10 Reasons the F-35 is Now More Advanced Than You Think

the f-35 lightning ii is now the world's most dominant multi-role fighter its detection range geolocation threat identification and system response capabilities allow the jet to precisely fix and destroy the most advanced threats in the world including every layer of russia's latest sa-20 surface-to-air missile sam system while it still has several rough edges the f-35 has now crossed several thresholds that make it the most lethal and cost-effective fighter in or nearing production within the nato alliance here are 10 things you need to know about this stealth fighter one the first u.s f-35a wing is fully equipped and already executing combat deployments the maneuvering restrictions the jet had when first introduced are now completely removed even with a complete internal weapons loadout and full internal fuel pilots can fight without limitation last year i interviewed 30 pilots at hill air force base and all 20 with previous experience in fourth generation fighters said they would rather fly the f-35 in combat than their previous rides that preference held for almost every dogfight scenario they can imagine two the price of the lightning has fallen below even the most optimistic government targets in 2018 the congressional research service estimated that an f-35a produced in 2020 would cost 77.5 million dollars using constant 2012 translating that cost estimate to current year dollars makes the price of each f-35a 87.1 million dollars the actual cost of an f-35a in fiscal year 2021 is 79.2 million dollars and it's expected to fall to 77.9 million in 2022 9.2 million dollars cheaper than the government's best estimate using current year dollars three the f-35a now costs less than any other ally produced fourth plus generation fighter [Music] a fully combat equipped f-35a is the same price as an fa18e f 9.8 million below the 87.7 million base price of an f-15 ex and 40 million dollars less than the euro fighter and all three of those competitors require additional equipment like multi-million dollar targeting pods before they can employ weapons in medium threat combat environments the f-15 ex self-protection system is estimated to cost 7.5 million dollars and the sniper targeting pod cost more than 1.7 million dollars per jet making the total cost for a combat configured f-15ex 19 million dollars more than a full combat configured f-35a and none of those other jets would last for a day in a modern day high threat environment 4. competition has increased performance and driven down costs the total price of an f-35 is comprised of the aircraft assembled and produced by lockheed martin and the f-135 engine produced by pratt and whitney plus profit when a northrop grumman produced aircraft sub-component called the distributed aperture system or dash failed to meet reliability thresholds the system was replaced with the dash produced by raytheon that delivers twice the performance and five times the reliability at a per unit cost 45 percent lower than the northrop grumman model this switch alone will save the government three billion dollars over the life of the program five not all manufacturers who help build the f-35 have moved aggressively to reduce costs assuming it stayed on track with pentagon acquisition estimates pratt and whitney is now delivering f-35 engines for 11.8 million dollars a copy with production efficiencies that price was expected to fall to 10.7 million by fiscal year 2025 in fiscal year 12 dollars saving the taxpayer another million dollars per fighter unfortunately without a competitive motor available pratt and whitney has made it clear that further savings are no longer in the cards the ability to competitively reduce engine cost and improve performance was lost when congress killed funding for the f-35 alternative engine contract in 2011 leaving pratt and whitney as a sole source supplier with no incentive to reduce its profits six the f-35a cost per flying hour is falling but one must wade through mark twain's lies damned lies and statistics to find out how the jet is doing with this often misconstrued metric the cost per flying calculations vary significantly between evaluating agencies but all of them add costs for the f-35 that they don't include for the fourth generation fighters they compare it to electronic countermeasures and precision infrared targeting system are built into the f-35 elevating its maintenance requirements and ultimately its cost per flying fighters like the f-15ex f-16c and f-a-18 ef require additional equipment like external podge to give them similar capabilities but because they're not built in the pods acquisition price is not factored into those fourth generation jets purchase price nor are maintenance costs for those systems included in their cost per flying calculations lockheed martin which shoulders roughly 39 percent of the f-35 sustainment cost has reported that its share of the cost has dropped by 44 percent since 2014. overall the f-35s cost per flight hour now stands at roughly 33 000 a figure that includes a roughly 4 dollar decrease in cost from 2019 to 2021 alone lockheed is also hoping to persuade the department of defense to enter into a performance-based logistics contract that it says will allow the company to meet government targets for reducing the f-35s cost per flight hour to 25 000 by 2025 7. mission capable rates for the f-35 rose considerably over the last year but they're still below the 80 percent mission capable threshold set for the fleet by secretary of defense in 2018. according to lieutenant general eric t fick director of the f-35 joint program office the mission capable rate rose to 73.2 percent in 2019 up 18.5 percentage points from the previous year with a priority for parts forward-deployed f-35 combat squadrons were able to sustain an 89 mission capable rate which means parts availability for the fleet is still an issue eight depots limit the f-35 mission capability when an f-35 component fails it's replaced with an available spare and the failed part is shipped to a depot for repair a total of 68 depots are required to effectively sustain the f-35 weapon system but just 30 are up and running and only 11 of those are fully operational parts availability for the f-35 will continue to hold down mission capable rates until all depots are operating at capacity lockheed martin and the f-35 joint program office have accelerated their efforts to get depots up and running and now project that 64 depots will be operational by 2024 five years earlier than the estimated 2029. assuming funding for parts remains consistent the parts shortfall will end allowing fleetwide f-35 mission capable rates to meet or exceed eighty percent nine the helmet mounted display system for the f-35a is still having problems the helmet gives pilots an unparalleled level of situational awareness in combat as it displays all critical flight and weapon systems data on the inside of the pilot's visor the image from the system's built-in night vision camera is also projected onto the visor as is the image from the distributed aperture system that automatically tracks and provides vivid cues directly to the pilot on the location of friendly and enemy aircraft the helmet is a game changer in combat but interface issues with its display have caused pilots to become disoriented when refueling or while landing the jet at night lockheed martin went to work fixing this system just as soon as pilots flagged it as an urgent operational need and that fix is currently being fielded for navy f-35cs it may take several years before the helmet fix makes its way to the air force 10. the autonomic logistics information system or alice is still too big slow and suffering too many problems every aspect of the f-35a's maintenance supply and operations are managed through the f-35 alice much like an apple iphone operating system alice is a computer operating system that holds a conglomeration of 65 applications subprograms or modules some were built exclusively for the f-35a others are commercial off-the-shelf programs the problems arise when digital inputs from either the jet or a more modern alice application meet analog inputs or processing from another module the department of defense is elected to replace alice with a cloud-based operational data integrated network the new system is designed to decrease workload and increase mission capability rates for all f-35 variants and should begin fielding later this year overall the f-35a fighter is flying exceptionally well it now provides the united states with significant competitive advantage against pure competitor threats shortfalls in repair parts and other smaller issues need to be fixed as soon as possible but the capabilities that the f-35 provides the nation today along with the dramatic drop in price make air force decisions to procure the f-15ex and to not ramp up f-35a procurement very puzzling indeed the aircraft provides a capability america needs to engage in strategic competition [Music] [Music] you

Channel: US Military News

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Keywords: f-35, F-35 Stealth Fighter, f-35 fighter, F-35 Lightning II, F-35A, best fighter

Id: jwSrNAb4LgU

Length: 11min 14sec (674 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 26 2021