www.militaar.net

Milline "teine tootja" Euroopas on lähema 15 aasta jooksul suuteline pakkuma ühemootorilist viienda generatsiooni hävitajat?

German FDP MP @MarcusFaber argues for mix of Eurofighter and F-35 to replace the ageing German Tornado (and guarantee nuclear sharing).
Interesting side note: he seems convinced that the F-35 will be cheaper than the Eurofighter.

The largest gap is what the U.S. Air Force can afford to sustain the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing variant. The aircraft costs $7.1 million annually to maintain but the service has budgeted only $4.1 million per jet, which is a 43% difference.

The U.S. Marine Corps anticipates paying $6.8 million to sustain each F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing jet. But the current estimate predicts the price is $8.9 million, which means a 24% reduction is needed.

The U.S. Navy is budgeting $7.5 million to sustain the F-35C carrier variant and the current estimate to maintain the aircraft is $7.9 million, which calls for a 5% affordability reduction.

When will the British have a combat capable F-35 force? The UK has a combat capable F-35 force today and declared Initial Operating Capability very recently, so are able to deploy on combat operations at any point from herein. The Block 3F capability is highly combat capable, despite what you may wish to believe or what is written by a number of prominent bloggers.

How would you rate the aircraft for the following -
Acceleration 8/10 – Impressive to say the least and, being such a slick design, the aircraft can be a challenge to slow down at times.
Climb rate 7/10 – Again, very good. Gets to height very quickly.
Performance at high AoA 10/10 – Fantastic nose authority.
Sustained turns 7/10 Very good, even though the overall design isn’t optimised for pure ‘dogfighting’ like the F-16.
Instantaneous turns 9/10 Impressive!...

German MOD has confirmed to @defense_news that the F-35 is out of the running to replace 80-some Tornados, as first reported by

Saksamaa igatahes maha kantavate Tornadode pealt F-35 peale üle ei lähe. Nii teatas Saksa kaitseminister.

Asi pole lihtsalt sõjaväe vajadustes! See on põhimõtte küsimus! Neile on põhimõtteliselt oluline enda tööstust toetada ja hoolitseda selle eest, et teadmised ja oskajad inimesed ei kaoks. See oleks ju tegelikult täitsa hull lugu, kui peale ameeriklaste sõjalennukeid enam keegi valmistada ei oskaks! Need tehnoloogiad jõuavad ühel hetkel ka ju tsiviillennundusse ja mujale kõrgtehnoloogilisse tööstusesse. See käib ka kõikide muude relvahangete kohta. Muide, kui konkurentsi poleks, siis küsiksid ameeriklased täpselt selle rahanumbri nagu pähe tuleks ja kõik maksaksid hambaid kiristades.

magitsu kirjutas: This magazine had a marvelous article in its 1/2019 edition.
I believe some of the following details haven't appeared anywhre in public.

They interviewed LM's Director Sustainment Strategies & Campaigns Steve Seehy.

**
Easy maintenance
- No more black boxes, instead hard drive sized modules that receive maintenance
- Easy access from gun & wheel wells and from behind the seat

In the Field
-PMA, Portable Maintenance Aid, the only maintenance appliance that a mechanic needs at a standby station. Road base mentioned.
-PMA enables starting internal APU that can be used to test systems, move fuel from one tank to another etc.
-Six separate hydraulic systems with actuators, one of them can be faulty and the computer compensates with the rest
-Weapons launch system pneumatic, more reliable at high Gs. No tedious cleaning up needed

ALIS
-PMA is connected to the ALIS after being removed from the fighter to transfer data
-Suggests a capable mechanic to perform the job
-All data to Fort Worth, from where it's selectively distributed forward
-Helps to locate possibly faulty parts or those that fail quality criteria
-Pilots have two simulators, PTA (Pilot Training Aid) and FMS (Full Mission Simulator), mechanics have their own ASMT-simulator (Aircraft System Maintenance Trainer).

Stealth
-Rate of repair 10 times faster than it used to be (vs. F-22?)
-Opening hull access panels doesn't require fixing the stealth coating
-Over 10 maintenance hours on avg before stealth coating needs to be touched

Life cycle costs
-DAS-camera system problems (there seems to have been a real need for change, not just improvement & savings)
-Starting from Lot 15 DAS-manufacturer changes. Twice the performance, 5x more reliable, 45% more affordable
-Access to spare parts has been improved by changing contract terms with subcontractors

Maintenance setup
-All maintenance and fixes could be made in Finland, no reason why fighters should be sent to Italy !!!
-In some very big modifications LM's field teams would assist the Finns. The need is theoretical, no such needs or changes are known.
-Less maintenance need than in the current gen planes, including current Hornet
-Sign of mature system: 9 maintenance hours per flight hour. F-35 current need 6.3 hours per 1 flight hour.
-70% of parts haven't yet broken or become faulty by November 2018. Flight hours 170 000, European share 9000h. System is considered mature at 200 000h
-The parts that have broken or become faulty lasted 26% longer than estimated
-Reliability better than expected based on previous plane types