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Global Opposition Movement Challenges JSF Mar 4, 2009 By Bill Sweetman The first major military aircraft project of the Internet-era, the Joint Strike Fighter, faces a new opposition: a global, networked movement comprising independent and think-tank analysts, retired air force leaders and industry professionals and politicians concerned with the JSF’s financial and operational risks. All of them have immediate access to worldwide news, official reports and program briefings to an extent that was inconceivable when the F-22 was at the same stage of development a decade ago. There are a few main themes that run through many JSF critiques—some of...

F-16s, IDEXes Past, And The General Posted by Bill Sweetman at 2/25/2009 7:42 AM CST The F-16 is still selling, as Graham's post below reminds us. But I read that post on the same day that I was at IDEX - a show that I last visited in 1995, because when I worked for Another Company, the London office usually did that - and also remembered that retired Major General Khalid al Buainnain, now a very big wheel in UAE defense, was then Colonel Khalid. Even then he was clearly a rising star, with ambitions to see the UAE with...

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

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...

BRITAIN is considering pulling out of a £9 billion project with America to produce the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, intended to fly off the Royal Navy’s forthcoming aircraft carriers. The move is part of an increasingly desperate attempt to plug a £1.5 billion shortfall in the defence budget. The RAF’s 25 new Airbus A400 transport aircraft could also be at risk. Studies have now been commissioned to analyse whether Eurofighters could be adapted to fly off the carriers. If Britain abandons the JSF, it will be seen as a further snub to the Americans following Gordon Brown’s decision...

Opposition defends Joint Strike Fighter over simulated dogfights September 11, 2008 THE federal Opposition has dismissed new doubts about the multi-billion dollar Joint Strike Fighter project and the jet's performance. The JSF jets, for which Australia is likely to pay $16 billion, were comprehensively beaten in highly classified simulated dogfights against Russian Sukhoi fighters, it has been reported. The war games, conducted at Hawaii's Hickam airbase last month, were witnessed by at least four RAAF personnel and a member of Australia's peak military spy agency, the Defence Intelligence Organisation, The West Australian said. Opposition defence spokesman Nick Minchin said he...

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...

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...

FARNBOROUGH 2008: Saab pitches Gripen NG as JSF alternative The export market for the Saab Gripen fighter is starting to take off. “It’s all happening at a tremendous pace” says Bob Kemp, senior vice president for international sales & marketing at Gripen International, the company that handles sales of the Swedish aircraft. In the days leading up to the show, Gripen International submitted a proposal to Switzerland, claiming the Gripen offered the most cost-effective and proportionate replacement for the Swiss Air Force’s ageing Northrop Grumman F-5E/F fighters. Rival aircraft such as the Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon would both...

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...

A shortage of electrical power on board the carrier variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has forced Lockheed Martin to launch a redesign of two key subsystems, even as flight tests are set to resume within the next few weeks. Lockheed engineers discovered in laboratory tests in late 2006 that the F-35C will need 33% more power than its on-board generator can provide. The aircraft's flight-control surfaces are powered by electro-hydrostatic actuators and the electrical system has to meet the condition when all the controls demand peak power in the same instant. The power gap was caused by flawed...

For the second year in a row the Pentagon has insisted that it doesn't need another engine for its next-generation fighter jet. And again, Senator Edward M. Kennedy and other powerful lawmakers are forcing it to build one anyway. Tucked in the annual defense bill moving through Congress is $480 million to develop a spare engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter even though the Air Force concluded in 2005 that it was redundant -- and two independent review boards agreed. That didn't trump pork-barrel politics. General Electric Aircraft Engines in Lynn is designing the spare engine and says the...

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 30 (UPI) -- An automated network has been launched to monitor the mechanical health of the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter and keep the planes flying at lower cost. The F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) is capable of keeping tabs on the systems within the next-generation warplane in order to plan support and maintenance more efficiently. "Each F-35 will constantly monitor its own systems and automatically relay information to ALIS," Lockheed Vice President Kimberly Gavaletz explained in a statement. "In turn, ALIS will provide an information infrastructure that captures, analyzes, identifies and communicates F-35 characteristics and...

4/27/2007 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNEWS) -- All systems are moving toward "go" here as officials prepare for upcoming tests on the next-generation strike fighter, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. A new mission control room opened its doors earlier this month, equipped so the Integrated Test Force will be able to monitor real-time performance of the aircraft during its test missions here beginning this fall. The long-awaited aircraft, the first to be developed within the Defense Department to meet the needs of three services, promises state-of-the-art technology at a cost officials say simply couldn't be matched...

THE Australian aerospace industry stands to reap about $9 billion from its involvement in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program over the next three decades, according to the plane's US developer, Lockheed Martin. Lockheed F-35 program manager Abhay Paranjape said Australian companies were already earmarked to receive work worth about $5 billion, provided they continued to provide best-value solutions for the project. This did not include work on the fighter's engines, and included no multiplier effect. The US defence firm has moved from the traditional model of industrial offsets for plane orders to a system of competition between countries for...

The UK has cleared a major hurdle over its purchase of Lockheed martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) after years of dispute over the ability to support and maintain the aircraft in the UK. Coming a day before the aircraft, officially dubbed the Lightning II, is due to make its maiden flight, UK defence minister Lord Drayson signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with US deputy secretary of defence Gordon England during a visit in Washington, DC today over the next phase of the project. The agreement guarantees "operational sovereignty" for the UK, Drayson says. Operational sovereignty is defined as...

Britain should cancel a deal with the United States to purchase Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) jets if America does not share sensitive technology by the end of the year, a report by the parliamentary defense committee will say, the Financial Times reported on Dec.8. The yearly report on British weapons spending, which is due to be released Dec. 8, says “it is still uncertain whether the U.S. is prepared to provide the required information”, despite Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush agreeing in May that Britain would get the technology it needed.