F-35C

The Ford-Class Carrier, The F-35C and ‘Spider Web’ War At Sea

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CF-2 Flight 158 with Mr. Dan Canin and CF-1 Flight 189 with LT Chris Tabert on 18 January 2013. First dual refueling of F-35C on KC-130 tanker. [Lockheed Martin]

An aircraft carrier is nothing without aircraft, and a Navy aircraft is worth little without a carrier. It’s ships and planes in synergy that revolutionized war at sea in the 1930s and with new systems now entering service – the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter and the Ford-class carrier – they can do it again. On… Keep reading →

Published May 15, 2013 at 12:32 PM

Beyond F-35: Rep. Forbes & Adm. Greenert on Cyber, Drones & Carriers

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WASHINGTON: What homemade roadside bombs could do to Army and Marine ground vehicles was the ugly surprise of the last decade. What sophisticated long-range missiles could do to Navy aircraft carriers could be the ugly surprise of the next. “I think it would almost follow like the night to the day,” Rep. Randy Forbes told me in a recent interview. “The last decade… we asked a disproportionate sacrifice from the Army and Marine Corps,” he went on. “The next decade’s going to be the decade of seapower and projection forces, [and] some of those ugly surprises we see bits and pieces of already.”

As chairman of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee, Forbes wants to refocus fellow legislators, the Pentagon, and, for that matter, the media from a narrow debate over the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to a wider look at all the capabilities that a carrier can support. That includes not just traditional manned fighters like the F-35, but also unmanned drones like the X-47B and the future UCLASS (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System), electronic warfare aircraft like the EA-18G Growler, and even cyber attacks. Keep reading →

Published April 29, 2013 at 3:30 PM

Gen. Amos, Adm. Greenert: F-35 Essential But Procurement ‘Constipated’

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NATIONAL HARBOR: The top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps defended their most expensive program, Lockheed Martin‘s troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while acknowledging the way the Pentagon buys such weapons is not merely broken but “constipated.”

“There’s no alternative for the United States Marine Corps to the F-35B,” Commandant Gen. James Amos said at the opening session of the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference. “I want to make that crystal clear to everybody in the audience.” All the great aircraft of the past have gone through teething troubles in development, said Amos, a pilot himself. Keep reading →

Published April 8, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Navy Bets On ‘Baby Steps’ To Improve Electronic Warfare; F-35 Jamming Not Enough

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PENTAGON: While the Air Force and the Marines stake their future on a great leap forward to the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy is taking what one officer called “baby steps” into the future: a careful, incremental upgrade of electronic warfare systems to jam enemy radar instead of just hiding from it. The fleet is moving, slowly but surely, from 1960s-vintage EA-6B Prowlers carrying 1970s-vintage jamming pods — complete with vacuum tubes — to supersonic EA-18G Growlers armed, as of 2020, with a digital Next-Generation Jammer.

Despite persistent rumors the Navy will cut back its F-35 purchase, the service remains officially committed to a carrier-launched version of the F-35, the F-35C. They’re just not counting on the F-35 to penetrate increasingly sophisticated air defenses on its own. Keep reading →

Published December 6, 2012 at 6:00 AM

DoD, Lockheed Reveal F-35 Numbers In LRIP-5 Contract

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Under LRIP-5 for F-35 Lockheed Martin will build 22 Air Force F-35As, 3 Marine Corps F-35Bs, 7 Navy F-35Cs. Production started last December under undefinitized contract. ColinClarkAol

Published November 30, 2012 at 1:05 PM

Will Stealth Survive As Sensors Improve? F-35, Jammers At Stake

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[Corrected 9:35 pm with a note about the EC-130 Compass Call] Is stealth still America’s silver bullet? Or are potential adversaries’ radars getting too smart for US aircraft to keep hiding from them?

That’s literally the trillion-dollar question, because the US military is investing massively in new stealth aircraft. At stake in this debate are not just budgets but America’s continued ability to project power around the world. Keep reading →

Published November 27, 2012 at 6:00 AM

What The CNO Was Really Saying About The Future Force

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There were only four men in U.S. History awarded the five star rank of Fleet Admiral: Chester Nimitz, “Bull” Halsey, William Leahy and Ernie King. From their days at Annapolis to commanding the greatest naval fleet in history, each man spent significant time at sea interspersed with time ashore furthering their education. Not only did they consistently demonstrate physical courage but they honed a profound grasp of the harsh reality that all military technology is evolving and thus in a constant relative action/reaction cycle against a reactive enemy. Keep reading →

Published July 16, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Navy May Buy More F-35s, Not Fewer, Under F/A-XX Initiative

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PENTAGON: The Navy’s F/A-XX initiative has been depicted as an ultra-advanced “sixth generation” aircraft that the Navy would prefer to buy instead of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. But Breaking Defense interviews with Navy and industry sources strongly suggest that the service has little appetite for another expensive development program and that the most likely candidate for the F/A-XX is, in fact, an upgraded F-35.

“We’re not chasing the next shiny object,” a Navy official told Breaking Defense. “We’re looking to what is the art of the possible with regard to affordable warfighting capability.” Keep reading →

Published July 13, 2012 at 2:00 AM

CNO Article Raises Doubts About Joint Strike Fighter

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[This piece was originally published under the title "CNO Ready To Cut Back On F-35 Joint Strike Fighter," which was factually incorrect; see our note below.] Keep reading →

Published July 9, 2012 at 2:10 PM

U.S. Navy Version of Lockheed Martin F-35 Makes First Flight

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U.S. Navy Version of Lockheed Martin F-35 Makes First Flight

“I am thrilled the F-35C has attained this milestone,” said Vice Adm. Thomas J. Kilcline, Commander of Naval Air Forces. “This flight marks the beginning of a new chapter in Naval Aviation. The mission systems in this aircraft will provide the Carrier Strike Group Commander with an unprecedented ability to counter a broad spectrum of threats and win in operational scenarios that our legacy aircraft cannot address.” Kilcline pretty much said it all on June 7, 2010. Keep reading →

Published June 15, 2011 at 12:41 PM