The F-22 Raptor. Is the most advanced of its breed. Built around the first look, first shot, first kill ethos. The Raptor is a killing machine, just like the name implies. It's even more deadly when it gets out there and does the job. Deadly and undetectable at long. Range this breathtaking 5th generation. Fighter blends unmatched dog fighting with precision strike ground attack capabilities. Confidence lies in the fact. These goals are achievable as a result of synergistic. Combination of characteristics and. Capabilities including low observables, also known as stealth. The ability to cruise at supersonic speeds or supercruise over long range. And without the use of. Afterburners and an integrated. And highly sophisticated avionics unit. Additionally the FA-22. A has. Been designed to be more maneuverable, better armed, more reliable, more easily maintained, more readily supportable, and more capable in the air to ground mission than any other comparable aircraft in history. Throughout the 1960s and. 70s The Soviets developed different missiles to attack in different altitude bands. You couldn't fly under the missile threat. You couldn't fly over the missile threat. You had to deal with the missile threat. One way to do that is to make suppression. Of Enemy air defense, that is. Destroying the missile sites. In the radars. The most. Important mission for the air. Force. By the 1970s. Air superiority had re emerged as a top priority and the US Air Force. Committed to building. Its first pure air superiority. Fighter an aircraft that would. Eventually become the F-15. Eagle. But just as the F. Fifteens became operational in 1978. Alarming new evidence suggested that the new. Fighters superiority might only be temporary. Reconnaissance satellites had photographed several new fighter. Prototypes. The Mikoyan Mig 29 and Sukhoi T-10 at the Ramenskoye flight test center outside of a small city of Zukovsky. About. 40 miles southeast of Moscow. This new generation of Russian fighters represented a significant improvement in capability over anything previously observed by U.S. intelligence services. It was. Obvious to all concerned. That a new air to air combat. Platform would be required to. Counter the new threat these new Russian aircrafts represented. The Sukhoi T-10 came as a huge shock to Western analysts. It was. Bigger than the F-15 and far bigger than any. Previous Soviet built fighter. If The Mig 29 had concerned the American military establishment. The existence of the Sukhoi T-10 set alarm bells ringing. These are very good aircraft. Aircraft that can play in the same league as some of the top NATO fighters. Like Phantom and ultimately like F-15. Just weeks into. His first term America's. 40th President increased US defense. Spending by $32.5 billion and began the rearmament of the United States on a colossal scale. The. Goal. Is World Peace. It is absolutely essential that we increase our spending for National Defense if we're to preserve the peace. As Reagan and Brezhnev squared up the US Air Force. Concluded that it would urgently need a new replacement for its F-15 an advanced. Tactical fighter or ATF, That would have no equal. As American planners start to develop the concept of air, land, battle to fight. World War Three, the US Air Force starts to think about the kind. Of equipment it wants to have when it comes to fighting. The War Two sub. Projects were established under this. Banner the Advanced Tactical fighter. Which included concept and technology development seven airframe companies Big Boeing, General Dynamics Grumman, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop and Rockwell each. Received concept development investigation contracts. For $1,000,000 and the joint fighter engine, which was an engine technology demonstration program to be managed jointly with the US Navy, Pratt and Whitney and General. Electric each received. Contracts valued at $202 million dollars during September of 1983. The seven competing companies. Submitted some 19 conceptual designs from these it was. Concluded that the ideal air to air platform would offer low observables in combination. With supercruise and superior maneuverability. Analysis of air to air. Combat in Vietnam called the Red Darren study had. Kickstarted a race for stealth. The principle of stealth. Technology is to literally make an airplane? invisible to the enemy an. Aircraft sheep must reflect incoming radio waves away from the enemy radar rather than towards it, to further increase low observable characteristics. An airplane is then covered in. Materials that absorb radar signals, further reducing its visibility on radar screens. Leading the way in stealth technology was Lockheed. Skunk Works division. In 1977 amid unprecedented security. Lockheed had Flown a prototype. Of the world's first stealth fighter. The US Air Force. Decided that any new fighter must incorporate stealth technology and identified. Two other. Areas in which a. Future air superiority fighter should. Excel. The challenge had been issued. Now it was up to the finest aviation manufacturers in the world to respond. The Advanced Tactical Fighter program was about to begin and the Raptor, America's 5th Generation fighter, was about to be hatched. By 1983, US Soviet relations had reached a. New low. Following. Leonid Brezhnev's death. The Politburo now controlled. By ex KGB boss Yuri. Andropov. Had been labeled by Reagan. As the focus of evil. In the modern world. That August when Korean airline flight double 007. on its way to Seoul from New York, strayed. Several 100 miles off course into Soviet airspace, Russia acted. A fighter was sent up. And the civilian airliner with 269 people on. Board was shot down. A shooting down of KAL007 sent shock waves around the world, straining international relations almost at a breaking point. Reagan's. Reaction to the crisis strengthened US conviction that stealth would now be the prime requirement for America's new fighter. Following some four initial. Drafts the basic. Framework for the ATF requirement calling for a radius of action of approximately 800 miles supersonic cruise. Capability of 1.4 to 1.5 Mach a 2000 feet. Runway requirement a gross. Takeoff weight of 50,000. Pounds and a unit cost of no more than 40 million in 1985 dollars was released to industry. Importantly, implied in the. Proposal was a requirement that the ATF life cycle. Cost be at least as good as, if not better than the McDonnell Douglas F-15. It was concluded that Lockheed and Northrop submissions. Were superior to those of. Boeing, General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas. Lockheed had conducted consortium discussions with Boeing and General Dynamics. As early as June. Of 1986. But did not. Formalize an agreement with its partners until the following October 13. Consequently, Lockheed assigned Sherman Mullin as general manager for the ATF team program office. Mullin would direct. Lockheed in the prime contractor. Role and consequently take advantage of the unique technical strengths represented by Boeing and General Dynamics. Northrop, some two weeks later, followed suit by serving as. Lead on team with McDonnell Douglas, thus by default. The two consortia. Were selected on October 31st, 1986 to build two prototypes. Each to complete and revised. Demonstration and validation phase. Lockheed, under a $691 million dollar contract, would build two of what later would. Become its model. 1132. Aircraft. Under the official Air Force. Designation YF-22. Northrop. Under a similar $691 million dollar contract would build. Two of its N-14 prototypes under the official air. Force designation YF-23 and in 1990. Just months. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the shapes of the two rival desires were finally unveiled. Northrop's version. Called the YF-23. closely resembled its original design. In Contrast Lockheed's design, called the YF-22, seemed surprisingly. Conventional. With four tail surfaces, vectored. thrust., a broad solid body and a conventional wing. But. Unlike Lockheed's other stealth aircraft. The F-117. Radar absorbent materials. Were not applied over the whole of the FA-22, but used selectively on its edges cavities. And crucial surface areas. The F-22 carries its weapons internally, four weapon bays are hidden. In the central mid body. Section. Six Missiles can. Be carried in the ventral. Bays which are covered by bifold doors. The Sidebays will each hold one Sidewinder missile carried on a trapeze launcher. The mid body section also houses the fighters, landing gear and complex inlet ducts attached to the mid body. Is the. Forebody which accommodates the cockpit and advanced avionics. Both the YF-23. and the YF 22 are impressive looking machines. But their performance, Still needs to be tested. The most crucial. Stage of the competition is still to come, the flight testing. Northrop. was first in the air. In August 1990, flown by Paul Metz. The YF-23 got. Airborne, the test was a huge success. But Lockheed was quick to respond, and on September the 29th. At Edwards air. Force base in California. Lockheed's. Chief test pilot Dave Ferguson. Prepared the Raptor for its. Maiden flight. Over the next three months. The Raptor underwent. A whole series of tests the Air Force required. those teams to give them performance projections and they were actually going to compare. That with. What the planes actually did In flight subsonic and Supersonic at different altitudes and So forth. The Winner of this stage would enter contract for 650 aircraft. The decision would hinge, not just On what the contractors promised. But on the Air Force's confidence in their. Ability to deliver. During flight testing, the Raptor had beaten Northrop's YF-23 in a number. Of crucial performance areas. The YF-22 had clearly shown that in every category it was far. Superior to any existing fighter. The Air Force was. Very, very impressed by what Lockheed had done but their flight test program. was very aggressive. They flew Hard and fast, they. Flew many more hours and sorties than Northrop did. And all of that gave the Air Force confidence that they knew what they were doing, and they. Could build a superior plane, but it would. Be events in 1991 that would carve out the Raptors future. Twenty two minutes after midnight on January the 17th, 1991, Lockheed Stealth F-117. Spearheaded US strikes against Saddam Hussein's regime. The performance of Lockheed Stealth bombers during Operation Desert Storm. Would give the company and its aircraft. Some priceless publicity. The F-15 the aircraft destined to be replaced by the ATF had emphatically Confirmed its status as the foremost air superiority fighter in the world. Now it appeared that the need for an advanced stealth. Fighter the F-22 might be totally unfounded. But not everyone agrees. By April 1991, bogged down by the F-15. debate, the US Air Force prepares to announce the winner of the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract, but would the Raptor Be able to emerge from the controversy unscathed? After the Dem Bell flight test of the Prototypes, Secretary of the USAF Donald Rice announced the Lockheed team and Pratt and Whitney as the winners of the ATF and engine competitions. The YF-23 design was considered stealthier and faster. While the YF-22. With its thrust vectoring nozzles. Was more maneuverable. As well as less. Expensive and risky. Having won the contract. Lockheed announced that it intended. To locate the F-22's headquarters in Georgia where the Raptors forward fuselage would be built. General Dynamics were to build the F-22's mid body section in Fort Worth, TX, and Boeing would manufacture the wings and tail in Seattle, WA. Follow on work using this aircraft. took place at the Edwards Air Force Base. It was to consist of an additional 100 hours of flying time, or approximately 25 flights to expand the YF- 22A's flight. envelope and explore select envelope segments in greater detail, but on April 25th, 1992, the program hit its first major snag. During preliminary testing, the unthinkable happened a YF-22 flown by Tom Morganfield. crashed just after takeoff. The aircraft hit the runway with the landing gear up and slid approximately 8,000 feet and caught fire. Despite the loss of the stealth aircraft, the program had achieved its major goals. 10 million man hours of analysis, 4000 hours of radar testing and hundreds of hours of flight testing had gone into the development of the aircraft even before construction was given the go. In fact, the F-22 has accomplished more flake testing than any other fighter prior to full scale production. On April 9th the 1st F-22A. Officially named Raptor and earlier. Attempt to make The name of the aircraft. Superstar Failed in 1991, was rolled out in a public ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, GA, facility for the first time now Air Force. Pilots would get the opportunity to check up on the new aircraft for themselves. First flown by the Air Force. In 1997. Pilots at Edwards Air Force Base have surpassed 2000 flight test hours in more than 900 missions. One of the key advances in the Raptors design is its advanced cockpit and integrated avionics system. Key mission systems include Sanders/ General Electric electronic warfare system, Martin Marietta infrared and ultraviolet missile launch detector. Westinghouse/ Texas Instruments active electronically scanned array radar. TRW Communications/navigation/identification sweep and long range advanced IRST. The radio frequency receivers of the electronic support measures system give the aircraft the ability. to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks. The F-22 has the glass cockpit with all digital flight instruments the monochrome head up display. Offers a wide field of view and serves as a primary flight instrument. Information is also displayed upon six color liquid crystal display or LCD panels. This airplane displays information to you. It gives you knowledge of the battlespace. It's all about seeing what's out there in front of you and being able to make the right decisions about what to engage and when to engage it. The ejection seat is a version of the ACES-2. Two commonly used in USAF aircraft. With the center mounted ejection control. The Raptor Carries a formidable array of Ordinance. the F-22 has three internal weapon bays. A large main bay on the bottom of the fuselage and two smaller bays on the sides of the fuselage aft of the engine inlets. The main base is split along the center line and can accommodate 6 launchers for beyond visual range missiles and each side Bay has a launcher for short range missiles. The Primary air to air missiles are the AIM-120. Amraam and the AIM-9 Sidewinder which play an integration. Of the AIM-260. JATM Missile launches require the Bay doors to be opened For less than a second, during which pneumatic or hydraulic arms push missiles clear of the aircraft. This is to reduce vulnerability to detection and to deploy missiles during high speed flight. While the F-22 typically carries weapons internally, the wings include four hardpoints each rated to handle 5000 pounds or 2300 kilos. Each hardpoint can accommodate a pylon that can carry a detachable 600 gallon or 2270. liter external fuel tank for a launcher holding two air to air missiles. And to complement the Raptors armament of eight missiles the fighter also has a gun. An internally mounted M61A2 Vulcan twenty millimeter Rotary cannon. Is embedded in the airplanes right wing. route with the muzzle covered by a retractable door. The radar projection of the cannons fire path is displayed on the pilot's head up display. But since desert Storm, critics of the F-22 program claim that the F-15 eagle destined. To be replaced by the Raptor already had the attributes necessary to remain the world's preeminant air superiority fighter. In March 2003, supporters of the F-15 got the opportunity to see whether or not the eagle was still the best. Fighter in the sky. Five F-15s would go head to head with a single Raptor. Although no missiles would be used during the exercise, the sorties would closely resemble actual combat. No quarter would be given by either side. This was a kill or be killed exercise. All five F-15s are flown by Experienced F-22 pilots. One by one, The Raptor brings them down in combat testing. With F-15s, the F-22 Raptor as emphatically proven its doubters wrong. In December 2005, the US Air Force announced that the F-22 had achieved initial operational capability. During exercise Northern Edge in Alaska. In June 2006, in simulated combat exercises twelve F-22s down 108 adversaries with no losses. In the exercises the F-22 amassed 241 kills against two losses in air to air combat, with neither loss being an F-22. The F-22 cannot be exported under U.S. Federal law to protect its stealth technology and Classified features. Customers for US Fighters were acquiring earlier designs such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 fighting Falcon. were the newer. F-35 Lightning II, which contains technology from the F-22 but was designed to be cheaper. more Flexible and available for escort. The USAF had originally planned to buy a total of 750 ATFs. In 2009 the program was cut to 187. Operational aircraft due to high. costs. A lack. Of air to air missions. Due to the focus on. Counterinsurgency operations at the time. Of production, a ban on exports and development of the more affordable and versatile F-35 with the last F-22 delivered in 2012. America's F-22 Raptor was created out of the Cold War Fear that the Russian made fighters would sweep aside the F-15s. The United States Air Force is the only. Operator of the F-22 as of August 2022. it has 183 aircraft. And its inventory. In today's changing world, there are few certainties. But the rule of the Raptor, America's air dominance fighter of the. Skies is one of them. The F-35 lightning. II Is one of America's most iconic fighter aircraft. Only a close second. To the feared F-22 Raptor. Its visionary innovations Have been both Bain and blessing. The planes design has received admiration and appreciation globally. It stood as a reminder. that American engineering and ingenuity. Could achieve the seemingly impossible. While ushering in the new age of military error levels. The F-35 story begins with the joint. Strike Fighter program. Which aimed to create a new generation of stoval aircraft that could replace the landmark F-16. The nations industry Titans competed for access to the resulting contract. McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin worked tirelessly to present their most innovative designs as offerings. However, Lockheed's revolutionary reheated turbofan augmented thrust engine with its futuristic lift system would win the coveted opportunity. While Boeing's design certainly came with less challenges. Than Lockheed's. The Department of Defense determined that Lockheed's pioneering lift fan systems superior performance far. Outweighed its risks. And so the historic company would join the US Government on a journey to. permanently change the standards and. Capabilities of the modern jet. Fighter. The backbone of the F-35 program would be its unprecedented Pratt and Whitney F-135 engine. The company would join teams with Rolls Royce. and Hamilton sundstrand. To create a revolutionary propulsion system that allowed for shatteringly short takeoff times. Rolls Royce would develop the lift system, which was conceived using seminal new technology. Unlike the Yak-38, which used separate lift engines for the rotating nozzles of the Harrier, the new engine used a highly flexible thrust vectoring nozzle. that could provide the needed lift. The F-135 nozzle was also capable of withstanding afterburn temperatures. The nozzle would direct thrust in any direction the pilot needed to carry out a wide range of landing and takeoff Capabilities while maintaining significant stealth. In order to achieve vertical flight, the propulsion system equipped a whopping 29,000 horsepower. To this day, the Technology, ingenuity, and genius. That went into designing the F-135 is considered one of, if not the greatest feat in the aeronautical history of America, for which it won the esteemed Collier Trophy. It was billed as a fighter jet that could do almost everything the US military desired. Serving the Air Force Marine Corps. And Navy. And even Britain's Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, all-in-one aircraft design. It's supposed to replace and improve upon several current. And aging. Aircraft types with widely different missions. It's marketed as a cost effective, powerful multi role fighter airplane. Significantly better than anything potential. Adversaries could build. In the next two decades. Lockheed Martin said the plane would be far better than current. Aircraft. Quote four times more effective in air to air combat. And eight times more effective. In air to ground combat, not only that, but also three times more effective in recognizing and suppressing an enemy's air defenses. It would in fact be second only to the F- 22 in air superiority. In addition, the F-35 was to have better range and require less logistics. Support. Than current military aircraft The Pentagon is still calling the F35 quote "the most affordable, lethal, supportable and survivable aircraft ever to be used". Like the F-117 and F-22, the F-35s stealth capability greatly reduces, but does not eliminate its radar cross section, the signal that radar receiver is seen bouncing back off an airplane. The plane looks smaller on radar, perhaps like a bird. Rather than a plane. But is not invisible. The F-35 is designed to be stealthy, primarily in the X band, the radar frequency range most commonly used for targeting in air to air combat. Of course, radar is not the only way to locate and target an aircraft. One can also use an aircraft's infrared emissions, which are created by friction generated heat as it flies through the air along with its hot engines. Several nations, particularly the Russians, have excellent passive infrared search and trackin. Systems that Can locate and target enemy aircraft with great precision, sometimes using lasers to measure exact distances but without needing radar. It is also very common in air to air battles for opposing planes to come close enough that their pilots can see each other. Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon say the F-35s fives superiority over its rivals lies in its ability to remain undetected, giving it quote, first look, first shot. First kill. The F-35 program is the result of the merging or combination of several other separate and diverse projects into a set of requirements for an airplane that is trying to be everything to everybody. In combat, the difference between winning and losing is often not very great. With second place all too often meaning death. The Pentagon seeks to provide warriors with. The best possible equipment. The best tools are those that are tailor made to address specific missions and types of combat. For a fighter airplane. Funding decisions become a balancing act of procuring not just the best aircraft possible, but enough of them to make an effective force. This has led to the creation of so-called multirole fighter aircraft, capable both in air to air combat and against ground targets. Where trade-offs have to happen, designers of most multi role fighters emphasize aerial combat string. Reducing air to ground capabilities. The F-35 is an excellent piece of equipment despite its shortcomings. 4th Generation fighters hailing from three nations including F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-15 Eagles and Eurofighter Typhoons coordinated with E-8 Joint Stars Command. As their stealthy escorts, both F-22 Raptors and F-35 Joint Strike fighters surveyed the battlespace. Soon, cockpit displays in each aircraft began to light up. An alarm sounded, indicating that the formation was being painted by multiple radar arrays tied to surface to air missiles and inbound fighters. Enemy fighters sporting the color schemes of Russian SU-30s began to close in. Travolis Simmons, commander of the 57th Adversary Tactics Group, noted that on the last week of a red flag exercise, we really throw everything we have at the Blue Force and replicate the toughest adversary possible. Ultimately, the F-35 fighter Jet won the day, breaking down one of the world's most advanced air defense networks and relaying the data to missile pact fighters like the F-16. The F-35 can fly at speeds as high as Mach 1.6 and can carry an internal payload of four weapons without compromising its stealth. But it's not the F-35 Spire power that really makes the difference. It's the computing power. It's why F-35s have come to be known as quarterbacks in the sky or a computer that happens to fly major Justin Hazardly, an Air Force F-35 pilot instructor. Noted that quote, "there has never been an aircraft that provides as much situational awareness as the F-35 in combat situational awareness". The F-35 is worth its weight in gold. The aircraft we know today is the F-35 was built to meet the demands of multiple fighting forces with a single highly capable aircraft. This new Joint Strike Fighter, Pentagon officials believed, would allow for streamlined logistical supply lines, maintenance and training. It would also leverage the same stealth technologies found in the F-22 2. With a laundry list of requirements from the US Navy, Air Force, DARPA and soon the UK and Canada, the Joint Strike Fighter program quickly moved from its official proposal in 1995 to two competitive prototypes in 1997. Lockheed Martins X-35 and Boeing's X-32. And the new fighter had its work cut out for it. The Joint Strike Fighter needed to replace at least five different aircraft across all the different services, including the high speed interceptor F-14 Tomcat and the tank killing close Air Support A-10 Thunderbolt II. Designed from the ground up to prioritize low observability, the F-35 may be the stealthiest. Fighter in operation today. It uses a single F-135 engine that produces 40,000 pounds of thrust with the afterburner engaged. Capable of pushing the sleek but Husky fighter to speeds as high as Mach 1.6. The aircraft can carry four weapons internally while flying in contested airspace, or can be outfitted with six additional weapons mounted on external hard points when flying in low risk environments. The F-35A also comes equipped with an internal four barrel, 25 millimeter Rotary cannon hidden behind a small door to minimize radar returns. Allowing the F-35 to engage both airborne and ground based targets. Lockheed Martin has developed a new internal weapons carriage. That will eventually allow it. To carry an additional two missiles internally. The cockpit of the F-35 forgoes the litany of gauges and screens found in previous generations of fighter in favour of large touch screens and a helmet mounted display system that allows the pilot to see real time information. This helmet also allows the pilot to look directly through the aircraft. Thanks to the F-35s distributed aperture system. Also known as DAS. And a suite of six infrared cameras mounted strategically around the aircraft. In an interview with the New York Times, Tom Burbage, Lockheed's general manager of the program from 2000 to 2013, said that. Quote. "If you were to go back to the year 2000 and somebody said I can build an airplane that is stealthy and has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities and can go supersonic, most people in the industry would have said that's impossible". The technology to bring all of that together into a single platform was beyond the reach of industry at that time. While both the X-32 and X-35 prototypes performed well, the deciding factor in the competition may have been the F-35s complicated short takeoff and vertical landing flight. Because the US Marine Corps intended to use this new plane as a replacement for the AV-8B Harrier jump jets, America's new stealth fighter had to be able to fill the same vertical landing short takeoff roll. The lift fan design used in the X-35 connected the engine at the back of the aircraft to a drive shaft that would power a large fan installed in the aircraft fuselage behind the pilot. When hovering, the F-35 would Orient its engine downward, not unlike the X-32, but it would also pull air from above the aircraft and force it down through. The fan and out. The bottom creating two balanced sources of thrust that made the aircraft far more stable. It also helped the F-35 notch a win in the looks category. Rick Rezabek, an engineer at Lockheed, said quote, you can look at the Lockheed Martin airplane and say that looks like what I would expect a modern, high performance, high capable jet fighter to look like. You look at the Boeing airplane and the general reaction. Is, I don't get it. Ultimately, Lockheed Martin won out over Boeing's unusual looking X-32 prototype. In October of 2001. . The future Looks bright for the newly. Named F-35. While Lockheed's lift fan approach to Stoval flight might have nabbed the contract, the hard part was just beginning. Choosing to begin with the least complex iteration of the new fighter, Lockheed Skunkworks started designing the F-35A, intended for use in the US Air Force, as a traditional runway fighter like the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Once the F-35A was complete, the engineering team would then move on to more complex stoval F-35B for use by the US Marine Corps. And then finally, the F-35C meant for carrier duty. There was just one prop. Jamming all the necessary hardware for the different variants into a single fuselage proved extremely difficult. By the time Lockheed Martin wrapped up design work on the F-35A and got to work on the B, they realized the weight estimates they had established while designing the Air Force variant would lead to an aircraft that was 3000 pounds too heavy. This miscalculation created a significant. Setback. To truly understand the F-35, you have to understand its variance and their differing capabilities. The F-35A is intended for use by the US air. Force and many allied nations. The F-35A is the conventional takeoff and landing CTOL variant. This aircraft is intended to operate out of traditional airstrips and is the only version of the F-35. To come. Equipped with a 25. Millimeter internal cannon. Allowing it to step in for both the F-16 multirole fighter and the Flying Cannon A10 Thunderbolt, two among many others, the F-35B was purpose built for short takeoff and vertical landing operations, or stoval, and was designed with the needs of the US Marine Corps in line. While still able to operate off of traditional runways, the stoval capability offered by the F-35B allows Marines to operate these jets from austere runways or off the decks Amphibious assault ships, often referred to as lightning carriers. And finally, the F-35C is the first stealth fighter ever designed for carrier operations with the US Navy. It boasts larger wings than its peers to allow for slower approach speeds when landing on a carrier. More robust landing gear aids in tough carrier landings, and it harbours a larger fuel supply, roughly £20,000 worth internally to support longer range missions. The C is also the only F-35 equipped with the folding wings, allowing for easier storage in the hull of ships. Lockheed Martin's team would eventually work out the finer points of each different platform. So what really separates the pricey F-35 from the fighter jets that have come before? two words, Data management. Today's pilots have to manage a huge amount of information while flying. And doing so means splitting your time between traveling, the speed of sound, and a collage of screens, gauges and sensor readouts screaming for your attention. Unlike previous fighter jets, the F-35 uses a combination heads up display and helmet based augmented reality to keep vital information directly in the pilot's field of view. Some of the planes helmets features include every generation three being customized to its owner's head to prevent slippage during flight and to ensure that the displays appear in correct locations. To do this, technicians scan each pilot's head, mapping every feature and translating it into the helmets inner line. Pilots used to have to switch over between mounted night vision attachment when flying. In the dark. The Generation 3 helmet projects a night vision reading of the surrounding environment directly on to the. Visor. When the pilot switches the system on. The shell is made of carbon fiber, which is what gives it its characteristic checkered pattern. A tight coil of bound. Cables. Comes out of the back of the helmet to connect it. To the plain. When the wearer. Turns his head in a. Specific direction the wires feed the helmet the proper camera footage. The communications system has active noise cancellation. Speakers produce a sound that opposes wind noise and the low frequency. Hum of the jet engines. So pilots can hear clearly. The F-35 fuses everything into a green dot if you are. Looking at a good guy. And a red dot. If it's a bad guy, it's very pilot friend. All the information is shown. On a panoramic cockpit. Display that is essentially 2 giant iPads. It's not just how the information reaches the pilot, but also how it's collected. The F-35 is capable of gathering information from a wide variety of sensors located on the aircraft and from information sourced from ground vehicles, drones, other aircraft and nearby ships. It collects all of that information, as well as network driven data about targets and nearby threats, and spits it all out into a single interface the pilot can easily manage while fly. With the God's eye view of the area, F-35 pilots can coordinate efforts with 4th generation aircraft, making them deadlier in the. Process. The F-35 is the quarterback of the battle. Its job is to make everyone around it better. 4th generation fighters like the F-16 and F-15 will be relevant until at least the late 2040's. Because there are so many more of them than the F-35, the job of F-35 pilots is to use their unique assets to shape the battlefield and make it more survivable for other planes. All of that information may sound daunting, but for fighter pilots who've experienced the daunting task of compiling information from a dozen different screens engages the F-35's user interface is nothing short of miraculous. Tony Wilson who served in the US Navy for 25 years Prior to joining Lockheed Martin as a test pilot. Has flown over 20 different aircraft, from helicopters to the U2 spy. Plane. And even a Russian Mig 15. According to him, the F-35 is by far the easiest aircraft to fly that he's come across. He notes that as we move into 4th generation fighters. Like the F-16. We moved from being. Pilots to being sensor managers. Now. With the F-35 sensor, fusion allows us to take. Some of that sensor management. Responsibility off the pilot's. Hands. Allowing them to be true tacticians. In May of 2018, the Israeli Defense Force became the First Nation. To send F-35s into combat conducting. Two air strikes with the F-35A's in the Middle East. By September of the same year, the US Marine Corps sent their first F-35 Bs into the fight. Engaging ground targets in Afghanistan. Followed by the US Air Force using their F-35A's for air strikes in Iraq. In April 2019. Today over 500 F-35 lightning tubes have been delivered to nine nations and are operating out of 23 air bases around the world. That's more than Russia's fleet of fifth generation SU-57s and China's. Fleet of J-20s combined. With literally thousands more on order, the F-35 promises to be the backbone of US air power. And unlike previous fighter generations, the F-35's capabilities are expected to keep up with the times. Thanks to software architecture designed to allow the F-35 to receive frequent updates, the aircraft's form has stayed the same, but its function has already changed radically. The airplane that took flight in 2006 may have looked identical on the outside, but it was a very different aircraft than the one flying today. And the F-35 flying 10 years from now is going to be very different from the one flying. Today. The F-35 will also serve as a test bed for technologies that will become commonplace in the next generation of jets. Flying in coordination with AI enabled drones will become a staple of any 6th generation fighter, and those new fighter tricks will likely first arrive in the form of the F-35. According to many pilots and experts, it may well be the most capable, most connected, most survivable aircraft on the face of the planet. And what we're able to achieve with it today shows that we can't even imagine what tomorrow's F-35 is going to be capable of. So was the F-35 an obliterating headache or a good omen? Only time will tell if the US government's investment was worthwhile. So far, it seems to be paying off. If you enjoyed this video. Please remember to like. And subscribe. As always. Thank you for watch.
