Australian lawmakers confident in F-35's future

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by spazsinbad » 11 Dec 2018, 21:28

Thanks 'BP'. A report about the first two F-35As to arrive in Oz in 2017 for the Avalon airshow says this.
Air-to-Air Refuelling [page 31] PDF page of ARTICKLE attached below now
Winter 2017 WINGS magazine

"...The recent flights of the F-35 from USA flew the same route as the F-4Es, via Hickam and Andersen AFB and, according to [Aust.] Air Force News, air refuelled every 45 mins - a total of 25 refuellings…"
&
"The recent deployment of ten USMC F-35Bs from Yuma, Arizona to Iwakuni, Japan was an interesting logistical deployment, not only for the time it took but for the number of air refuellings the stealthy fighters required crossing the
Pacific. According to USAF, nine tankers flew with the 10 x F-35Bs, transferring a total of 766,000 lb of fuel, with more
than 250 aerial refuellings, or 25 per F-35, for 5800 n miles. It took seven days for 10 USMC F-35Bs to fly from Yuma to
their new home at Iwakuni, Japan, 18-26 January 2017, a flight that on a commercial airliner normally takes less than
24 hr. Many factors contribute to the time it takes a military fighter to get from point A to point B: weather, terrain and pilot fatigue, to name just a few. But on this particular voyage, the USAF's conservative refuelling model required the Marine Corps aircraft to refuel with accompanying tankers a grand total of 250 times, a number reported to be far too many for an efficient ocean-crossing.... [but USAF worried about F-35B probes malfunctioning closed so the Bees flew with the probes open all the time]

it is ultimately up to the Air Force to set the rules. For comparison, first F-35A assembled at the FACO in Italy
flew about 4000 n miles across to the US in February 2016 in two days, with a stop in the Azores; it refuelled in the air
seven times, the last as a precaution. Four months later, three F-35As flew from the US to England, about 3400 n miles; they also made seven hookups...."
&
Editor's Note
The first two RAAF Hornet aircraft flew from Lemoore NAS to Williamtown in 1985, non-stop, a distance of about 6500 n miles, and air refuelled 15 times
. The ferry of the RAAF F-4E Phantoms in 1970 carried out 10 air refuellings from George AFB-Hickam AFB-Andersen AFB- Amberley, a distance of 8200 n miles, (18h flight time), with two overnights. The rationale for the F-4Es (with 2 x engines) was to have enough fuel to divert - on the Hickam to Guam leg, to Midway Is or Wake Is, as required. The Super Hornet ferries flew similar distances, but the number of 'hookups' is not known - probably at least 20...."

Source: https://www.raafa.org.au/sites/default/ ... nter17.pdf (11.5Mb)
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by spazsinbad » 12 Dec 2018, 05:16

F-35 Arrival at Williamtown - News Coverages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkjvynBFSiw



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by ricnunes » 12 Dec 2018, 19:09

spazsinbad wrote:Thanks 'BP'. A report about the first two F-35As to arrive in Oz in 2017 for the Avalon airshow says this.


Thanks Spaz (and also BP) for the more detailed info.

(time to try it in Prepar3d :D )
“Active stealth” is what the ignorant nay sayers call EW and pretend like it’s new.


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by blindpilot » 12 Dec 2018, 21:06

ricnunes"...
Thanks Spaz (and also BP) for the more detailed info.

(time to try it in Prepar3d :D )[/quote]
[quote="blindpilot wrote:
...so as long as you have the air refueling, which Oz does, the direct 9 hr route is definitely plausible, even likely. No reason at all to doubt it.
BP


Now to clarify these "9" hour fights are not especially easy for the fighter guys especially when you get that radio call half way through from the tanker ..

"Well how's it going, just took over for the co-pilot, after that 2 hr nap, and the dinner from the oven, and the "rest break", so you chicks still hanging in there?"

Ouch,
BP


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by spazsinbad » 12 Dec 2018, 21:19

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by spazsinbad » 13 Dec 2018, 00:39

:devil: There is a famous Ozzie song (at least to MY GENERATION) which goes 'Fool Fool Fool - everybody cries Fool Fool Fool' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8qwlNgujbQ just add the FUEL! :doh: ♫ Ray Brown & Whispers ♥ Fool, Fool, Fool ♫

How the Air Force got smarter about its aviation fuel use in 2018 12 Dec 2018 Corrie Poland
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... e-in-2018/ [very long artickle for de fuellies]


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by spazsinbad » 13 Dec 2018, 21:09

First F-35s Reach Australia; Tyndall Could Join F-35 Base Roster
12 Dec 2018 David Donald

"On December 10 the ninth and tenth Lockheed Martin F-35As for the Royal Australian Air Force arrived at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. With the RAAF’s previous eight F-35As having been retained with the U.S. Air Force’s 61st Fighter Squadron for training at Luke AFB, Arizona, the two aircraft are the first to enter service with the RAAF on home soil.

The pair flew in from Luke with a stopover at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, before flying to RAAF Amberley in Queensland in what is the longest sector yet flown by the F-35. They were joined by three F/A-18 Hornets from the remaining F/A-18A/B units (Nos 75 and 77 Squadrons, and 2 OCU) for the final flight into Williamtown…"

Source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... ase-roster


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by ricnunes » 14 Dec 2018, 20:42

:thumb:
“Active stealth” is what the ignorant nay sayers call EW and pretend like it’s new.


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by spazsinbad » 15 Dec 2018, 21:00

spazsinbad wrote::devil: There is a famous Ozzie song (at least to MY GENERATION) which goes 'Fool Fool Fool - everybody cries Fool Fool Fool' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8qwlNgujbQ just add the FUEL! :doh: ♫ Ray Brown & Whispers ♥ Fool, Fool, Fool ♫

How the Air Force got smarter about its aviation fuel use in 2018 12 Dec 2018 Corrie Poland
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display ... e-in-2018/ [very long artickle for de fuellies]

USAF aims to save fuel with new data collection effort
14 Dec 2018 Garrett Reim

"...The strategy is also changing the way the USAF flies. In recent years, the service directed fifth generation fighters to be flown closer to maximum range airspeed during coronet missions, flights which deliver or rotate aircraft to and from overseas bases. According to the USAF, the faster speed decreases overall fuel consumption by about 6%, and reduces flight hours by about 10%.

The USAF says it demonstrated the Lockheed Martin F-22 saving fuel with this higher airspeed method in 2017. And, this year, it was formalising the procedure and expanding it to include the Lockheed Martin F-35."

Source: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... fo-454455/


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by popcorn » 16 Dec 2018, 00:29

"When a fifth-generation fighter meets a fourth-generation fighter—the [latter] dies,”
CSAF Gen. Mark Welsh


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by spazsinbad » 20 Dec 2018, 14:19

Missed this now OLD article from Retired AM Brown, the JERICHO RAAF BigWig, some interesting but vague details below.
Crafting a Fifth Generation Combat Force: The Perspective of Air Marshal (Retired) Geoff Brown
24 Nov 2018 Robbin Laird

"...For the last 5 – 10 years in Australia we have been determining the characteristics of combat operations in the post 2025 era. The RAAF we have been very fortunate to have been well supported and funded by government.

In the RAAF it’s been nice to say that most pieces of the future combat fleet are in place or that the funding has been secured. It will be a F-35’s supplemented by Super Hornets and they will well be supported by systems like Wedgetail, Growler, KC-30s, and air defence systems like Vigilaire and over-the-horizon radar, and I even think the Maritime Patrol Fleets, P-8s and Tritons, will all contribute to the air combat system…..

We have concluded in Australia, that air operations will be characterized by the capability to connect air, ground and maritime forces. In the ADF we have actually called that 5th Generation enabled CONOPs. The ultimate goal is that the combat and strike power of a single aircraft is not defined by what it carries itself but by its ability to direct and rely upon its network partners. Even to the point of using other platforms weapons. We have been in the process of developing 5th Gen CONOPS across the ADF informed by the forcing function of 5thGen aircraft and the associated air, maritime and land systems.

In a 5thGen force, C2 systems will be enabled by flying ISR and C2 system, the combination of sensors and Stealth will enable aircraft like the JSF to operate in an Adversaries airspace and allow aircraft to serve as nodes in a dispersed and distributed air battle management system….

One of the things that the critics of the F-35 don’t get is, in all the studies of air combat, the amazing statistic is that 5% of the pilots have taken 95% of the kills. Now, when you do the analysis of those 95% of the kills and what makes the difference with those 5% of pilots, it was their superior situational awareness in all the situations that they faced that made the difference. And the F-35 gives you a massive leap in situational awareness, and that’s the key factor in 5th generation capability. It’s the integrated fused picture.

It’s worth briefly working through the value chain of the F-35.... [READ IT ALL AT THE JUMP]

...We’re successfully fusing the picture between Wedgetail and the Navy Destroyers and Frigates. One of the great decisions we made with Wedgetail was that on each one of the crews there’s a Navy Air Intercept Controller. We’ve had Mission Commander who’s are Navy Lieutenant Commanders – and our recent experience on exercises and in Iraq and Syria with the Super Hornet and Wedgetail have really shown the power of that integration.

When you look at the F-35 be able to find, fix, track, target, engage and assess. That’s the cycle. The JSF can do that all by itself, but it is far more powerful if you look at the find and fix and you use a lot of the systems we’ve got from Vigilare to JORN to Space Based Systems, to maybe even the Triton and P-8.

They’re all part of that find and fix. And if I was to look at track – Wedgetail, AWD, Growler are all parts of that. The engage – well, that’s the job of Super Hornet, JSF and Growler, and what we aspire to is to have, some integrated fire control with the Royal Australian Navy. That’s all well within the realms of possibilities.

The more nodes you’ve got, the better off it is for the entire system. And what we see is the advantage of the F-35, it does increase the capability of the entire system…." THEN

"...“When we have an effective maritime strike weapon onboard the F-35, we will look to retire our Super Hornets, with the exception of the Growler. Flying the Super Hornet has prepared us for F-35 in some key ways, notably in terms of the security requirements necessary to manage data generated by the aircraft.”

Third, the 5thgen approach as characterized by Brown is a shift to working the interconnected force in a different way.

He provided an example with regard to CEC and the Air Warfare destroyer. “Our Navy has just started deploying our air warfare destroyers but we have already demonstrated CEC interoperability with the US Navy. “We will put CEC on our Wedgetails to be able to provide weapons quality tracks to our ships, hence enhancing significantly the range for the strike capability of our fleet.

“And as we go forward we will find ways to directly link our F-35s with the fleet as well. “Our Navy and Army are now focused on fifth generation communications with their platforms as well, which is why having the F-35 in the force can drive change in the strategic direction in which you want to go.

You fly a legacy asset you cannot drive the kind of change the ADF needs in the near to mid-term...."

Graphic: https://sldinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... eoff-1.jpg

Source: https://sldinfo.com/2018/11/crafting-a- ... off-brown/
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by spazsinbad » 22 Jan 2019, 01:32

F-35A aircraft scheduled to begin flying operations this week (21-25 Jan)
Probably Jan 2019 sometime RAAF PR

"RAAF Base Williamtown is advising Hunter residents that our two F-35A Joint Strike Fighter aircraft are scheduled to begin flying operations this week (from 21-25 January 2019). The first two aircraft arrived in Australia on 10 December 2018.

Commander of Air Combat Group (ACG), Air Commodore (AIRCDRE) Michael Kitcher said the two aircraft will begin a phase of operations designed to verify and validate the jet’s capabilities during 2019-2020 in the lead-up to the declaration of the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) at the end of 2020.

“At the end of 2019, Air Combat Group expects to have taken delivery of up to eight aircraft,’’ Air Commodore Kitcher said. “In December 2020, Australia will have up to 33 aircraft, established a sovereign training capability and completed verification and validation of the Australian F-35A capability.

“By the end of 2020 one operational squadron will be proficient in air combat, strike and offensive air support, and ready to deploy in support of Australia’s national interests.” The Australian Government has approved the acquisition of 72 aircraft and the F-35A fleet will comprise of three operational squadrons.

Numbers 3 and 77 Squadron operate out of RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales, and Number 75 Squadron based at RAAF Base Tindal near Katherine, Northern Territory. Number 2 Operational Conversion Unit squadron will also fly F-35A out of RAAF Base Williamtown…."

Source: https://www.airforce.gov.au/operations/ ... -21-25-jan


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by spazsinbad » 17 Feb 2019, 05:33

F-35 Special ADBR Nov-Dec 2018 Volume 37 No.6 attached PDF 46 pages and text readable below. Last four pages has info about some weapons thusly JPG is from those pages: F-35B 8 SPEAR, 2 Meteor & 2 ASRAAMs wing rails MBDA
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by spazsinbad » 17 Feb 2019, 12:19

Excerpt from PDF above... An RAAF F-35A pilot explains what it's like to fly the next generation jet
LUKE DAYS - FLYING THE F-35
Nov-Dec 2018 Andrew McLaughlin

"...An RAAF F-35A pilot explains what it's like to fly the next generation jet
When I got to fly it I had a mix of emotions, I was both excited and nervous - excited to fly an F-35A, but nervous about making a mistake. We rehearsed the flight in the sim the day prior with our IP (instructor pilot), and on the day I was grateful for the 7:00 am walk time in the Phoenix heat!

After finally getting up the ladder and successfully strapping in, I was ready to start. From then on the whole experience was just like the sim, even taxing to the EOR (end of runway) was the same. I did briefly have one thought, 'I can't believe I am doing this', but that was short lived as my focus returned to the checklist.

The first time I noticed something different was on the takeoff roll. We did a mil power (non-afterburner) take off, and this was the first time I had felt the acceleration - the F-35A has more 'go' than the classic, that's for sure. We took off in mil power with 18,000 pounds of fuel, whereas the classic would have a maximum of 16,500 pounds with three external tanks and need to do a full AB (afterburner) takeoff.

I flew the departure just like the sim. I would say you feel a bit like you're floating in the F-35 because there is not much aircraft in your field of view, he added. In the Hornet you have the LEX (leading edge extension) which you can see, and the wings are not that far behind you. On the F-35 there is no LEX and the wings seem further back and are a shorter span.

We decided to transit supersonic, so I selected full AB and started to climb, and again I was reminded that this thing has some thrust! I only went to Mach 1.2 as we had already reached our airspace, and once in the airspace I started to pull some alpha (angle of attack, AOA).

The point of this was to get a feel for the different AOAs and roll rates. As briefed, the F-35 felt similar to the Hornet in differing AOA regimes - I was quite aggressive and the jet was extremely stable. After this I did some break turns - these are done faster in the F-35 so are more about G than AOA.

Overall, I found the seat and HMD (helmet) very comfortable under G. The F-35A tends to bleed less at high speeds than the Hornet, so I think we might be fighting faster than what we did in Hornet which loved to fight slow. The F-35 is also faster than the Hornet in the approach and landing phase. At Luke this is not a factor as we share the airfield with F-16's, but at Williamtown there will be some procedures to work out with slower civilian aircraft.

On the return leg the thing that stood out the most was all the air tracks on my tactical situation display - with zero input from me the jet was giving me the picture. The advanced sensors and how they are fused is one of the jet's biggest strengths. In a 4th gen fighter you spend a lot of your effort manually working sensors or interpreting them, leaving not much mental capacity for tactical decision making.

I pitched on downwind and conducted my pre-landing checks. These are somewhat simplified as you just put down the gear down which changes the flight control laws. As I rolled out on finals and slowed to on speed, I remember thinking, 'this is my first landing in an F-35A', but I used the technique I was taught and the jet touched down very gently.

Overall the jet was very easy to configure, fly around base and finals, and land - in some ways easier than the Hornet. I did a touch and go, and we then did a precautionary flameout (PFO) which I was nervous about as the jet is very slippery and very hard to slow down. With the PFO done I just did some more circuits until it was time to full stop.

I taxied back and shutdown to be greeted by my squadron mates and my family. I clearly remember the sense of relief knowing that I had done it.

Overall compared to a Hornet, The F-35 is noticeably faster while carrying more fuel, and was extremely stable and easy to fly. I can't wait to get to the tactical flying!"..."

Source: ADBR Nov-Dec 2018 Volume 37 No.6


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by spazsinbad » 25 Feb 2019, 00:25

Northrop Grumman Australia’s F-35 repair work outlined
22 Feb 2019 Garrett Reim

"Northrop Grumman Australia was awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense for maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade (MRO&U) work on Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters stationed in the Asia-Pacific region.

Northrop Grumman Australia, as well as BAE Systems, Moog, Ruag, NIOA, Survitec, and GE Aviation, will provide services for 13 of 17 MRO&U component repair technology groups assigned to the Asia-Pacific region, the company said on 22 February. The value of the contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Australia was not disclosed.

Contracted companies will provide regional services for the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, including depot repair for avionics, munitions and weapons delivery, canopy systems, aircraft composite structure, electro-optical systems, electrical components, valves, auxiliary power systems, hydraulics, pneumatics, pneudraulics, hydro-mechanical systems, landing gear, life support and pumps. For its part, Northrop Grumman Australia will deliver avionics, composites (in partnership with Quickstep) and electro-optics repair (in partnership with BAE Systems) services, the company says....

...The first tranche of repair services will begin in 2021 and will serve all F-35s globally until 2025, says the US Defense Department. Initially, components will be repaired in the United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Israel. The second tranche of servicers will focus on the needs of the Asia-Pacific region and will begin repairing parts in 2025. Those countries are Australia, Japan and South Korea."

Source: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... in-456040/


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