Forum: F-35 Lightning II

"ST. LOUIS, Nov. 22, 2011 -- Boeing [NYSE: BA] has received a $135 million contract from the U.S. Navy for engineering and manufacturing development of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor system."

"IRST is an important element of the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet Flight Plan – a series of planned capability enhancements that ensures the Super Hornet will continue to outdistance known and emerging threats over the coming decades. The IRST system is scheduled to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2016."

http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s ... ;item=2040

-and-

"Lockheed Martin’s IRST sensor system improves aircrews’ situational awareness, lethality and survivability, even in threat-intensive environments. The IRST is a passive, long-range sensor that simultaneously tracks multiple targets over a large area and is unaffected by electronic attack or radar jamming. The F/A-18E/F IRST is scheduled to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2016.

The IRST system’s high-angle accuracy also provides the ability to track closely-spaced targets at maximum ranges. This information can be combined with other on-board sensor data or used alone to further enhance the pilot’s situational awareness.

This advanced IRST sensor system builds on Lockheed Martin’s mature and proven IRST technology, which was carrier-deployed on the legacy F-14D platform [The new IRST sensor system is the next generation of the F-14D AN/AAS-42 IRST that accumulated over 200,000 flight hours aboard U.S. aircraft carriers.]

. With an active IRST production line delivering units to equip international variants of the F-15, Lockheed Martin is currently subcontracted to the Boeing Company to develop an IRST capability for the U.S. Air Force F-15C."

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/pres ... 8IRST.html

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wrightwing wrote:

alloycowboy wrote:

@sterospace.... Agreed, the only thing I like about the F-15E is that you can hang a lot of gas tanks on it and go places you can't go with with F-35.

F-15E Fuel

F-15E Range

F-35C Fuel

Internal 18500 LBS

F-35C Range

~1,400 nmi (2,520 km) Max Range
~640 nmi (1,185 km) Max Combat Radius

Just 2 observations :

A- the F-15E can go further than the F-35, but it's the other way around. The E can't go where the F-35 can go. It has to stay out of denied airspace.

B -1400nm is a very conservative range estimate for an F-35.

F-35C internal fuel capacity is ~20K. F-35A is ~18.5.

Almost all of the combat radius comparisons lack insight into the profile being flown and are thus apples to oranges numbers.

quicksilver wrote:

F-35C internal fuel capacity is ~20K. F-35A is ~18.5.

Almost all of the combat radius comparisons lack insight into the profile being flown and are thus apples to oranges numbers.

Completely agree. It's ludicrous to say that the range is the combat radius x 2. This completely ignores station time, threat avoidance, reserve fuel percentages, etc....

"Boeing Offers New Capabilities For F/A-18s"

This is mostly news that we have heard earlier, but some explanation how the "stealthy" weapons pod make work, and its payload:

"...he uniquely shaped bay, hung under the aircraft between the engines, creates a trap that either deflects radar signals away from the enemy sensor or sends them bouncing around a series of treated surfaces on the nose, engine nacelles, belly and bay itself, according to stealth specialists. After as few as two bounces, the radar signals are rendered too weak to be useful.

The weapon bay doors can open at speeds up to Mach 1.6, which, combined with high altitude, provides an increase in standoff range of 70-80% for some weapons. The low-drag, low-radar-cross-section weapons pod can carry four Amraam air-to-air missiles; six Small Diameter Bombs and two Amraams; or two 500-lb. bombs and two Amraams. Future options include a 2,000-lb. Blu-109 hard-target penetrator fitted with an extended-range wing kit as well as other weapons. Some of the weapons are attached to the weapon pod’s doors, but the layout ensures that no weapon is blocked by any other."

Mike Gibbons, Boeing’s F/A-18 and EA-18 programs vice president, also said that the conformal fuel tank would add about 110nm of combat radius.

Source: AW&ST / Fulghum

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... %20F/A-18s

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Boeing: The evolutionary approach is best