In this article:
Lightning II
The F-35 Lightning II strengthens national security, enhances global partnerships and powers economic growth. It is the most lethal, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world, giving pilots an advantage against any adversary and enabling them to execute their mission and come home safe.
As adversaries advance and legacy aircraft age, the 5th Generation F-35 is critical to maintaining air dominance now and for decades to come. 5th Generation capability is defined by the combination of Very Low Observable stealth, advanced sensors, information fusion and network connectivity — all packaged within in a supersonic, long range, highly maneuverable fighter.
The most complex aircraft ever designed
The F-35 is developed, produced, and supported by an international team of government allies and aerospace industry leaders. The F-35 Program is managed by the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office, the US Air Force, the US Marine Corps and the US Navy are all procuring and operating F-35s. The program was founded by eight international partners — the U.S., United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada. Seven Foreign Military Sales customers are also procuring and operating the F-35 — Israel, Japan, South Korea, Belgium Poland, Singapore and Finland.
James Spruell, former Lockheed Martin Hardware & Software Architect who conceived an air combat flight simulation facility used to develop the F-22 and F-35 aircraft, explains on Quora;
‘The F-35 is the most complex aircraft ever designed and put into production with three versions, F-35A is Air Force version for long runways, F-35B is Marine short-take-off-vertical-landing version, and F-35C is Navy carrier operational version. To get these multi-role versions with their various requirements for sensors, weapons, mission requirements, pilot-vehicle interfaces took several years of testing and modifications to the F-35 hardware and software.
F-35: the most successful fighter aircraft ever produced
‘Getting over 5 million lines of real-time software that is in the over 200 on-board processors in the various sub-systems operating in fail-safe, secure mode took very smart dedicated software and hardware engineers several years to develop and maintain.
‘The fact that over 1,000 F-35s have been delivered to many countries and cost of each F-35 has decreased from over $1 billion to ~ $800 million [the $800 each is the cost of development plus production divided by the total number of F35 aircraft expected to be produced, which was originally projected to be 2,500 aircraft. I believe the current incremental cost of an each F-35 aircraft is about $80 million. The incremental cost of each F-22 was around $120 million when production ended and original F-35 incremental cost were around $100 million], plus the production rate is being increased to meet demand clearly says the F-35 is not a failure but the most successful fighter aircraft ever produced.’
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin/Amanda Macias/Business Insider and U.S. Air Force
