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F-22 / F-35 5th Generation jets | News & Discussions.

The F-22 have been described as an 'antenna farm' because there are many small antenna arrays in various locations over the body. Whether they are active/passive or passive only is a matter of software based usage, meaning their utilities can be managed and upgrade via software.

so for a layman like me , its right to say that F-22 whole Body can word as a active or passive Radar ?
 
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Japan to cease in-country assembly of F-35 jets
By: Mike Yeo - Defense News

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Lt. Col. Nakano, of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, sits in the cockpit of an F-35 before departing on his first solo sortie at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. (Tech. Sgt. Louis Vega Jr./U.S. Air Force)

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan has confirmed it will not use in-country final assembly facilities for its next lot of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.
A spokesperson from the U.S. ally’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency, or ATLA, told Defense News it will instead acquire aircraft imported from overseas for its upcoming fiscal 2019 contract.

The ATLA spokesperson referred Defense News to Japan’s Defense Ministry when asked why Japan will stop local assembly and checkout for its F-35s. The ministry has yet to respond to inquiries.
However, the recent defense guidelines and five-year defense plan released by the Japan government in late December said the country wants to “acquire high-performance equipment at the most affordable prices possible” and “review or discontinue projects of low cost-effectiveness.”

The Japanese government earlier that month approved the country’s defense budget, which includes $612.35 million for the acquisition of six F-35As for the upcoming Japanese fiscal year that runs from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020.
The budget additionally allocates $366.12 million for “other related expenses,” which include maintenance equipment tied to Japan’s F-35 program.

Japan has taken the local final assembly and checkout, or FACO, route since 2013 for the final assembly of F-35As it previously ordered. According to the ATLA spokesperson, the FACO facility, which is operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, will continue to carry out production work until FY22 to fulfill the F-35As contracted by Japan between FY15 and FY18.
Japan has struggled to sustain its local industrial base, with recently released defense guidelines acknowledging it needs to overcome “challenges such as high costs due to low volume, high-mix production and lack of international competitiveness.”

According to Japanese budget documents, the country agreed to purchase 24 of the F-35As, with each aircraft costing an average $144.2 million, although the cost per aircraft has been on a downward trend, with the FY18 batch costing $119.7 million each. (Both figures are based on current exchange rates and do not take into account currency conversion fluctuations.)

In addition to the 42 F-35As, Japan has also indicated it intends to procure a further 105 F-35s, which will include 42 of the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant. The defense plan has called for the acquisition of 45 F-35s over the next five years, of which 18 will be F-35Bs.

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Interesting article. You rarely see a country investing in local industry for co-production of a military asset and then reverting back to procuring said asset straight from the supplier. This speaks both of the advancements that LM has baked in to the project recently to compact the per-unit cost, and of the extremely high prices Japan traditionally pays for armament acquisition.

That is partly due to politics, since - for example, although not directly applicable here - Japan has a stance of not making available their indigenous programs for purchase in the world arms market. Thus, they carry the full brunt of the development cost for each item, and cannot really apply economies of scale into their defense industry.
 
Norwegian Air Force F-16 and F-35 "Elephant Walk". So far the Norwegian Air Force has taken delivery of twelve F-35s.

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Two Dozen F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from the 3rd Wing and 477th Fighter Group taken part in a close formation taxi with an E-3 Sentry and a C-17 Globemaster III, known as an Elephant Walk, March 26, 2019, during a Polar Force exercise at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
 
https://aviationweek.com/print/defe...m=email&elq2=e10c075dbdd344758c6eb0a0cd7c96c9

The U.S. Army and Air Force successfully demonstrated using Lockheed Martin F-35 track data with the Army Integrated Air and Missile Defense (AIAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS) during the Orange Flag exercise in Palmdale, California, and Ft. Bliss, Texas.

This was the first-time live F-35 track data was sent to the IBCS using both the F-35 ground station and the F-35 IBCS adaptation kit, which were both developed by Lockheed Martin, according to a company statement.

“This demonstration represents significant growth in capability for the Army IAMD program and Army for multi-domain operations,” Scott Arnold, vice president and deputy of integrated air and missile defense at Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

This new capability demonstrates AIAMD can gather sensor data from multiple platforms. In 2016, the F-35 and Aegis Combat System demonstrated integration of the F-35 supporting Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air. The F-35 ground station resides at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to support AIAMD follow-on developmental testing.


https://asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/ms-aiamd-2/

So now the F-35 can effectively give targeting information to the ground pounders.

What was it about the F-35 being a 'failure' again? Where is Pierre Sprey now? :lol:
 

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