Published 18 Sep 06

Beyond the DropZone

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

F-35 Lightning II will fly within weeks

In a matter of weeks, an American test pilot will be strapped into Lockheed Martin's new F-35 Lightning II. He'll light-off its single engine – which will generate more thrust than any fighter engine ever built – then he or she will take the Lightning II up over Lockheed's test range near Fort Worth, Texas to see what it will do.

The flight will be the first test of the now fully developed super-stealthy, nine-G, Mach 1.6 Joint Strike Fighter.

A stripped-down, experimental version, the X-35, was flown as early as 2001. But the new F-35 is the real thing. "This new airplane – the ‘conventional' one – has gotten plussed up with all the Gucci gadgetry that goes into to making it what it's going to be," says Marine Lt. Col. Arthur "Turbo" Tomassetti, a test pilot who flew the X-35 during the concept phase of the program.

Tomassetti is referring to the U.S. Air Force's conventional take-off-and-landing (CTOL) version of the airplane. And therein lies the Lightning II's uniqueness. The F-35 is the first fighter ever produced from the ground-up in three military service-specific versions – all of which we will be 80 percent common in their overall construction.

The versions include:

• The Air Force's CTOL aircraft.
• The Navy's carrier take-off-and-landing aircraft.
• The Marine Corps' short takeoff/vertical landing or STOVL aircraft.

Versions are also being developed for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and Navy.

MANAGING COSTS

Developing a three-in-one fighter like the Lightning II will enable Lockheed, its partners, and the U.S. Defense Department to keep costs down: There has been one overall concept and development program for the airplane. There will be one production program. One assembly line. One logistical supply line.

According to Lockheed's website, "The most current data shows that the F-35 JSF will cost 40 to 50 percent less to operate and support than comparable prior aircraft, saving billions of dollars over the life of the program." But that doesn't mean the airplane is going to be cheap.

Lockheed spokesman John Smith says the costs "over the long haul" will average in the "upper $40 million for the CTOL" and "middle-to-upper $50 million for the carrier and STOVL."

EASIER TO FLY

The STOVL version will ultimately replace the AV-8 Harrier "jump jet," which Tomassetti flew earlier in his Marine Corps career.

"The Harrier is a great airplane, and it's a lot of fun to fly," says Tomassetti, who currently serves as commanding officer of Naval Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23). "But it is an airplane that requires a pilot to fly it. You have very little in the way of computers helping you out. And today, in the 21st century, we rely heavily on computers in airplanes for even the basic flying stuff."

The highly computerized F-35, however, will allow the pilot to spend less time balancing and controlling the various aircraft flight systems, and more time focusing on his weapons systems and potential enemy targets both in the air and on the ground.

In addition to replacing the Harrier, the F-35 will replace the Navy/Marine Corps FA-18 Hornet and the Air Force's F-16 Fighting Falcon and the A-10 Thunderbolt, the tank-busting gun-platform affectionately known as the "warthog."

MORE FIGHTER THAN PILOT

In terms of combat capability, nothing on the planet will be able to out-fight the F-35, except perhaps the newly deployed F-22 Raptor (I'll get to the Raptor in a moment).

"In the F-35 cockpit, there is one big TV screen in front of you," says Tomassetti. "That screen, which is divided into 12 different subset screens, can show you a wide variety of things from the outside world situation to what's going on inside the airplane."

It's going to be more real time value-information for the pilot than ever before, according to Tomassetti.

"All of the independent different sensors that we have to learn to cope with are going to be fused together into a more cohesive single picture for the pilot than he has had in the past," he says. "The pilot is going to look at the screen and have the best possible picture of a target [and a situation] that the airplane can give him."

"It doesn't matter whether it is coming from the radar, the infrared sensor, or the night sensor. It's a just the best representation of the target that the airplane and its systems can generate."

Consequently, an F-35 pilot in combat will be able to focus more on being a tactician trying to kill airplanes in the sky and bad guys on the ground, than an aviator trying to fly the airplane.

The F-35 pilot will be able to engage up to eight enemy planes, simultaneously, while also locking-on to up to 16 targets on the ground. And the pilot's range tracking area – currently about 40 miles out for 360 degrees around most existing fighters – will be far greater in the F-35 than in any aircraft the F-35 is slated to replace. Tracking range is classified, but experts say in the F-35 it will be at least twice that of other fighters.

THE F-35's OLDER SISTER

Presently, the F-22 Raptor is considered to be the single best air-supremacy fighter in the world: It is doubtful that perception will change over the next several decades. But, some pilots say, determining the outcome of a fight pitting the F-35 against the F-22 may actually be too close to call.

"Those two airplanes are built for a different set of requirements," says Tomassetti. "The F-35 is going to be a bit more capable at all-around – a little bit of everything – sorts of missions, whereas the F-22 is built as an air-dominance airplane. So all other things being equal, in a dogfight, the F-22 would probably come out on top, because that is what it was designed to do."

Designed to replace the Air Force's F-15 Eagle, the F-22 was deployed for the first time in late 2005.

When the F-35 comes online, perhaps as early as 2012, the two together will literally dominate the world's airspace.

Like the Raptor, the Lightning II's primary contractor is Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Partners for the Lightning II include Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney, and the GE Rolls Royce Fighter Engine Team.

A LEGACY

The F-35 was officially christened the Lightning II in July.

The original Lightning was the multi-role World War II-era P-38 Lightning, also designed and developed by Lockheed. The P-38 had the most aerial combat kills in the Pacific theater. In fact, it was the P-38 that intercepted and shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's plane over the Solomons in 1943.

The first test-flight for the Lightning II is slated "for an October-November timeframe," says Lockheed's Smith, who adds that no firm flight date has been set because deadlines may sometimes result in developmental shortcuts, the possibility of which Lockheed will not risk.

In addition to the UK, partnering countries supporting development of the F-35 program include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, and Turkey. Israel and Singapore are "Security Cooperation" participants.

Baring any delay from a recent Congressional vote to cut a portion of the U.S. government's funding for the F-35, Lockheed hopes to start production on the first five F-35's in 2007. Full production of 2,500-plus aircraft as well as operational deployment may begin within six years.

— W. Thomas Smith Jr., a former U.S. Marine infantry leader, parachutist, and shipboard counterterrorism instructor, writes about military/defense issues and has covered conflict in the Balkans and on the West Bank. He is an award-winning author of four books, the co-author of two, and his articles have appeared in USA Today, George, U.S. News & World Report, BusinessWeek, National Review Online, CBS News, The Washington Times, and many others.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. can be reached at wthomassmithjr@yahoo.com.

© 2006 W. Thomas Smith Jr.

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