Here's Why The F-35 Is The World's Most Dominant Stealth Fighter

The F-35 Lightning II is now the world’s most dominant multi-role fighter. Its detection range, geolocation, threat identification, and system response capabilities allow the jet to exactly fix and destroy the foremost advanced threats within the world including every layer of Russia’s latest SA-20 SAM (SAM) system.

While it still has several rough edges, the F-35 has now crossed several thresholds that make it the foremost lethal and cost-effective fighter in or nearing production within the NATO Alliance. Here are 10 updates you would like to understand about this fighter .

The first U.S. F-35A wing is fully equipped and already executing combat deployments. The maneuvering restrictions the jet had when first introduced are now completely removed. Even with an entire internal weapons load-out and full internal fuel, pilots can fight without limitation. Last year, I interviewed 30 pilots at Hill Air Force Base, and every one 20 with previous experience in fourth-generation fighters said they might rather fly the F-35 in combat than their previous rides. That preference held for nearly every dogfight scenario they might imagine.

The price of the Lightning has fallen below even the foremost optimistic government targets. In 2018, the Congressional Research Service estimated that an F-35A produced in 2020 would cost $77.5 million using constant 2012 dollars. Translating that cost estimate to current year dollars makes the worth of every F-35A $87.1M. the particular cost of an F-35A in financial year 2021 is $79.2M, and it's expected to fall to $77.9M in 2022 – $9.2M cheaper than the government’s best estimate using current year dollars.

The F-35A now costs but the other ally-produced fourth-plus generation fighter. a totally combat-equipped F-35A is that the same price of an F/A-18 E/F, $9.8 million below the $87.7 million base price of an F-15EX, and $40 million but the Eurofighter—and all three of these competitors require additional equipment like multi-million dollar targeting pods before they will employ weapons in medium threat combat environments. The F-15EX self-protection system is estimated to cost $7.5 million, and therefore the Sniper Targeting pod costs quite $1.7 million per jet, making the entire cost for a combat configured F-15EX $19 million quite a totally combat configured F-35A. And none of these other jets would last for each day during a modern-day high-threat environment.

Competition has increased performance and driven down costs. the entire price of an F-35 is comprised of the aircraft, assembled and produced by Lockheed Martin, and therefore the F135 engine produced by Pratt and Whitney -- plus profit. When a Northrup Grumman-produced aircraft subcomponent called the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) did not meet reliability thresholds, that system was replaced with a DAS produced by Raytheon that delivers twice the performance and five times the reliability at a per-unit cost 45 percent less than the Northrup Grumman model. This switch alone will save the govt $3 billion over the lifetime of the program.

Not all manufacturers who help build the F-35 have moved aggressively to scale back costs. Assuming it's stayed on target with Pentagon acquisition estimates, Pratt and Whitney is now delivering F-35 engines for $11.8 million a replica . With production efficiencies, that price was expected to fall to $10.7 million by FY 2025 (FY12 dollars), saving the taxpayer another million dollars per fighter. Unfortunately, without a competitive motor available, Pratt and Whitney has made it clear that further savings are not any longer within the cards. the power to competitively reduce engine cost and improve performance was lost when Congress killed funding for the F-35 alternative engine accept 2011, leaving Pratt and Whitney as a sole-source supplier with no incentive to scale back its profits.

The F-35A cost per flying hour (CPFH) is falling, but one must go through Mark Twain’s “lies, damned lies and statistics” to seek out out how the jet is doing with this often misconstrued metric. CPFH calculations vary significantly between evaluating agencies, but all of them add costs for the F-35 that they are doing not include for the fourth-generation fighters they compare it to. ECM (ECM) and a precision infra-red targeting system are built into the F-35, elevating its maintenance requirements and ultimately its CPFH. Fighters just like the F-15E and E(X), F-16C and FA-18E require additional equipment like external pods to offer them similar capabilities but, because they're not “built in,” the pod’s acquisition price isn't factored into those fourth-generation jets’ price , nor are maintenance costs for those systems included in their CPFH calculations.

CPFH calculations by the Department of Defense Selective Acquisition Reports (SARs) still benefit fourth generation systems. They show the F-35A CPFH has dropped from $32,554 an hour in 2014 to $30,137 in 2018 (FY 2012 dollars). once you consider maintenance for the F-35’s targeting and ECM systems are included therein price, it begins to match far more favorably with the F-16 CPFH of $25,541 (FY12 dollars) also because the elusive CPFH for the F-15E and its sibling the F-15E(X). Time will tell if the F-35 CPFH make it right down to the target of $25,000, but if Lockheed-Martin’s work reducing the F-35A’s cost are often used as a guide, the jet’s CPFH may alright fall below the historic cost for the F-15E (and F-15EX) and compete favorably with the F-16C—even with CPFH calculations that favor those jets.

Mission capable (MC) rates for the F-35 rose considerably over the last year, but they're still below the 80 percent mission capable threshold set for the fleet by Secretary of Defense in 2018. consistent with Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), the MC rate rose to 73.2 percent in 2019—up 18.5 percentage points from the previous year. With priority for parts, forward-deployed F-35 combat squadrons were ready to sustain an 89% MC rate, which suggests parts availability for the fleet remains a problem .

Depots limit F-35 mission capability. When an F-35 component fails, it's replaced with an available spare, and therefore the failed part is shipped to a depot for repair. a complete of 68 depots are required to effectively sustain the F-35 weapons system, but just 30 are up and running and only 11 of these are fully operational. Parts availability for the F-35 will still hold down MC rates until all depots are operating at capacity. Lockheed Martin and therefore the F-35 Joint Program Office have accelerated their efforts to urge depots up and running and now project that 64 depots are going to be operational by 2024 – five years before the estimated 2029. Assuming funding for parts remains consistent, the parts shortfall will end, allowing fleet-wide F-35 MC rates to satisfy or exceed 80%.

The Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) for the F-35A remains having problems. The HMDS gives pilots an unparalleled level of situational awareness in combat because it displays all critical flight and weapons systems data on the within of the pilot’s visor. The image from the system’s built-in night-sight camera is additionally projected onto the visor, as is that the image from the Distributed Aperture System (DAS) that automatically tracks and provides vivid cues on to the pilot on the situation of friendly and enemy aircraft. The HMDS may be a game-changer in combat, but interface issues with its display have caused pilots to become disoriented when refueling, or while landing the jet in the dark . Lockheed Martin visited work fixing this technique even as soon as pilots flagged it as an urgent operational need, which fix is currently being fielded for Navy F-35Cs. it's going to take several years before the HMDS fix makes its thanks to the Air Force.

The Autonomic Logistics data system (ALIS) remains too big, slow and suffering too many problems. Every aspect of the F-35A’s maintenance, supply, and operations are managed through the F-35A ALIS. very similar to an Apple iPhone OS (iOS), ALIS may be a computer OS that holds a conglomeration of 65 applications, sub-programs, or modules. Some were built exclusively for the F-35A; others are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) programs. the issues arise when digital inputs from either the jet or a more modern ALIS application meet analog inputs or processing from another module. The Department of Defense has elected to exchange ALIS with a cloud-based operational data integrated network (ODIN). The new system is meant to decrease workload and increase mission capability rates for all F-35 variants and will begin fielding later this year.

Overall, the F-35A fighter is flying exceptionally well. It now provides the us with a big competitive advantage against a peer competitor threat. Shortfalls in repair parts and other smaller issues got to be fixed as soon as possible, but the capabilities that the F-35 provides the state today along side the dramatic drop by price make Air Force decisions to acquire the F-15EX and to not build up F-35A procurement very puzzling indeed. The aircraft provides a capability America must engage in strategic competition.