F-35 Lightening II

"The F-35 is the result of the Defense Department's Joint Strike Fighter program, which sought to build a multirole fighter optimized for the air-to-ground role with secondary air-to-air capability. The F-35 supposedly covers the functionalities of almost 15 other aircraft.The requirement was to meet the needs of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and other allies. Its main requirements were improved survivability, precision engagement capability, and reduced life cycle costs. The new F-35 utilizes many of the same technologies that were introduced in the F-22. The also wanted a fighter that could achieve a completly vertical takoff and landing as well as to still achieve reaching supersonic speeds. The Lockheed Martin F-35 was chosen over the competing Boeing F-32 primarily because of Lockheeds lift-fan STOVL design, which proved superior to the Boeing vectored-thrust approach. The lift fan, which is powered by the aircraft engine via a clutched driveshaft, was technically challenging but Department of Defence concluded that Lockheed has the technology in hand. The lift fan has significant excess power which could be critical given the weight gain that all fighter aircraft experience.Lockheed Martin developed four versions of the Joint Strike Fighter to fulfill the needs of the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and the United Kingdom Royal Air Force and Navy. All versions have the same fuselage and internal weapons bay, common outer mold lines with similar structural geometries, identical wing sweeps, and comparable tail shapes. The weapons are stored in two parallel bays located aft of the main landing gear. The canopy, radar, ejection system, subsystems, and avionics are all common among all different version as is the core engine which is based on the F119 by Pratt & Whitney."

Additional systems on the F-35 include:

1. Northrup Grumman advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) multi-function radar

2. Snader/Litton Amecon electronic countermeasures equipment

3. Lockheed Martin electro-optical targeting system

4. Northrup Grumman distributed aperture infrared sensor (DAIRS) thermal imaging system

5. Vision Systems International advanced helmet-mounted display

http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/air/fighter/f35.html

There are a lot of arguments both for and against the F-35, mainly one of them being using the aircraft to replace both the F-16 and F-22. Many people belive that even though the F-35 gives us the cost benifit of having so many capabilities in one aircraft however, other critical things are lost such as the F-16's superior manuverability. Former Capitol Hill staffer, Winslow Wheeler belives that the F-35 was doomed from the start. this believes this is because of how they are trying to form this fighter to fight in three very different ways (air to air, air to ground, and close support) for three different branches of the military. "The service record of these multi role fighter's are terrible." And again he states how because of its weight, its too heavy to be extremly agile and have good manuverablilty that you want in a fighter. In short, the F-35, he belives, is an "ok" fighter in many areas instead of a superior specialized fighter role.

However, there are many positives aspects for the F-35 too. Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore says the F-35's near invisibility to enemy weapons systems is one of the factors that will make it an effective warplane. Even though the F-35 will not be as manueverable as the F-16, it will still be manuverable to the degree which satisfies the degree to which it is needed. One of the most signifigant aspects is the fighters survivability which is a very key part. The centrifusion of the aircraft is a very significant part to the F-35. This mean that it will be able to receive a wide range of variant input sources and simplify them into a way that gives the pilot and clear and detail understanding of the battle space. Regardless of the only small variations of the aircraft between branches, most of the aircraft systems, for instance the mission avionics, are identical to one another making it easy for each military branch to support one another as well as eight other international partners.

Author and journalist Bill Sweetman, also points out that for the first time the re-equipment plans of the U.S. fighter force is reliant on one program and one manufacturer. This is a big thing and greatly helps with the cost of the aircraft as well as upkeep for the aircraft. He does say that the F-35 program has suffered several challenges including an overall continuing delay, the aircraft is much more difficult to manufacture than they had hoped, and the flight test program has proceeded far slower than any before. Despite these setbacks, Sweetman points out that they have nothing to do with the program itself. It has yet to prove itself worth of all this trouble.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/04/f-35-extended-interviews.html