United States Marketing Corps press release here. Of course, for the faithful, this is a big achievement after almost 11 years of development (not counting the JSF effort before the 2001 contract).
Friday, August 10, 2012
First drop of a test weapon shape from F-35
F-35 (BF-3). a short-take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) B-model test aircraft flying out of Patuxent River Naval Air Station, has been used to drop the first inert weapon's test shape--similar to a 1000-pound JDAM. Similar, because you don't drop $18,000 JDAM kits into the drink for a first clearance test.
United States Marketing Corps press release here. Of course, for the faithful, this is a big achievement after almost 11 years of development (not counting the JSF effort before the 2001 contract).
United States Marketing Corps press release here. Of course, for the faithful, this is a big achievement after almost 11 years of development (not counting the JSF effort before the 2001 contract).
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11 comments:
How come the AIM9 is external?
That bomb bay door is hanging open for the whole exercise. If it can't be closed for the real thing then the plane isn't stealthy.
Furthermore if the door can't be opened while supersonic in foul weather, the plane is a fair-weather fighter.
This isn't even close to a working test prototype of a stealthy multirole fighter/bomber/close air support aircraft. Yet this program is about to enter its seventeenth year.
Remind me, how do we know this machine will work at all?
First clearance test Fueldrum, take a chill pill.
Chill Pill, how about something stonger.
IOC supposed to be 2012, and it finally drops something.
IOC now 2022, gives it some time to pratice.
It's not like there's anything operational out there in 2012 that challenges current western air forces...
Jc, Moronic?
Flasheart, the first clearance test?!?!? Seventeen years after starting the program???
400 kts/0.65M?
That isn't a flight clearance point but rather a means for securing incentive payments, base on a total indifference to what is real.
Similar to when our DMO contracted the USN to clear the ASRAAM of Hornet and thet started at the very benign point of 350 kits, then bailed, leaving the RAAF (ARDU) to have to finish off the clearance.
Like I said over at Aviation Week; congratulations to Lockmart for dropping a bomb from a "strike" fighter almost 11 years after the start of the program.
Another amazing "success story" from an aircraft that hasn't been able to stick to an SDD in over a decade.
Yawn.....
Pro-JSF forces will claim progress, but fail to understand what is before their eyes. Anti-JSF forces will look at elapsed time since program win and bring the guns to bear on the slow pace of achievement.
BF-3 is a dedicated "flight sciences" jet just like BF-1/2/4, with no capability for "mission systems" testing - which only resides in BF-5, and they have yet to get that jet's systems working correctly since delivery from Ft Worth.
This test was conducted to merely check the actual vs predicted separation clearance of the GBU-32 from the bay at a conservative speed/altitude. This is a normal flight test stepping stone which will require a decent amount of postflight analysis (1 week nominally, but pressure is surely "on" to do better) prior to proceeding to the next test point.
As with every integration of JDAM on any platform, the first tests involve the "flight sciences" aspects and often occur in parallel: flutter, loads, environmental, and separation testing. These do not require any smart integration with the weapon. Much has gone on in the background to get to this point. Yet what has not gone on with the BF's has been any integration of the GBU-32 into the avionics system, other than declaring a quantity and weapon weight.
The drop seen here was not in any way an "integrated test". The weapon bay has multiple cameras, as does the aft end of the fake EOTS housing under the radome...and the AIM-9X shape possesses two cameras. All of these fixed apertures are cued during release, with the digital images stored in the test instrumentation system of the jet. These are used postflight to determine miss distances, by using the accurately placed black/white targets on the jet and weapon as references. These are digitally combined in a computer program and an accurate X/Y/Z accounting of the weapon is generated (in relation to the jet), thus the miss distance can be calculated. If it falls within a given percentage of the preflight prediction, engineers will give the test a pass and the release envelope is opened a little further.
The weapon seen here was not guided, nor did it communicate with the jet in any way. It was merely a "shape" that was measured/ballasted/weighed/targeted so that it mimicked a real GBU-32. The weapon bay doors were driven open via pilot command minutes before release, not via some automated all-up round command (commit to weapon release) that will be required of a mission systems jet (and operational jets, obviously). The weapon was literally released via a manual command from the pilot, with the pickle button actually hot-wired to the release mechanism in the bay. Very simple, and all that is required for a separation test.
Do not get the idea that a JDAM was powered up, GPS keys and almanac downloaded, passed a mass data transfer, aligned, and given target coordinates. Sadly, the program is not to that state even yet. Weapons have been removed from IOC for the variants so they can just get the GBU-32 or -31, GBU-12 PWII, and AIM-120. Even those will be very limited as the program will not be able to clear them to complete envelopes. Very sad as lots of competent people at LM and DoD have proven themselves on previous programs, yet get absolutely overrun when trying to change the immense inertia of a program run by very few with ANY aerospace background. This is not isolated to LM...Boeing and NG have their share of PowerPoint managers in positions of program power. DoD test leaders are lacking in experience but not in speedbump-like opinions. And test pilot careers are more important at this point than louldly waving the warning flag at impending OT failures. Progress to flight hours and test points (regardless of success) runs the show.
Of course the LM business development machine and the Navy's Army's Air Force (USMC) will spin this simple separation flight into a "we have dropped JDAM from the F-35 and support the warfighter" story that lawmakers and laymen will soak up.
And let us not forget the 'soak-up' abilities of the JSF fanboys and others who guzzle the JSF Kool Aid, like the earlier mentioned Gregor Ferguson and Co.
A pithy, cogent and factual account of the waste of a test point and the associated costs.
Finally, welcome to one who, by demonstration, knows about flight test and, obviously, the JSF Program, itself.
BZ,
Horde
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