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Fixed-wing aircraft carrier aviation is not cheap, and short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft have a limited ability to bring back unspent fuel and ordnance to the ship after a mission is completed. This means good gas gets dumped, and even worse, weapons that cost thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars get jettisoned into the sea. The Royal Navy wants their F-35Bs to be able to the return to the ship with more gas and weapons than they normally could by landing vertically on the decks of their two new Queen Elizabeth classaircraft carriers. The aim is to...

ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow Region), July 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry is in talks with aircraft builders to develop an advanced vertical take-off and landing fighter jet for a future aircraft cruiser on the basis of planes produced by the Yakovlev Company, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said on Tuesday. "The Defense Ministry’s plans … somewhere at the finish of the state armament program for 2018-2025 envisage the commencement of the construction of a new aircraft cruiser and, of course, a new generation of aircraft will emerge by that time," Borisov said. "Today, Su-33 and MiG-29 aircraft are the backbone of aircraft...

UK Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, officially confirmed plans for the US Marine Corps F-35B to be detached aboard the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier during its maiden operational deployment set for 2021. This announcement was made December 15th during a ministerial meeting in London. USMC file picture: Two F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters complete vertical landings aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) during the opening day of the first session of operational testing. On the margins of the ministerial meeting, Sir Michael also deepened UK...

The voice of the pilots is clear – the platform is working exceptionally. The F-35 is a platform with the ultimate level of sophistication, made simple. And therein lay the beauty of the F-35, and just why it will be so deadly, it’s simple. The combined F-35 fleet now has over 75,000 flight hours, yet many continue to question the performance and value of the aircraft. Much of this can be expected given early program challenges, and the reality that many of the F-35s capabilities are classified. Add that many do not grasp the war the F-35 was designed to...

For the first time in history, the F-35B took off from a ship with a full-load of weapons. Integrating the F-35B will change tactics on-board amphibious assault ships The Marine Corps F-35B Short-Take-Off-and-Vertical-Landing Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter took off from a Navy amphibious assault ship for the first time with a full load of weapons -- in preparation for its planned deployment in 2018. The aircraft flew from the Navy's first America-Class Amphibious Assault Ship, the USS America, to Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., where it dropped live precision guided weapons on mock targets in the desert. The F-35B dropped...

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has confirmed that the US Marine Corps will be flying F-35Bs from HMS Queen Elizabeth on the aircraft's carrier's maiden operational deployment. He said: “I can welcome the commitment of the United States to deploying F-35s on the first operational deployment of Queen Elizabeth – the HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021. And in the fullness of time, we expect our F-35s to be welcome on the American carriers.” Fallon confirmed the deployment while giving a joint press conference on Wednesday at London's Lancaster House with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter. "We value very much having such...

An F-35 fighter is shown with ASRAAM missiles. Britain will introduce the missile on F-35Bs in 2022. (Photo: Lockheed Martin) The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) awarded manufacturer MBDA a £184 million ($240 million) contract to supply an updated version of its infrared-guided ASRAAM missile for British F-35B Lightning II fighters. ASRAAM (advanced short range air-to-air missile) will be the first British-designed missile to enter service on the F-35. ASRAAM is currently in service with Royal Air Force Typhoon and Tornado fighters and is being carried daily on missions over Iraq and Syria as part of the coalition campaign against...

The RAF's state-of-the art new fighter jet touched down in the UK for the first time tonight. The world’s most advanced stealth aircraft landed at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, after flying from the US with a Briton at the controls. Its arrival came two years after it pulled out of air shows because of an engine fire. As if the sky had been choreographed, a spectacular rainbow broke out on the arrrival of the new jets The £100million British F-35B Lightning II jet - joined by two more owned by the US Marine Corps - will take part in a series...

Assuming its planned appearance at the Farnborough International Airshow goes ahead, the Lockheed Martin F-35 will be the most significant new military aircraft to be seen in the skies of southern England for many years. It has been a long wait for British eyes, the nation being the first overseas partner to sign up to the Joint Strike Fighter program, as it became. Britain joined following the signing of a government-to-government memorandum of understanding way back in 1995. It was a momentous decision for the UK government at the time, as the JSF design and configuration was yet to be...

LONDON — The U.S. Marine Corps will deploy its Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II strike fighters on combat sorties from Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, a senior U.K. Royal Navy officer has confirmed. Rear Adm. Keith Blount, who is responsible for delivering the two 65,000 ton ships, said that using Marine aircraft and pilots to bolster the U.K.’s nascent carrier strike capability would be a natural extension of coalition doctrine. “We are forever operating with allies and within coalitions. It’s the way wars are fought”, the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Aviation, Amphibious Capability and Carriers) and Rear Adm....

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has a damning report on the F-35B’s shipboard “Operational Test” trials that occurred last May. It paints a dismal picture of an aircraft that is so far from being “operationally capable” it’s almost comical at this point. As a result, it proves what many of us already know: the Marines’ declaration of F-35B initial operational capability made this Summer was a farce. The F-35B’s Operational Test trials aboard the USS Wasp late last May were widely portrayed as a big success and proof that the troubled aircraft had progressed past many of the issues...

Over the past few years, the F-35 Lightning II – the fifth-generation, Lockheed Martin wunder-plane set to eventually take over from almost every fighter jet in the US and UK militaries – has received a public relations kicking. It’s expensive – the total cost for the programme so far is an incredible, not-even-hyperbolic trillion dollars. It’s had some embarrassing technical stumbles – engine fires, a non-functioning cannon and a half-million dollar helmet that fits comfortably in the cockpit or on a pilot’s head (but reportedly not both). And while it’s designed as a multirole, do-everything plane that will see the...

Lockheed Martin test pilot Billie Flynn puts F-35B test aircraft BF-02 into pre-contact position behind a US Air Force KC-135 tanker on the range near NAS Patuxent River, Md., on 5 September 2014. Photo courtesy F-35 Lightning II Program Office. The Marine Corps’ Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will have the stealth of a fifth-generation fighter and a weapons payload surpassing a fourth-generation fighter by the time a software upgrade is ready for fielding in 2017, the Marines’ top aviator said this week. The aircraft’s ability to alternate between accessing contested areas and deliverying heavy fire...

The Marine Corp has declared initial operational capability for their first squadron of F-35Bs. The announcement is seen by some as more of PR achievement as the aircraft still has years of testing ahead of it. Others will argue that it represents a major accomplishment for the beleaguered F-35 program. But regardless of who you agree with, the USMC have succeeded at ramming the aircraft through a marker post that has always been a huge point of contention. Commandant of the Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford made the following statement: I am pleased to announce that VMFA-121 has achieved initial...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps' top aviator flew to an Arizona air base this week as part of a final effort to certify the combat-readiness of an initial squadron of 10 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35B fighter jets, their pilots and technicians. Marine Corps officials were due to brief Lieutenant General Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, on a week-long review which included operational and simulator flights in five core mission areas, an inspection of the maintenance department, and academics for both pilots and technicians. If Davis is satisfied, he will brief Marine Corps Commandant General Joseph Dunford, who...

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's proposal to put F-35 fighter jets on the Navy's two 27,000-tonne troop transport assault ships has been quietly dropped ahead of the government's defence white paper after it was found the ships would require extensive reworking and the project was too costly. Mr Abbott asked defence planners in May last year to examine the possibility of putting up to 12 of the short-take-off and vertical-landing F-35 Bs on to the two ships – the largest in the Navy – which carry helicopters and are likely to be primarily used to transport troops and equipment to war...

LONDON — BAE Systems Test Pilot Pete “Wizzer” Wilson became the first pilot to launch the Lockheed Martin F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing variant of the Lightning II from a ski-jump, BAE Systems said in a June 23 release. The launch took place at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., on June 19 from a land-based ski jump and marks the start of an initial testing phase expected to last two weeks. The trials demonstrate the aircraft’s ability to take off safely and effectively from a ski-jump ramp similar to that which will be used on the United Kingdom’s new...

WASHINGTON — The F-35 Lightning II program made aviation history June 12 as Royal Air Force (RAF) Test Pilot Squadron Leader Andy Edgell released two inert 500-pound dual mode Paveway IV precision-guided bombs over the Atlantic Test Ranges, the U.S. Navy reported. The inaugural weapons separation test of the Paveway IV conducted by the F-35 Lightning II Patuxent River, Md., Integrated Test Force (ITF) was a major milestone for the U.K. Royal Navy and RAF F-35 program. The test brought together the multi-role short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter and the Paveway IV — an advanced weapon...

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not receive the software package required to operate the Pentagon’s top close-air support bomb until 2022, according to military.com. The article also stated that the JSF office already had discovered earlier that the precision-guided air-dropped Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) does not fit onto Joint Strike Fighter Marine Corps variant without modifications to the aircraft’s weapons bay. Yet the Department of Defense will wait until the F-35 B (the Marine Corps variant of the F-35) reaches initial operability before modifying the F-35’s armament bay, since the weapon will be useless without the right...

The F-35B carrying two ASRAAM missiles on outboard pylons. Photo: BAE Systems In recent test series, US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II the combined test force configured to carry weapons load operated by the Royal Air Force completed initial aircraft handling trials carrying ASRAAM and Paveway IV weapons. The tests were carried out at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, MD in the USA by a test team including personnel from the UK BAE Systems. Two F-35B Short Take Off / Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft, flown by Billie Flynn, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 test pilot, and Squadron Leader Andy Edgell from the...