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Here’s how Col. Joshua Wood recalled the mission, providing a few details about the performance of the stealth aircraft in the latest exercise (that saw the participation of thirteen pilots in the squadron who had never flown the F-35 in Red Flag, including four who had just graduated pilot training):

“I’ve never seen anything like it before. This is not a mission you want a young pilot flying in. My wingman was a brand new F-35A pilot, seven or eight flights out of training. He gets on the radio and tells an experienced, 3,000-hour pilot in a very capable fourth-generation aircraft. ‘Hey bud, you need to turn around. You’re about to die. There’s a threat off your nose.’”

The young pilot then “killed” the enemy aircraft and had three more kills in the hour-long mission.

“Even in this extremely challenging environment, the F-35 didn’t have many difficulties doing its job, that’s a testament to the pilot’s training and the capabilities of the jet.”

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.

Usually operating in flights of four aircraft, the F-35s acted as “force enablers”, neutralizing several threats: on average about seven SAM systems and five Red Air assets were “killed” during each mission, according to the Italian Air Force. Moreover, the five aircraft deployed to Nellis AFB were able to launch 100 percent of the planned missions: two four-ship missions, each day.

Kriku kirjutas:Eesti keeles ka, et kukkus alla: https://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/ ... d=85865815

The aircraft was at the front of a group of four planes out for training maneuvers when it sent an “aborting practice” signal and then disappeared from the radar, Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters.

An F-35 fighter programme without Turkey is "doomed to a total collapse", the country's president has said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking following warnings by the United States that Turkey's part in the F-35 programme could be jeopardised by its plans to buy the Russian S-400 missile system.

Türgi president ähvardab kogu F-35 projektile vesi peale tõmmata, kui Türgil takistatakse Vene S-400 süsteemi osta.

Two U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft conducted an air strike at Wadi Ashai, Iraq, in support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve on April 30.
This strike marked the F-35A’s first combat employment.