The F-35 is about to become a POWERHOUSE

[Music] Lockheed Martin's F-35 is about to undergo the most massive series of upgrades in the program's history adding 17 new weapon systems powerful new radar expanded electronic warfare capabilities new propulsion upgrades and much much more sure the F-35 is already seen as the most technologically advanced fighter ever to fly but the world's about to find out what happens when you take the most expensive military program in history and give it a 15 billion dollar facelift let's dive in to the new F-35 I'm Alex Hollings and this is air power thank you the F-35 program is now more than two decades old somehow and it's long been viewed by the public through two very different lenses for some the boondoggle that's been the f-35's acquisition process has come to define the aircraft itself with repeated technical setbacks and budgetary overruns and the immense costs associated with the f-35's sustainment all overshadowing the capability that this aircraft actually brings to the fight but the story from those who actually fly the F-35 is very different they often tout this fighter as nothing less than a revolution in air power and it would seem that a lot of national governments agree with 16 Nations now waiting in line for their own F-35 deliveries and more than 890 total airframes produced there are more f-35s in service today than all other fifth generation Fighters f-22s j-20s and su-57s combined and despite critics rightly highlighting the program's fiscal failings the aircraft The Joint Strike Fighter boondoggle produced is objectively the most advanced and broadly capable tactical fighter anywhere on the planet capable of filling the roles of various military aircraft all at once from intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance to electronic warfare to battle Space Management the F-35 is often referred to as a quarterback in the sky because it offers command level awareness combined with Incredible degrees of survivability right in the middle of a fight but as capable as today's f-35s are they're still built on a now 20 plus year old system architecture that advanced as it may have been won't be enough to keep Pace with the challenges set to emerge in the next 20 years so while the F-35 may still be the most advanced fighter flying the F-35 program office is already planning for a day when it isn't and that's where the f-35's technology refresh 3 or tr3 and block 4 upgrades come in before the F-35 can receive the full brunt of its block for upgrades it needs a huge revamp of its core Computing capabilities and that's what technology refresh or tr3 really is it could be seen as the backbone or the foundation for bigger upgrades to come but the truth is the tr-3 effort alone will produce a dramatic uptick in the f-35s capability set you can think of the tr3 effort as a brain transplant that will provide the jet with a huge jump in computational power and memory storage along with a new system architecture that will not only improve the function of practically every system on board but that was designed specifically to streamline the process of integrating further improvements down the road the new Computing core included in the tr3 effort offers a whopping 25 times the processing power currently found in today's F-35 which according to defense contractor L3 Harris will eventually be coupled with other improvements to increase that to an even more mind-boggling 37-fold increase in computing power this processor upgrade will reportedly affect just about everything on board from radar processing to the distributed aperture system to the electronic warfare Suite to Communications guidance and more and in support of all this new power is a similarly impressive 20-fold increase in data storage the f-35s panoramic cockpit display will also see a big upgrade with a five-fold increase in display processing power and two independent critical display processors for left and right cockpit displays that offer redundant cape capabilities in the event of any kind of a system failure as Steve Trimble reported for Aviation week just about a month ago these new systems are already rolling off assembly lines in the block 15 f-35s being built today but starting next year in block 16 the tr-3 upgrades will also come with an improved electronic warfare processor offering three times the power of the f-35's current system and then starting in 2025 Block 17 f-35s will come equipped with no fewer than 20 electronic warfare receivers these things are capable of detecting and triangulating the locations of enemy radar and other signal transmissions and 20 is a 75 increase over today's f-35s that have just five such receivers but as impressive as all these upgrades may be they're actually all just the groundwork for even more significant upgrades to come the block 4 F-35 includes some 75 major upgrades over today's Joint Strike Fighters and while these upgrades will all be incorporated into the same f-35a B and C airframes that we've come to know over the years the system improvements and added capabilities promise to be so dramatic that it might even warrant a new designation of some kind to differentiate these Advanced new fighters from their less capable siblings but unsurprisingly much of what makes block 4 so special is still shrouded in a bit of mystery contractors involved in the effort are quick to offer generalized statements about what systems will be improved but are reluctant to share a lot of specifics we know for sure that these 75 plus upgrades will be rolled out in increments listed as block 4.1 4.2 4.3 and so forth and that many of these increments will really be based around software adjustments meant to broaden the capability set of the hardware that either already exists or is being added in the earlier stages of this upgrade we also know that block 4 has been described by those in the joint program office as the most ambitious round of upgrades the fighter has ever received since its very Inception now there's no all-encompassing list of improvements in the block 4 f-35s available anywhere online and in fact a lot of the upgrades are still classified but what I can offer you is what I've been able to glean and sort of piece together through reading through a bunch of DOD reports and media reporting and that's what I'll give you now a big part of the block 4 upgrade will come in the form of at least 17 newly integrated weapons which According to some reports include things like The Joint Strike missile and the aargm ER which as we covered in a previous video is a radar hunting missile with greater range than the S 400 could detect the F-35 I'm from this upgrade will also allow the F-35 to carry the incredibly capable European meteor air-to-air missile but according to reports not all of these new weapons are kinetic or traditional Munitions suggesting that at least some of them are new electronic warfare capabilities that have yet to be disclosed but maybe most important of all block 4 reportedly includes an expansion of the f-35s internal weapons Carriage capacity which is something lockheed's been pitching for a while now with their sidekick system today's f-35s fly with a maximum of just four weapons stored internally while maintaining their stealth profile but block 4 will increase that to six depending on the lowdown and helping to guide those weapons will be an even more advanced new radar array today's f-35s fly with the Northrop Grumman and apg-81 active electronically scanned array radar which is widely touted as the most powerful and capable radar system in the world this system is so powerful that it can be leveraged not just for identifying and tracking Targets on the surface and in the air but it can also do so while simultaneously serving as an electronic warfare asset jamming enemy radar arrays as it flies but capable as the system may be it's slated to be replaced by an even more powerful radar array dubbed the an APG 85. for its part Northrop Grumman has said that this new radar system will quote incorporate some of the latest Technologies available to help ensure air superiority this has led many including me to speculate that this new radar will leverage new gallium nitride based transmission and receiving modules or trms these new trms offer a huge increase in power transmission and Clarity even when contending with electronic countermeasures and they also offer better thermal management which allows you to pump more power through through them for both Target acquisition and electronic warfare duties as Aviation week's Steve Trimble reported this new design has the potential to double the f-35's target detection range with the same power output as today and in the same sized array giving the F-35 a significant Edge against other Fighters and Beyond visual range engagements adding to this massive uptick and data available via on-board radar will be a quote Next Generation distributed aperture system that the Pentagon says will increase performance and reliability with a quote larger pixel focal plane array and higher operating temperatures this upgrade hasn't gotten as much attention as the radar but could be just as important the f-35's existing anaa q37 electro-optical distributed aperture system or Das as we usually call it not only allows the pilot to keep tabs on everything going on around the aircraft via 6 infrared cameras mounted around the Fighter's body but it also serves as an advanced form of infrared search and track capability for identifying and targeting stealth opponents at long distances via their heat signatures while details are still very scant about this next Generation iteration of the f-35's already powerful Das it'll almost certainly make this fighter a more potent air-to-air opponent against even the most advanced adversaries now in order to power all these new capabilities the F-35 will need an engine upgrade and that's a topic that's led to a battle between engine providers at General Electric and the f-35's current engine producer Pratt and Whitney just last week the Pentagon finalized a deal with Pratt and Whitney to continue to provide engines through lot 17 which extends through the remainder of TAC refresh 3 and may suggest that they're the front runner to continue supplying improved engines for Block 4. Pratt's proposal for Block 4 4 is cheaper and it offers more modest improvements over today's Jets while GE is pitching new adaptive cycle engines designed really for the next generation of Fighters that would offer a significant leap in range thrust and power production but all at a higher premium Pratt and Whitney proposed what they call an evolutionary engine core upgrade or ECU that would increase the Jet's existing f-135 engines thrust by 10 percent while also improving fuel efficiency by 5 resulting in what they claim would be a seven percent increase in range GE on the other hand proposed integrating their xa-100 adaptive cycle engines that offer a 25 increase in fuel efficiency a 20 increase in thrust twice the heat management and as much as 35 percent more range as exciting as these adaptive cycle engines would be in the F-35 going with ge's proposal could extend timelines and increase costs associated with the already very expensive block 4 which might be enough to sway officials towards the more budget-friendly and modest improvements offered by Pratt and Whitney the block 4 upgrade to the F-35 now estimated to cost somewhere north of 15 billion dollars over the span of a decade or more includes a long list of secretive or even classified improvements that those of us on the outside looking in May Never Fully know about in some cases there are tantalizing Clues like reports of an advanced new form of chaff commonly deployed to confuse inbound radar-guided missiles that's so different from previous forms that it's got a unique designation unlike any before it the block 4 F-35 upgrade also includes a significant Improvement in the aircraft's ability to actively network with other assets whether sensors or weapon systems to produce what the Pentagon is now calling a kill web this will include making the f 35's multi-function Advanced data link or madl compatible with more link 16 data links used by a wide variety of NATO Fighters as well as satellites overhead while also adding the capability to directly stream live video to Friendly forces anywhere in the region this list which is admittedly hard to assess because it's been made intentionally vague goes on and on and on with just about every facet of the aircraft's capability set seeing some sort of tweak adjustment and Improvement these improvements are so expensive that they've been reportedly valued at right around 25 million dollars per aircraft which is about 25 percent of the aircraft's average per unit price to begin with but with this substantial investment comes a dramatic leap and the f-35's air-to-air and air-to-surface chops a huge increase in electronic warfare and Sensor Fusion power and even more once completed the block 4 f-35s flying will be so much more capable than their predecessors that even the platform's most vehement critics may have to take a step back and re-evaluate their positions but if there's one thing the F-35 keeps teaching us over and over and over again it's that being the top dog at the sky isn't cheap and with that ends yet another edition of air power from sandbox news I'm Alex Holland make sure you swing by sandboxnews.com today and every day for all the latest in news entertainment and motivation from all around the force if you got anything out of today's video make sure to click like And subscribe down below and leave me a comment so I know what I should cover next and of course don't forget to tap on that Bell icon so you never miss a drop from sandbox news thank you

Channel: Sandboxx

Views: 1,034,408

Keywords: f35, f-35, block 4, tech refresh 3, tr3, joint strike fighter, fighter jet, air force, airpower

Id: 7SNALUoybt0

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023