In addition, all F-35 variants are able to carry weapons and external fuel under their wings, although this adds drag and reduces stealth. Nevertheless, the F-35B couldn’t carry the modern Norwegian Joint Strike Missile—which could become the standard missile for the F-35A and F-35C variants—because of size and mass considerations.
ASPI and friends don't know what they don't know about the problems with the F-35 program.
Where to start?
There are NO drop tanks for the F-35. That was erased in a 2006 US DOD contract because of too much risk. The original goal for a finished system design and development F-35 (SDD), the current phase of the program we are in since...2001, is that all variants would have the ability to carry drop tanks. The original assumption was that they would use legacy F-18 drop tanks. Not long after LM won the JSF contract, stores separation studies showed this tank design to have risks bouncing into other munition configurations when being punched off the jet. Then the program people decided to come up with a different drop tank idea: three new, elongated candidates. Studies with that when punched off the jet showed center-of-gravity issues. You know...longer object, more of a lever. At punch off they predicted the new tank design would pitch up and clear the leading edge of the wing by an unsafe margin. That 2006 DOD contract eliminated the clearance of the wind-corrected-munitions-dispenser, drop tanks, and added the small-diameter bomb (SDB) as a USAF requirement by the end of the SDD phase.
Not long after this you saw two interesting things in Lockheed Martin marketing. Briefings to Norway showing range with drop tanks. A briefing not long after showing that the F-35 was so advanced compared to "legacy" that it didn't need drop tanks.
There are several survivability problems around not only the LHD (which will be unable to field an F-35B properly) but also all variants of the F-35 (also a huge RAAF problem).
The LHD will in part depend on the RAAF and the troubled Air Warfare Destroyer (a bad designation if ever there was one) for protection. The Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) will be fielded with obsolete air-defense solutions. Also the threats out there include sea-skimming super-sonic anti-ship missiles: BrahMos and Yachonet (export version of Oniks), the later already fielded in this region. This means the time to defend against such missiles when they appear over the horizon will be short.
And maybe we will even see these appear in the region some day?
The F-35? All variants-even if they work to design specification--are likely to get shot down if they face emerging threats in the Pacific-Rim.
The F-35 is a poor candidate for close air support (CAS). It in no way, has proven that it is superior to the latest USMC Harrier configuration. The Harrier has a much lower cost-per-flying hour; better visibility from the cockpit; a working gun; better electro-optical pod field of view (for lasing, laser-spotting and imaging than the on-board F-35 EOTS) and may even be able to kick out more missions per day. The current F-35 situation is troubled in its development and to-date, 13 years after LM winning the JSF contract, is nowhere near showing a working product.
There is your research.
There is your analysis.
For free.
You're welcome.
How do we improve this problem of faulty, tax-payer funded Defence analysis?
Hire real, subject-matter experts.
For years, APA has supplied sage, well thought-out, private and public advice to our elected officials and other government offices in regard to Defence issues.
They have supplied numerous, public papers on Defence issues.
Many of their predictions have come to pass as being true.
That is not an "I-told-you-so".
It is a warning that this Australian-made organisation is available to provide proper advice to government, if allowed to do so.
It would be easy, cheap, money, well-spent, to have the Audit Office or similar to hire them on a permanent basis.
Or, let us continue to get bad, tax-payer funded advice and continue on path that will leave our defence-posture to ever worsen.
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F-35 reading list:
-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Bill Sweetman, Aviation Week and the F-35
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel
-F-35 deliveries
-ADF's wacky F-35 assumptions
-Gauging performance, the 2008 F-35, Davis dream brief
-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era
-History of F-35 engine problems
-Compare
-JSF hopes and dreams...early days of the Ponzi Scheme
-The Prognostics
-2002--Australia joins the F-35 program
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Australian Defence Reading List:
-New Defence White Paper fails to address Australia's core security needs
-2009 Defence White Paper Fantasy
-Analysing "The ADF Air Combat Capability- On the Record"
-Find out who is responsible for the Air Warfare Destroyer mess
-Analysis of Defence Materiel Organisation Major Projects Management and What Needs to be Fixed
-New DMO Boss warns the staff that business as usual is over
-How dangerous is the Defence Material Organisation to our Defence Industry?
-Australia's Failing Defence Structure and Management Methodology
-More on the dud-jamming gear Defence wants to buy
-ADF cost per flying hour
-I will wipe out bullying vows new Defence chief (Houston 2005)
-Vacancy
-Put Vol 2 Report of DLA Piper Review into the light of day
-Rory and Jim
-Parasitism as an Abstraction for Organizational Dysfunctions
-Hobart-class "Air Warfare Destroyer" to be fielded with obsolete radar guidance technology
-The Decay Of Critical Military Thinking And Writing-With Particular Reference To The RAAF
-Newspaper guy gets it right about sub project.... big time
-The great M-1 tank myth
-*UPDATE* Fear and loathing in Canberra - Audit released on MRH-90 helicopter project
-RAN bullies contractor over Collins sub replacement
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - Star-ranks
-Air Warfare Destroyer -- Billions, not millions over budget
-Australia's M-1 tanks are... a downgrade compared to what it had
-Weak links put on rubber-stamp Defence panel
-Stop the nonsense (Collins-class submarine replacement)
-Insert Joke Here
-Tyranny of distance--Long, drawn out helicopter projects are unsustainable
-2014-15 ADF budget shocker - cost per flying hour over the last budget year
-Tiger savaged by Navy League of Australia
-Tiger helicopter update
-Overview of corruption in Australia
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