Posted on 11/01/2010 9:24:45 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Lockheed Martin is looking at revamping several of the F-22's most critical systems with hardware from the F-35.
The initiative would create a common architecture that links upgrades of the radar, electronic warfare suite and communications, navigation and identification (CNI) system to both aircraft.
The concept requires "significant initial investment", but "could yield some cost savings in the long term", the manufacturer says.
Lockheed developed the F-22 about a decade ahead of the F-35. Both aircraft share the company's "fifth-generation fighter" slogan, but major subsystems are based on different architectures. So improving hardware or software on the F-35 yields no benefit for the F-22, and vice versa.
No decisions have been made, but Lockheed officials at the F-22 factory are asking if that should change, only 16 months before the production line is shut.
"Say, if we want to add something to [the F-22] CNI suite, F-35 could take that wholesale with minimal modifications," says Jeff Babione, vice-president and deputy general manager of the F-22 programme. "So you'll see this bouncing back and forth where F-22 develops something for F-35, and F-35 develops something for F-22."
Another potential example is the integration of the multifunction airborne data link (MADL), a narrowband channel designed to pass data between stealth aircraft such as the F-35, F-22 and the Northrop Grumman B-2A bomber.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
Just the thing to make engineers pull out their hair.
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I know that any comments would be back seat driving when I don’t know the business but I do know technology in general.
If this is an investment that will allow us to keep BOTH fighter production lines running due to economy of scale, DO IT! The F-22 is the undisputed air superiority fighter and losing it to its price tag is a total failure. Perhaps merging the critical systems of the two will allow massive long term saving in production and support.
This would not result in a single extra F-22 being built.
It would retrofit the existing F-22s (and the last few due to roll off the line by mid 2011 for a total of 187 Raptors) with the F-35's avionics architecture.
Then software written for the F-35 could also run on the F-22, or so the theroy goes, rather than having to write it twice for two different central processor systems.
The Raptor avionics is at least 10 years older technology than the F-35.
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