Combat Aircraft – August 2019

THE CAPABILITY

TREADMILL

O

VER 400 F35 Lightning IIs

have been delivered to the

US military to date. The US

Air Force has 283, the US

Marine Corps 87 and the US

Navy is  ying 30. Lockheed

Martin is on track to deliver 131 jets to

US and international customers this year.

Yet, remarkably, all of these  ghters will

require signi cant upgrade work almost

as soon as they reach their operators.

The nature of the F-35 program and its

concurrent development approach mean

that improvements are being made

constantly as the aircraft matures and as

experience drives change. These aircraft

are literally out of date almost as soon as

they leave the factory.

A lot of the upgrades will be software-

related, however, hardware too will need

to be changed. This will render some

of the early F-35s beyond economic

upgrade — too much will need to be

replaced and buying new will likely be a

cheaper alternative!

The F-35 approach addresses the

need to constantly improve and

enhance a  ghter with frequent pulses

of new technology — it is supposed

to do away with traditional, clunky,

mid-life upgrades that are rolled out

maybe 15 years into service. It makes

combat aircraft more relevant,  t for the

current  ght.

Tech Refresh 3 (TR3) is the next big

capability milestone for the F-35,

coming in the 2023 timeframe. It

will be centered upon a new Harris-

supplied core processor to facilitate

improvements in radar performance,

a new panoramic cockpit display and

open-system architecture.

Lockheed Martin will argue that

customers will be able to opt in or out

of such an upgrade, but failure to do

so will render their aircraft obsolete in

no time at all. So, if you join the F-

program, you need to stay on the

capability treadmill or  nd a clever

way to support your shiny new  ghters

outside the core program, which could

be tricky at best, likely impossible.

To keep track of the latest breaking

news and analysis in the world of

military air power you can visit our

social media sites and our website:

http://www.combataircraft.net

You can also sign up for our free

e-mail newsletter by going to

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Jamie Hunter,

Editor

E-mail: [email protected]

Out with the old, in with the new.

VMFA-314 ‘Black Knights’ is the

US Marine Corps’ fi rst F-35C

squadron, and it will be the

second unit to deploy the carrier

variant of the Lightning II aboard

a ‘big deck’ US carrier.

US Navy/LCDR Darin Russell

http://www.combataircraft.net // August 2019 05

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