Forum: F-35 Lightning II

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/na ... 97236.html

F-35: a game changer in modern warfare

By Lee Tae-hoon

Officials of Lockheed Martin say that the F-35 Lightning II is a game changer in 21st century warfare where most nations are trying to reduce their defense budgets amid a volatile economic climate.

They claim that the F-35 is the only fighter jet available on the market with all-aspect stealth, first-look, first-shot, first-kill capabilities at an affordable price to purchase and sustain over the next few decades.

“The F-35’s very low observable (VLO) stealth feature revolutionizes the way pilots engage or fight adversaries,” said David Scott, director of the company’s F-35 international customer engagement office.

He made the remarks against claims from its rivals, EADS and Boeing, that the F-35’s stealth capability may become obsolete as the latter’s Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars or other advanced radars can detect the stealth aircraft upon the opening of its internal weapons bay to fire a missile.

Dogfight debate

“They are saying that it is not valuable to detect somebody at a long range, but it is,” Scott argued.

“It allows you to have a better situation awareness of the battle, allowing you to determine whether you close in and fight, disengage, swing around and come in from the side or from the back where the enemy cannot see you.”

The F-35 is currently capable of carrying a full complement of 8,278 kilograms of fuel and four AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) internally. Lockheed Martin claims that its research shows the F-35 has the capability to carry up to six AMRAAMs internally.

According to a calculation by a senior EADS radar expert, the Captor-E, which will use 1,426 T/R modules and is scheduled to be integrated onto the Eurofighter Typhoon in 2015, is capable of recognizing the F-35 at around 59 kilometers away.

He acknowledged that the chance is high for the F-35 to detect and fire missiles first against fourth-generation jets, such as the Eurofighter or Boeing’s F-15, but claimed that the latter are capable of dodging missiles and successfully counterattacking at such a long range.

His calculation shows that the F-35’s APG-81, which allegedly has 1,400 T/R modules, will be able to recognize the Eurofighter or semi-stealth fighter at 120 kilometers or farther based on the assumption both radars have the same capability.

In this regard, Scott said that an advanced fighter might be able to lock on to the F-35 momentarily upon its launching of a missile, but will not be able to keep track of it due to the latter’s inherent low observable stealth design and as it would be busy dodging the missile for survival.

“Once the F-35 opens its weapons bay and fires a weapon, the enemy may be able to see something for a moment, but it disappears again,” Scott said.

“Being detected doesn’t mean that you are being tracked and targeted with weapons. Now they know you are out there. They don’t know where you are and will be busy avoiding the missile you just launched.”

Stephen O’Bryan, Lockheed's vice president for F-35 business development, claims that it is unrivaled in air-to-surface capability, and is second only to the F-22 in air-to-air capability.

“Using U.S. Government analysis tools and highly accurate and classified data, the F-35 has been shown to be six times more capable in air-to-air engagements than any fourth Generation aircraft,” he said.

Low price to purchase, sustain

O’Bryan stressed that the average unit recurring flyaway cost of the F-35 will be approximately $65 million when measured in 2010 economics.

“The economies of scale, coupled with the benefit of commonality, represent the opportunity for great savings for Korea regarding F-35 operations and support costs when compared to the other FX-III competitors,” he said.

O’Bryan noted that though it does not account for annual inflation projections, the $65M price tag includes much more than some media often speculate.

“It includes the engine and all mission systems such as the APG-81 AESA radar, internally mounted targeting system, electronic attack and warfare systems, self-protection systems, infra-red missile warning system, communication and navigation equipment, and the helmet mounted display that is also used as a night vision system.”

He said that many of the mentioned systems are added on to the price of fourth-generation aircraft.

8,000 hour stealth guarantee

Randy Howard, Lockheed Martin’s director of the Korea F-35 Campaign, said that the F-35 was designed from the very beginning to be VLO and its stealth coating is resilient enough that the aircraft's radar cross section will not suffer after numerous day-to-day operations.

“You can even take a knife and hardly scratch the finish of the F-35,” he said.

“Given what we know, it comes with a guarantee of the radar cross section at the end of 8,000 flight hours. It’s essentially guaranteed to be a VLO for the life of the aircraft.”

Howard said even if there is a scratch, there is a tool that allows mechanics to quickly find the impact of the scratch and whether it needs to be fixed.

“It is twice as cheap in maintaining the aircraft to remain as a VLO compared to the F-22. It is significantly supportable, cheaper and better than the F-22,” he said.

“It is a 21st century tool for 21st century aircraft to maintain VLO.”

Howard added that the techniques and tools that maintain VLO will be locally trained so that it will be easier to maintain.

He also stressed that the F-35 provides an inherent capability to collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data and perform many of the command and control functions found on traditional high value but vulnerable assets.

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Possible tactic for F-35 pilots regarding the momentary loss of stealth upon firing a missile: if your belly is the side that's facing the target, turn so that your back is instead, then fire. While the doors are open and the missile's engine is first igniting, the target's view of it is blocked by your own plane. You can return to previous orientation once the doors close if you want.

The F-35's radar may detect the Typhoon 120Km away.. if the latter is emiting, the F-35's ESM suite will detect it from even much greater distances.

That is correct. If the F-35 can detect an APG-77 then why not a CAPTOR-E? Putting an AESA on an F-35 will only slightly complicate things due to being longer range and LPI in its searches. The Typhoon stands no chance as even a momentary blip from the bay doors opening doesn't equate to the amount of SA afforded by the Lightnings. The typhoons will either be stuck shooting in the dark as the F-35's simply go around their radar detection ranges or they will be promptly eliminated.

The latter is especially true once JDRADM/NGM is fitted to those things as the F-35's don't even have to alter their course to fire those weapons in a HOBS mode so survivability will as such be enhanced.

APG-81 did more than detect APG-77 emissions, IT JAMMED THEM! If all you are concerned about is "detection range" than the APG-81 is only great (as opposed to spectacular) but as far as capability it is peerless.

The thing to remember about any CAP vs inbound F-35 is that any plane flying at the same (or higher) altitude as the F-35 will not be able to get radar returns from the internals of the bays. This will likely mean that in a F-35 vs CAP engagement the CAP will not even get the benefit of a 'open-bay detect' when the F-35 fires (although it might get a MLD hit).

That's true. I would imagine a CAP would be operating at higher altitudes than say, 25-30k feet. Therefore I guess the bay door detection would be moot. Really though the F-35 would certainly have options to not even engage them and simply move past them by using their ESM suite to help with route planning. There need not be any missiles fired at all right?

Correct, that is the option that a VLO airframe gives you.

Detected and JAMMED the AN/APG-77 LPI radar? I've got to say I'm a bit skeptical here. Isn't the AN/APG-81 mostly based off the AN/APG-77(V1)?

sprstdlyscottsmn wrote:

APG-81 did more than detect APG-77 emissions, IT JAMMED THEM! If all you are concerned about is "detection range" than the APG-81 is only great (as opposed to spectacular) but as far as capability it is peerless.

Sources please.

AWST

Quote:

Airborne detection of stealth aircraft may already be an operational capability. In a series of tests at Edwards AFB, Calif., in 2009, Lockheed Martin’s CATbird avionics testbed—a Boeing 737 that carries the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s entire avionics system—engaged a mixed force of F-22s and Boeing F-15s and was able to locate and jam F-22 radars, according to researchers.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... 281824.xml

What is not said is what modes the F-22's radar was using (eg full LPI, max range, etc).

I've always been baffled by the APG-81 jamming the APG-77 bit of info. I mean, the APG-77 is supposed to be able to hop frequencies every 1/1000 of a second so I really am curious as to what mode the F-22 had its radar set on.

tacf-x wrote:

I've always been baffled by the APG-81 jamming the APG-77 bit of info. I mean, the APG-77 is supposed to be able to hop frequencies every 1/1000 of a second so I really am curious as to what mode the F-22 had its radar set on.

Hopefully potential foes are equally baffled. Smile

I can only imagine how the J-20 drivers could possibly beat THAT!

In the last engagement I recall with a Chinese fighter, their own government's version of the encounter was that their fighter couldn't even stand up to the menacing "flying slowly in a straight line" maneuver by an EP-3.

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

EF-2000+AESA V.S. F-35