Posted on 02/20/2012 7:31:48 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
F-35 makes first test flights with external weapons
By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
February 20, 2012, 3:36 p.m. The F-35, the military's next-generation fighter jet, has begun its first flight tests carrying external missiles at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.
The stealthy, supersonic fighter, built byLockheed Martin Corp., has been undergoing tests since its first flight in late 2006.
The F-35, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, will be used by the Navy, Marines and Air Force. Three versions of the F-35 are being built — one that can operate off aircraft carriers, one capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, and a conventional fighter jet.
All three F-35 variants will be built on the same production line at Lockheed's plant in Fort Worth. The center fuselage sections will be made byNorthrop Grumman Corp.in Palmdale.
The F-35 is the Pentagon's costliest program going; the Defense Department has plans to buy 2,443 of the aircraft at a cost of $382 billion.
On Thursday, an F-35 took off carrying two air-to-air missiles under its wing, Lockheed said. In addition, the F-35 carried two 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and two advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles in its two internal weapon bays.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Its time for the F-35 to move over at let the F-22 take over.Produce the number ordered and that is it. The F-22 or the F-15 Silent Eagle has proven its worth. It has been in testing too long.
Ping.
Tell that to the Marines.
ping
The F-35C is already doing steam cat launches at Pax River. I guess OTs with the new electromagnetic launchers (EMALS)
can’t be too far off. Boink!
This entire project should of ended in 2006. Offer them the new Super Hornet.
It was reported in March 2009 that testing by Lockheed Martin and the Royal Australian Air Force revealed that the F-35 was not as loud as first reported, being “only about as noisy as an F-16 fitted with a Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-200 engine” and “quieter than the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.” However according to an acoustics study done by Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force, the noise levels of the F-35 are found to be comparable to the F-22 Raptor and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
4 years roughly of flight test on each of F16 and F15..
about 8 for the Raptor and going on 5 for the F35.
seems like reasonable progress to me given the bleeding edge
technologies in play and the amount of investment $$..
and there goes any stealthiness it actually had
They already started testing on the EMALS but there are problems.
Not necessarily, since the f-35 was always designed to carry external munitions. Besides you can jettison or release any fuel tanks and stand-off weapons and still retain internally mounted weapons.
But it seems that they are encountering problem after problem.the F-22 has already been developed. It seems that the nations that are developing the project is leaving or severly cutting back their orders
Even the Pentagon is getting tired
probably not as stealthy as internal weapons bays like the F-22 has (had?)
The F-22 cannot deploy heavy (2,000 lb class) bombs from its internal bay. The F-35 A/C can.
Uh-oh. If EMALS is delayed, I don’t think there’s a Plan B for CVN 78.
someone seems to have peed in Bob Cox’s wheaties.
The last test was in November of 2011 when it tested a F-35 connected to the system
Would it turn it into mush if you did that?
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