F-35 Lightning II
The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb this week, hitting a tank at Edwards Air Force Base in California and marking the first time the new warplane has fired a laser-guided weapon, the Pentagon said Wednesday. An F-35 B-model jet released the Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II bomb from its internal weapons bay while flying at around 25,000 feet, successfully smashing into a tank parked ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Northrop Grumman Corporation delivered the center fuselage for Italy’s first F-35 Lighting II to the newly commissioned Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility at Italy’s Cameri Air Base July 12. This on-time delivery to Lockheed Martin enables the first assembly of an F-35 aircraft at the FACO facility and increases international participation on the F-35 program. The center fuselage, AL-1, will be integrated into a conventional takeoff and landing ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The first Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Navy carrier variant (CV) aircraft, CF-6, arrived at Strike Fighter Squadron 101 located at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on Saturday. The jet is the Navy’s first 5th generation F-35 production aircraft. Strike Fighter Squadron 101 will serve as the F-35C Fleet Replacement Squadron, training both pilots and maintainers. CF-6 will join a fleet of 12 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jets ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Indications are that the F-35 joint strike fighter program - the most expensive aviation program in Defense Department history - is on track, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics told a Senate panel here June 19. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee's ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
Hess said negotiations were still under way with the U.S. Defense Department but he expected the contract’s final price to reflect a further cost reduction of less than 10 percent, continuing a trend seen in recent years. “We’re making progress there. We’ve gotten an offer from the (Joint Program Office) and I expect we’ll get that closed pretty quickly …certainly within 30 days,” Hess told Reuters in an interview ahead ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Korea for sixty F-35 Conventional Take Off and Landing aircraft and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $10.8 billion. The Government of the Republic of Korea has requested a possible sale of (60) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take Off and Landing aircraft. Aircraft will be configured with the Pratt & ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
First flight by operational pilot of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter The first solo flight of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) by a UK operational pilot has taken place in the United States. On 19 March at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, Squadron Leader Frankie Buchler piloted the fifth-generation multi-role stealth aircraft for the first time. The RAF pilot has been stationed at the Florida base since November last year ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Defense Department lifted its grounding of the F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter after analysis concluded that a cracked turbine blade in an engine on a single plane resulted from overuse in test operations, according to an official with the F-35 Joint Program Office. In an email statement, the official, Kyra Hawn, said engineers have so far discovered no other cracks in inspections of the other engines, and no ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The Defense Department grounded has grounded its fleet of F-35 fighter jets after a crack in the engine was found. The jet is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program with a total estimated cost of $400 billion. The engine problem was discovered during a routine inspection at Edwards Air Force Base, California, leading the 51-jet fleet to be grounded as a “precautionary matter,” the Pentagon said Friday. “It’s too early to know ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
For the first time, two Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Carrier Variant test aircraft refueled together with a Lockheed Martin KC-130 Hercules in the sky above Patuxent River, Md. recently. The CV aircraft, known as CF-1 and CF-2, completed the milestone as part of an F-35 flight test program that will accomplish more than 1,000 flights in 2013. Later this year, Eglin AFB, Fla., will receive its first CV aircraft joining the F-35 pilot ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
DOD and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement in principle to manufacture 32 F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter jets, Pentagon Press Secretary George E. Little said today. The jets are part of Low-Rate Initial Production batch 5 – the fifth production lot of the aircraft. Unit-cost data will be made available once the contracts are finalized and signed, Little said. “Production costs are decreasing and I appreciate everyone’s commitment to this ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
An F-35A test aircraft, flown by U.S. Air Force Maj. Matthew Phillips, completed the first aerial weapons release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) from a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft, Oct. 19. The aircraft, known as AF-1, jettisoned the instrumented AIM-120 over the China Lake test range from ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The engines roared overhead as an F-35A fell into formation. Although this is a basic maneuver for the test pilots, the possibilities for combat environments created by these elite aircraft working together are anything but mundane. The F-35, which features three variants to be used by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, is a single-seat aircraft capable of stealthy operations, equipped with an enhanced computer technology system. The Marine Corps B ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
The F-35 integrated test force announced the completion of a major prerequisite test for in-flight performance on the short take-off and vertical landing variant of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Sept. 4. BF-2 completed the first air starts, which test the ability of the F-35′s propulsion system to restart during flight. Verifying the restart capability of the propulsion system is part of the initial flight test program for the F-35 and a ...
Category: F-35 Lightning II
