F-35's Race Against Time

I never realized MADL employed lasers.

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Magazi ... ghter.aspx

The F-35’s Race Against Time
By John A. Tirpak
Executive Editor
While the US readies the F-35, Russia
and China are developing their own stealth fighters.

It has been 16 years since the Pentagon laid out a set of requirements—the blueprint—for the advanced stealthy strike fighter now known as the F-35 Lightning II. Ambitious plans called for the Air Force’s F-35A to be operational by now, before Russia or China could field their own stealth fighters.


Plans, unfortunately, have changed. Serious program delays have pushed scheduled deliveries well to the right. Today, no one expects the fifth generation F-35A to enter operational service before 2017, if then.

How much of the F-35’s postulated combat advantage will remain? By the time it reaches squadron service, will it still be a dominant fighter, relative to the rest of the world? In short, is the F-35A going to be worth the wait?

If the view of Lockheed Martin is any guide, the answer is emphatically yes. In a recent briefing for Air Force Magazine, the F-35’s developer offered important new details about the fighter’s stealthy design, employment concepts, modern air combat capabilities, and more...

A leading fighter, for example, can have a trailing F-35 illuminate his target with radar. The data in such an operation will be shared via a laser-powered Multifunction Advanced Data Link; the pilots don’t even need to talk to each other.

That sounds like a misquote. He probably heard "the F-35 beams it's datalink directly at another F-35" and thought "laser".

There is simply too much info out about MADL to just now be hearing about a laser-based mode.

SpudmanWP wrote:That sounds like a misquote. He probably heard "the F-35 beams it's datalink directly at another F-35" and thought "laser".

There is simply too much info out about MADL to just now be hearing about a laser-based mode.

The funny thing is that the only physical difference between a radar beam and a "laser" beam is frequency -- radio vs. visual or near visual.

SpudmanWP wrote:That sounds like a misquote. He probably heard "the F-35 beams it's datalink directly at another F-35" and thought "laser".

There is simply too much info out about MADL to just now be hearing about a laser-based mode.

Indeed.

It looks like every myth of legacy fighter advantage over the F-35 is shattered in that article.

Big Call from the Big Blogger with the tiny AXE in the MOst Dangerous Room on the InTerBABBle:

Danger Room: Lockheed’s Dubious Claim: Stealth Fighter Will Get Stealthier With Age 06 Nov 2012 By David Axe

http://www.warisboring.com/2012/11/06/d ... +Boring%29

"There have been a lot of sketchy claims made about the long-delayed, over-budget F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, history’s most expensive weapon program. But this one takes the cake. According to Stephen O’Bryan, a vice president at F-35-maker Lockheed Martin, the radar-evading jet fighter will actually get stealthier over time — without any upgrades.

To be clear, every other stealth warplane has steadily lost its ability to dodge enemy radars owing to wear and tear on the plane’s special skin coating. Not so the F-35, O’Bryan said....

...In light of other empty promises Lockheed has made regarding the F-35, it’s highly unlikely the new jet will buck this historical trend." [WAP Caveat]

Go there - read more - if youse dare....

I wonder if you can send crow via UPS?

I would guess that UPS MADLing CROW to AXE would not work - you know - promises promises. Axe receiver would be U/S (unserviceable).... Blinded by the light.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Light

"...commonly misheard as "wrapped up like a douche..."
________________________

Programmable System Guides Jet to New Heights June 2008 by Henry S. Kenyon

http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/an ... &print=yes

"...Communications functions range from basic ultrahigh/very high frequency to single channel ground and airborne radio system (SINCGARS) and Have Quick. The aircraft also supports several datalinks for communications and situational awareness such as Link 16 and a specialized multi-array datalink (MADL) for stealthy communications between aircraft. He [Phan] shares that MADL is scheduled to become the standard method for data transfer between the F-35 and F-22.

MADL was developed specifically to maintain JSF’s stealth capability. It is a K-band, narrow beam point-to-point datalink. Phan explains that when aircraft share data with each other via their datalinks, they can be tracked. He says that MADL is stealthy because it uses a narrow beam to communicate with other aircraft, making it very difficult to track an F-35 via its emissions...."
_____________

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_band
"...K band [K band 18 to 26.5 GHz] designates certain portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, in either the microwave domain or in the infrared domain. The microwave K bands are used primarily for radar and satellite communications...."

I've always wondered how MADL can keep track of everyone's position when the ACM starts. I bet the beam widens significantly when the shtf, and the data rate jumps accordingly.

MADL works with EODAS, EOTS, and messages from the other F-35's themselves (link16, SATCOM, MADL, etc) to keep the beam tightly aimed at each other.

Just because it is StealF related...

F-35[B] Stopover in Marietta 06 Nov 2012

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/p ... ietta.html

"MARIETTA, Ga., November 6, 2012 – Employees at the Lockheed Martin facility here got the rare opportunity to see an F-35 Lightning II multi-role fighter up close on Nov. 5, as a new U.S. Marine Corps F-35B stopped by on its ferry flight from the Lockheed Martin production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to the U.S. Navy’s test center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

Technicians at the Marietta facility applied the final stealth coatings to the horizontal and vertical tails of this particular aircraft. The assemblies were shipped to Fort Worth for installation. The Marietta facility also currently delivers approximately one F-35 Center Wing Assembly per week to Fort Worth. This major fuselage section holds the aircraft's F135 engine and includes structures for attaching the F-35’s wings.

[caption]
Here, F-35 Chief Test Pilot Alan Norman talks to the local Marietta media as Marietta F-35 Operations Director Steve Blake looks on....

BIG PIC:
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/d ... rietta.jpg

maus92 wrote:I've always wondered how MADL can keep track of everyone's position when the ACM starts. I bet the beam widens significantly when the shtf, and the data rate jumps accordingly.

DAS would be the primary SA asset in the furball. Latency constraints would limit the usefulness of data links.

A quote for AXEman....

The F-35: Creating a 21st Century Fighter

http://www.sldinfo.com/whitepapers/the- ... y-fighter/

"...The F-35 is manufactured with stealth built in as well.

As Bill Grant, Lockheed Martin F-35 Supportable Low Observables Integrated Product Team leader, has put it:
From day one, supportable LO has been a key entity on the program and has had a profound influence on the very design of the airplane. In fact, the element that is manufactured into the skin was an initiative brought about by our LO maintenance discipline. We’ve also had a profound influence on the selection of the materials and then once they were decided upon, we helped refine the properties to make them more workable for field use.

And Grant added:
Our system requirement was for end of life, which means that throughout the 8,000-hour service life of the jet, it is to remain fully mission-capable. So we anticipated that the amount of maintenance that would be done over the life of the airplane and anticipated that in the design.

So when we deliver the jet, it’s delivered with a significant margin of degradation that’s allowed for all of these types of repairs over the life of the airplane, again, without having to return to the depot for refurbishment. There may be some cosmetic-based reasons why the jet might go back to a facility to get its appearance improved, but from a performance-standpoint we recognize no need to do that...."

P'raps AXEman was finkin' of the F-22 rather than the F-35? Perhaps they do look similar.

How the USAF shot itself in the foot over the past 20 years... repeatedly By
Dave Majumdar on Nov 7, 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... -th-1.html

"...The aircraft has also proven more difficult to maintain than originally anticipated. The Air Force acknowledged that the F-22's "radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings." The service needs to maintain these coatings continuously to ensure the combat readiness of F-22s, thereby significantly increasing the necessary maintenance manpower (and cost).

[Incidentally: The F-35 apparently really is better in terms of maintainability of its stealth coating. I spoke to a maintainer who has worked on F-117, helped with the initial stand-up of the F-22 at Tyndall, and is now working on the F-35 at Eglin. He says it really is way better... read about that here: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... 35-378578/ quote here: [FIXED LINK]

'Additionally, the F-35's stealth coatings are much easier to work with than those used on the Raptor. Cure times for coating repairs are lower and many of the fasteners and access panels are not coated, further reducing the workload for maintenance crews.

According to Lockheed, some of the F-35's radar-absorbent materials are baked into the jet's composite skin, which means the JSF's stealthy signature is not easily degraded.'..."

The second link didn't work;
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... 35-378578/