraft for a WS-17, the plane will be mainly naval air force equipment, used equipment Navy amphibious Gong Jijian in the plan or at Nansha, Xisha Islands airport, I support Marine...

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is slated to become the backbone of the U.S. tactical aviation fleet. This ambitious program aims to replace the combined U.S. Defense Department arsenal of F-16 Fighting Falcons, F/A-18 Hornets, A-10 Thunderbolts, and the AV-8B Harrier combat aircraft with a single platform capable of being adapted to the divergent needs of the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Marine Corps. The new fighter will not only replace those rapidly aging aircraft in the colossal American inventory, but the jet is also expected to become the mainstay of Allied air...

Decade-old notions about US tactical aircraft strategy and planning have come under a sustained assault from academic institutions closely linked to military and government power structures. The attacks have been timed - perhaps coincidentally - in a period of transition. Within the last month, separate analyses produced by Rand and the Center for Strategic and International Studies have been leaked or released into the public domain even as long-term plans are due to be questioned and revised by the first new president to take office since George Bush in January 2001. The Rand and CSIS reports both deliver sharply critical...

UPDATE 1-Israel to buy $15.2 bln in Lockheed fighters By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday said it approved the sale to Israel of 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and an option for 50 more in coming years -- a deal valued at up to $15.2 billion. The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which oversees major arms sales, said the deal is vital to U.S. national security interests to assist Israel as it develops and maintains "a strong and ready self-defense...

Joint Strike Fighter: The Latest Hotspot in the U.S. Defense Meltdown While its illusion as an "affordable" multi-role fighter-bomber is alive and well in Washington D.C., the F-35 "Joint Strike Fighter" is already a disaster, and the bad news has barely begun to roll in. Internationally recognized combat aircraft designer Pierre Sprey and Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler summarize the many failures in a new opinion piece that appears in the Sept. 10, 2008 issue of Janes Defence Weekly and is reproduced below. "Joint Strike Fighter: The Latest Hotspot in the U.S. Defense Meltdown" by Pierre M. Sprey...

Opinion: Maintaining air superiority Congress must fund more F-22s By Phil Gingrey, Washington Times 09/09/2008 The F-22A Raptor is the key to America's air superiority, and we need more of them. Recently, however, some have argued otherwise. Many of the dissenters suggest that Congress is considering continuing F-22 production for simple, political reasons. I respectfully disagree. Continuing the F-22 production is not a political nicety for the Air Force or for the defense of our nation. It is a necessity and the current program of record - 183 Raptors - is woefully inadequate to fulfill the National Military Strategy. This...

Sweden's Gripen competes with the F-35 By BOB COX rcox@star-telegram.com FARNBOROUGH, England — Just a few years ago, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter was widely viewed as the world’s leading next-generation, high-technology aircraft, with no strong Western competitor. That’s no longer the case. Saab, the Swedish industrial conglomerate better known in the U.S. for performance cars than airplanes, has impressed potential aircraft buyers with an aggressive marketing campaign for its upgraded Gripen fighter jet. Denmark and Norway, two nations that have invested in the F-35, are now holding competitions pitting the F-35 against the Gripen. Denmark is...

The skies over Fort Worth, Texas, hosted a historic aviation milestone today when the most expensive plane on Earth—a modded version of the F-35 Lightning II that lands vertically like a helicopter—made its first flight. Its pilot certainly had the chops to do the job: He learned to fly short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) airplanes when Jimmy Carter was president. Retired Royal Air Force squadron leader Graham Tomlinson, now employed by BAE Flight Systems, flew AV-8 Harriers (the first STOVL warplanes to see action) for 28 years, including time in the late 1980s as a test pilot qualifying the FA-2 Sea...

Israel wants to start buying radar-evading Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets as soon as 2011, with delivery likely about two years later, a U.S. F-35 program official said on Wednesday. The interest in acquiring an initial batch of up to 25 F-35s dovetails with Israeli fears that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb and could have it as soon as 2010, sooner than predicted by the United States. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Washington on Tuesday, at the start of a three-day visit to the United States,...

A House subcommittee on Wednesday endorsed continued production of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor but dealt a blow to another North Texas defense project by recommending a $166 million cut in Bell Helicopter's armed reconnaissance helicopter program.The subcommittee seemingly gave a boost to Air Force leaders in their efforts to continue the F-22, which is scheduled to go out of production in 2011. The Pentagon leadership wants to cap the F-22 fleet at 183 fighters, but the Air Force is pushing for at least 381 F-22s, saying it needs at least that many to maintain U.S. air superiority. Subcommittee members approved...

THE F-35 joint strike fighter will be confirmed as the best choice to become the RAAF's frontline combat aircraft in a classified review to be presented to Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon later this week. The final report of the high-level review commissioned by Mr Fitzgibbon in February is also expected to rule out the much more expensive US-made F-22 Raptor fighter as an alternative buy to the F-35 JSF. Mr Fitzgibbon ordered the review into Australia's future air combat capability as concerns have risen about the development cost and production schedules of the JSF, as well as the capability choices...

Part of the 2009 budget proposal by the Department of Defense is a document called the DoD FY 2009 Budget Request Summary Justification. In the United States Air Force section, there are words about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that are lethal. Quote: "The F-35 will be four times more effective than legacy fighters in air-to-air engagements, eight times more effective in prosecuting missions against fixed and mobile targets, and three times more effective in non-traditional ISR and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) missions" These words are a huge problem for a number...

Lt. Col. James "Flipper" Kromberg of the U.S. Air Force became the first military service pilot to evaluate the F-35 Lightning II, taking the aircraft through a series of maneuvers Wednesday on its 26th flight. Kromberg took off from Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] Fort Worth plant at 11:54 a.m. CST, flew the plane to 6,000 feet and checked handling qualities at 15-degrees angle of attack. He then climbed to 10,000 and 12,000 feet assessing the up-and-away flight-control response. Kromberg also tested the F-35's engine performance and formation-flying characteristics. "The aircraft flew very well, exceeding my expectations," Kromberg said. "I was...

US concerned over Norway's $8bn fighter selection programme, Saab's Gripen may be favoured news 15 January 2008 Helsinki: Almost immediately after the Eurofighter consortium distanced itself from the Norwegian fighter replacement programme in December last year, citing alterations in the bidding process as favouring the US JSF-35 programme, it is now the turn of the US to cry foul saying that the process may actually be skewed in favour of the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen-N programme. Post-withdrawal of the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter from the competition, the Lockheed Martin JSF-35 and the Saab JAS-39 Gripen-N fighters are now in contention for the...

Israel to boost range of future F-35 fleet By Arie Egozi The Israeli air force wants to increase the operational range of its future fleet of 100 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by adding new external fuel tanks that are already being developed by domestic companies. Elbit Systems subsidiary Cyclone Aviation is offering to supply external tanks to be carried on the F-35's under-wing hardpoints, while Israel Aerospace Industries plans to produce conformal fuel tanks for the Israeli fighters. Israel's air force recently completed the design of a unique F-35 version optimised for its mission requirements, but further details...

Ian McPhedran: Super Hornet stings Brendan Nelson Ian McPhedran January 01, 2008 12:00am AUSTRALIAN taxpayers have been scheduled to cough up a huge $22 billion during the next decade to buy two completely separate fleets of jet fighters. These planes will almost certainly never fire a shot in anger. The first $6 billion will buy and run 24 Boeing Super Hornet fighters over the next 10 years. The planes are due to start arriving late in 2009. The second $16 billion will purchase a fleet of up to 100 Joint Strike Fighters from Lockheed Martin to take care of the...

Dec 24, 2007 IAF interested in new US-made jet By YAAKOV KATZ Fearing the possibility that airfields will be bombed and destroyed during a war, the Israel Air Force has expressed interest in purchasing a squadron of Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) with vertical take-off and landing capabilities. In September, the IDF announced its plans to purchase at least 25 F-35 jets, with the option to purchase up to dozens more. Delivery was initially scheduled for 2014, but The Jerusalem Post revealed in October that the Pentagon had in principle agreed to work to move up delivery of the fifth-generation and...

Israel Wants JSF As Soon As Possible Dec 16, 2007 David A. Fulghum, Robert Wall and Douglas Barrie Israel plans to keep its aerial domination of the Middle East intact, and that includes buying Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accelerating its first deliveries, and deciding whose advanced equipment will be packed into the stealthy strike aircraft. A senior Israeli air force (IAF) official says those major areas of concern appear to be on the right track because of an “understanding” with the U.S. officials. Washington’s representatives are more ambiguous, saying that there has been no official change to Israel’s...

Lockheed's F-35 program isn't exactly proceeding as planned Earlier this week, DailyTechreported that the Pentagon is trying to sweep some money under the rug to pay for additional Lockheed F-22 fighter planes. Increased concerns over the reliability and structural soundness of the 30-year-old F-15 have lead to the calls for more of the $132 million USD F-22s.It appears that the old F-15 isn't the only aircraft in the U.S. arsenal that is having problems. The F-35 program is facing setbacks of its own. The F-35 program suffered a serious setback on May 3 when a critical electrical system failure occurred...

Earlier versions of this article have been published in the Dutch press, Defesa@Net and Defense-Aerospace. DID has worked with the author to create an edited version with full documentation of sources. On May 3, 2007, during the 19th test flight of the prototype of the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), a serious electrical malfunction occurred in the control of the plane. After an emergency landing the malfunction could be identified as a crucial problem, and it became clear that redesign of critical electronic components was necessary. Producer Lockheed Martin and program officials first announced there was a minor problem, and...

Taxpayers may pay big F-35 costs By BOB COX Star-Telegram Staff Writer Monday, Dec 3, 2007 Foreign nations are in no rush to place orders for Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, and that threatens to push the planes' rising cost even higher and shrink future orders. The result is that one way or another U.S. taxpayers will likely shoulder most of the cost of getting the F-35 into production, with the bulk of foreign orders not coming until years from now, when jet prices will have dropped dramatically. Lockheed and the Pentagon have been talking with representatives of...

RAF to get Star Wars-style helmets By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent  Last Updated: 3:22pm GMT 09/11/2007     Pilots flying the next generation of jet fighters will use futuristic, Star Wars-style helmets, the Ministry of Defence has revealed.The headgear being developed for the new, American-built F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will display navigation and targeting information on the inside of the pilot’s visor.Precision head tracking software will allow pilots to "see through" the cockpit floor, with infra-red images of the ground below, during day or night time, being beamed in front of their eyes.The advanced helmet mounted display is reminiscent...

PALMDALE - Six years after the contract was first awarded, Northrop Grumman Corp. employees Friday marked another milestone along the path to fielding the nation's next fighter, the F-35 Lightning II. The center fuselage for the first Air Force near-production version of the fighter was unveiled Friday at the company's Palmdale Manufacturing Center. The fuselage incorporates design changes made during development to decrease weight in the final fighter. "This is starting a new phase for what will be a very unique fighter capability," said Air Force Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis, program executive officer for the F-35. The latest - and...

Oct 25, 2007 0:56 US to speed up stealth fighter delivery By YAAKOV KATZ In an effort to bolster the Israel Air Force in the face of Iran's race toward nuclear power, the Pentagon has agreed to move up delivery of its newest stealth fighter to Israel by two years, to as early as 2012, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Last month, the IDF announced plans to purchase a squadron (at least 25 aircraft) of the fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter. That delivery was expected to commence in 2014. During meetings Defense Minister Ehud Barak held at the Pentagon last week,...

If the challenging technology can be developed as planned, the YAL-1A Airborne Laser will become USAF’s first operational airborne laser weapon. Plans call for the ABL to take its first realistic test shot at the end of 2008. The ABL is, essentially, a 747-type cargo aircraft equipped with a powerful chemical laser weapon, primed for shooting down ballistic missiles in their boost phase. The ABL, however, probably will mark just the start of a broader laser era. Service officials believe the combat potential of lasers—for offensive and defensive weapons, protective systems, sensors, and myriad other military applications—goes well beyond the...

When the first F-35 Lightning II rolls out in 2008, communications between pilot and aircraft will enter a new era thanks in part to testing and analysis conducted at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate. The F-35 will be the first U.S. fighter aircraft with a speech recognition system able to "hear" a pilot's spoken commands to manage various aircraft subsystems, such as communications and navigation. Researchers at the directorate's Warfighter Interface Division are collecting data and recommending improvements now to ensure optimal performance when the F-35's new speech recognition system undergoes future operational tests, said David Williamson,...

UK and Italy weight Eurofighter options Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:41am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Defence officials from Britain and Italy have asked the Eurofighter consortium for information on their options as they weigh budgets to buy fighter jets from both Europe and the United States. A spokesman for the Eurofighter consortium said it was working on implementation of an existing plan for the sale of 236 planes to four countries. This proposal is due by the end of the year. These make up the last tranche of 620 ordered under the four-nation programme involving Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain....

Japan launched the first of its new helicopter-carrying destroyers, the Hyuga, amid great fanfare. This vessel, officially 13,500 tons, will be able to carry helicopters. Plans are for them to mostly carry SH-60 helicopters, but the Hyuga will give Japan its first real power projection capability since 1945. Japan plans to build at least two Hyuga-class vessels, which can carry up to 11 helicopters, displace 13,500 tons, and are equipped with a Mk41 VLS, giving them the ability for fire air-defense missiles like the Standard and the ESSM, and a vertically-launched ASROC, but also the Tomahawk cruise missile, if Japan...

Israel sets F-35 Joint Strike Fighter specifications By Arie Egozi The Israeli air force has completed a review of its design requirements for a national variant of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with Tel Aviv expecting to make a decision to buy up to 100 of the US aircraft under a multi-year procurement. Details of the air force's unique requirements remain classified, but are known to include a locally built electronic-warfare suite and a new internally carried bomb to be developed by Israel Military Industries. The general staff of the Israeli defence forces will soon decide how many F-35s...

August 16, 2007: Is the F-35 overhyped? That is one question that is being asked in light of both American refusal to release the source code for software, as well as the climbing price (up to $63 million per plane). The real answer depends on what competing aircraft have to offer. How does the F-35 compare in the air-to-air mission against likely competitors like the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen, and the multi-national Eurofighter? All of European planes boast some of the best electronics suites that have ever provided for a combat aircraft. All are capable of high speed (over...

Lockheed Martin overcharged the US government by $265 million on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development programme, the company announced on 9 August. The company is now in the process of reimbursing the funds to the government, although it was not immediately clear if the funds will be returned to the JSF programme office for reinvestment or go elsewhere. “We are working with the government to determine the appropriate amount of interest” owed, according to a released company dossier. The government’s joint programme office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The overbilling issue was discovered during a...

In a major move, the United States has sent feelers that it is now ready for transfer of hi-technology weaponry to India, including its fifth generation Joint Strike Fighter F-35. Though Pentagon has offered New Delhi participation in its missile shield, top of the shelf 4th generation F-16 and F-18/A fighters, weapon locating radars and its new brand of long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, it has so far kept the F-35 under wraps. But in a surprise move last week, a high-level team from US Defence Major Lockheed Martin met top officials of the Indian Air Force to convey that...

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 28 (UPI) -- All three versions of the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter have now cleared the final milestone needed before entering the production phase. The carrier version of the cutting-edge F-35 recently passed its Air System Critical Design Review, putting it on track for Low Rate Initial Production. The conventional and short-takeoff, vertical landing variants of the plane passed the CDR earlier and have been approved for LRIP. "The die is now fully cast for the unique, three-variant Joint Strike Fighter program envisioned when the planning began in the late 1990s," said Air Force Brig. Gen....

Forces tag $3.8B to buy advanced jets Joint Strike Fighter studied to replace CF-18s in the next decade David Pugliese The Ottawa Citizen June 27, 2007 Canada's military is setting aside almost $4 billion for the purchase of a fleet of futuristic fighter jets that will replace its CF-18s in the next decade. The Canadian Forces is creating a new office in Ottawa in August to deal with its future fighter needs and plan how it will proceed with replacing the existing CF-18 jets. The government has committed to investing in the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter and an air force...

Lockheed Martin said its Electro Optical Targeting System (EOTS) for the F-35 Lightning II successfully completed its inaugural flight test, demonstrating its capability as a multi-functional system for precision air-to-air and air-to-surface targeting. The flight test began the first phase of a three-phase flight test program. EOTS eventually will fly aboard the Cooperative Avionics Test Bed aircraft, joined by the complete F-35 sensor suite during the second quarter of 2008. EOTS provides high-resolution imagery, automatic tracking, infrared-search-and-track, laser designation and rangefinding and laser spot tracking at increased standoff ranges. Lockheed Martin said the flight test met all objectives, including demonstration...