Negotiating a labyrinth of intricate and interlaced technological and production challenges, the F-35 programme has battled its share of adversities, resulting in lapsed deadlines and burgeoning development costs

The Lockheed Martin LED F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme could easily earn the sobriquet of ‘Mother of All Fighter Programmes’ owing not only to its magnitude, to its ambitiousness in encompassing international participation, but also the vast array of complexities connected with various phases of the development. Showcasing the aircraft at the recent Seoul Air Show on October 25, the company’s Vice President of F-35 Business Development and Customer Engagement, Stephen O’Bryan had enthused, “The F-35’s Fifth Generation capabilities, including very low observable stealth, integrated sensor fusion, net-enabled operations and advanced sustainment, make it the premier fighter of the future.” He further stated: “The F-35 is the only multirole fighter designed for survivability in the highest-threat environments, and it provides superior capability at comparable Fourth Generation fighter costs.”

Undoubtedly, the F-35 JSF is proving to be the only trueblood, Fifth Generation, multi-role aircraft which has taken to the skies and, after the F-22 Raptor, it is perhaps the most capable aircraft for any jet-fighter role in the world today. Having said that, it would be prudent to trace the development profile of the aircraft.

Eight Partners, Three Variants

The JSF programme has been created to replace a large variety of aircraft on the inventories of US armed forces with derivatives of a single type, while keeping development, production and operating costs down through standardisation. Named Lightning II—in honour of Lockheed Martin’s World War II-era P-38 Lightning and the post-war English Electric Lightning supersonic jet fighter—the F-35 JSF is well poised to bring new capabilities to not only the US Air Force (USAF), US Navy and US Marine Corps, but also to some of the leading air forces in the world. Apart from the US, the F-35 programme has eight partners: UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada. Israel and Singapore also joined the programme as security cooperative participants. The F-35 is perhaps the only aircraft in the world designed and being developed from the beginning in vastly different variants to suit the multifarious needs of its various users. Three major variants are:

F-35A: The F-35A is the conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant intended for the USAF and other air forces of participating countries. With an internal 25 mm GAU-22/A cannon, the F-35A will match or exceed the F-16 in manoeuvrability, instantaneous and sustained high-g performance, and outperform it in stealth, payload, range on external fuel, avionics operational effectiveness, supportability and survivability. In the USAF, the A variant is primarily intended to replace the F-16s in a phased manner beginning 2013. In due course it would also replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II in the close air support role.

F-35B: The F-35B is being developed as the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the JSF. Similar in size to the F-35A, it sheds some fuel volume to accommodate the vertical flight systems. The F-35’s main power plant is derived from Pratt & Whitney’s F135 or General Electric/Rolls- Royce F136 (Under development), with the STOVL variant of the latter incorporating a Rolls-Royce Lift Fan module. Instead of lift engines or rotating nozzles on the engine fan and exhaust like the Pegasus-powered Harrier, the F-35B uses a vectoring cruise nozzle in the tail, that is, the rear exhaust turns to deflect thrust down, and an innovative shaft-driven Lift Fan within the fuselage, located forward of the main engine, to maintain balance in vertical flight. This variant is intended to replace the later derivatives of the Harrier Jump Jet, which was the first operational short take-off, vertical landing fighter aircraft. The RAF and the Royal Navy will use this variant to replace the Harrier GR7/GR9s. The US Marine Corps will use the F-35B to replace both its AV-8B Harrier II and F/A-18 Hornet fighters. The F-35B is expected to be available beginning in 2012.

F-35C: The F-35C carrier variant will come equipped with a larger, folding wing and larger control surfaces for improved low-speed control, and a stronger landing gear for the stresses of carrier landings. The larger wing area provides decreased landing speed, increased range and payload, with twice the range on internal fuel compared with the F/A-18C Hornet, achieving much the same goal as the heavier F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The US Navy intends to replace its F/A-18A, Band C Hornets with F-35Cs. It will also serve as a stealthier complement to the Super Hornet. The C variant is also expected to be available beginning in 2012.

Progressing Rapidly, And How

In the usual ‘tug-of-war’ between expectations and achievements, how has the programme progressed so far? To redux, from concept demonstration and selection in October 2001 to launch of the first F-35A prototype in December 2006, the speed with which the Lockheed Martin-led JSF programme took-off was indeed astonishing. It also show-cased the prowess of modern day cutting-edge technologies. After the first flight in December 2006, the development of the F-35 progressed rapidly, at least in the initial stages. By July 2007, apart from the aircraft in flight testing, as many as 11 aircraft were in various stages of production. On December 18, 2007, the F-35B STOVL version made its debut at Fort Worth, Texas amid future customers from the US Marine Corps, the UK Navy and the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Italian Air Force and Navy. On January 31, 2008, the 26th flight of F-35 was flown for the first time by a US military pilot. On March 12 the same year, another milestone was achieved with the first successful aerial refueling by F-35 in the 34th flight. On November 13, the AA-1 (F-35A) flew supersonic for the first time.

On June 11, 2008, after extensive ground testing, the first F-35B (designated BF-1) made its maiden flight at Fort Worth. The BF-1 was the second of 19 Systems Development and Demonstration (SDD) F-35s and the first to use new weightoptimised design features that would be applicable to all future F-35s. Consequently, on December 19, 2008, Lockheed Martin rolled out the first weight-optimised F-35A (Designated AF-1). It was also the first to be produced at a full-rate production speed—the assembly line moving at 50 inches per hour—and was structurally identical to final production F-35A that will be delivered to the USAF starting 2010. The AF-1, the fourth test plane to fly in three years, took to the skies on November 14, 2009. The first, a prototype which flew in December 2006 is no longer used for test flights. The other two STOVL aircraft BF-1 and BF-2 flew in June 2008 and February 2009, respectively.

The last of the three variants, F-35C production aircraft, also rolled off the production line on July 29, with a likely commencement of flight-testing in December this year. At present, 13 test-flight and 15 low-rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft are on order. The latest good news to emanate from the programme is that BF-1, the first production representative STOVL variant, has arrived at the US Naval Air Station, Patuxent River Maryland to begin 30 days of testing to build down toward the first vertical landing. The AF-1 is also likely to reach its designated US Edwards Air Force Base before the year’s end to start further testing.