BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

United States President-Elect Donald Trump  has made no secret of his disdain for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.  In his late night Twitter rants, he has gone so far as to suggest that the Pentagon's JSF purchase be curtailed in favor of more Super Hornets.  This, of course has had serious repercussions toward Lockheed Martin's stock price. [Let's get this out of the way:  The fact that the future American president is willing and able to negatively effect the value of people's investments through a single tweet is bone-chilling.  The value of the JSF program is estimated to well over a TRILLION dollars throughout its lifetime.  Any decision regarding its future should be carefully planned, thought out, and communicated...  NOT summed up in 140 characters or less.] Ugh. Can Trump "fire" the F-35? In a word:  No. The F-35 has already entered initial operating capability (IOC) with both the USAF and the USMC.  Desp...

After an enjoyable (if somewhat hectic) vacation, I am back! Thankfully for me, there is not a whole lot of news to catch up on.  Just some very good news for the Dassault Rafale and an "editorial" that left me rolling my eyes.  Here is quick review. Great news for the Rafale (finally)! The Rafale:  Finally getting some love. The biggest news, which I touched on briefly before, is the new found sale of 24 Rafales to Egypt .  This comes to a huge relief to Dassault, no doubt, which is anxious to finalize the much-delayed Indian deal for 126 fighters. That Indian deal now looks like it could be finalized as soon as the this spring .  This, despite rumors that the deal has been cancelled in favor of Russian-sourced aircraft . Adding to the good news are reports that Qatar may order up to 36 Rafales in the near future.  The deal, which would lead to an order of 24 fighters with an option for 12 more, would certainly give the Rafale some muc...

Mmmm...  Fudge. The Pentagon's Director Operational Testing and Evaluation (DOT&E) report was released this week allowing us to take a peek at how well the JSF's testing has been going over the last year. This has been an interesting year for the JSF, to say the least.  While it has been the brunt of much criticism (including mine), the program has seen quite a bit of progress over the last year.  The biggest sigh of relief must have been when two F-35Cs successfully completed carrier landing trials , putting that nasty tailhook  problem to bed. Of course, the elephant in the JSF's room for 2014 was the ill-timed engine fire that put a halt to the F-35's international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) and the Farnborough Air Show after that .  A fix has been devised for engine issue, but flight restrictions were put in place, keeping F-35 test pilots from testing the aircraft's limits. None of this is any surprise to those who h...

Once again I have to apologize for my lack of posting lately.  The holiday season is always a busy time of year for me, and this year the chaos has been upped to the nth degree.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, however.  Hopefully, the new year result in things going back (relative) normal. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone for participating in the "What if" series of questions. There has been a lot going on with the JSF in relation to Canada, however, and I would not feel right if the latest developments went unnoticed. So lets get to it, shall we? The F-35 needs cool fuel. F-35 fuel truck, painted white. It all started when the USAF released photos of F-35 refueling trucks.  Instead of the usual olive drab, the tanks were painted shiny white.  Why?  Because the JSF uses its onboard fuel as a method to cool its various systems.  Imagine if the radiator in your car held fuel instead of coolant.  Instead of coo...

ShenYang J-31 Another close vote for last week's "What if".  At 37%, the Gripen is the most favored choice for a possible interim fighter for Canada.  Two other options, the Rafale and Super Hornet are almost tied at 26% and 25% respectively.  No love for used Typhoons or other choices, however. This week's "What if?" goes into completely different territory.  Of all the "What ifs" presented here, it is the most improbable.  No, I have not last my damn mind (that happened long ago).  The whole point of these scenarios is to open up our minds and consider everything, so why not go completely off the deep end? China does not have a good reputation when it comes to building combat aircraft.  For the most part, their expertise seems to be in designing home-grown versions of Russian aircraft .   China has been combatting this reputation, however. Knock-off? While some have dismissed the Chengdu J-10 as a knock off of the stillborn IAI L...

For those of you have either away on vacation or living under a rock this past summer; the F-35 has had some major engine issues. Let us recap: On June 23rd, a F-35A caught fire prior to taking off at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The F-35A was suspended from flight status on July 3rd, just prior to the Independence Day long weekend.   This meant the JSF would be unable to make its planned international debut at the Queen Elizabeth 's naming ceremony . The F-35 would go on to miss the Royal International Air Tattoo scheduled for the next week. Then the Farnborough Air Show the week after that. Questions about the F-35's alternate engine, the GE F136, were quickly dismissed . In July, " excessive rubbing " in the engine was named as the culprit.   Shortly after, the JSF's grounding was lifted , but with severe restrictions. Those restrictions were relaxed somewhat  two weeks later. Two weeks later, restrictions were lifted further . Now ano...

"D'OH!" Always be wary when someone starts throwing numbers around .  Its a great way to sound intelligent while obfuscating the facts.  Terms like "25% more effective" do not mean diddley-squat unless we know what that the thing is that that "25%" more effective than.  It is all about context.  Is it "25%" better than it used to be?  Better than a standard baseline?  Better than a half rotten herring?  We need to know what. Dave Scott, Lockheed Martin's "director of international customer engagement" for the JSF, recently had an interview in Japan   where  he discussed the F-35, PAK FA, and J-20.  He dismissed both the J-20 and PAK FA as true "Fifth Generation" fighters. "Scott said the essential element of fifth-generation fighter aircraft lies not only in their stealth capability but also in the integration of the sensor fusion that allows a boost of 5%-10% to its thrust, 5% to its military rating and ...

In this week's edition of FJFC we look at a classic scenario pitting an up-and-coming star against a grizzled old veteran.  The Lockheed-Martin F-35 is the new kid in town, looking to make a name for itself.  A product of the Xbox generation, this kid played Call of Duty on a plasma screen, not Cops and Robbers in the backyard.  While its being promoted as "the next big thing" in fighter aircraft, many remain unimpressed . Some say that it has only gotten this far due to "friends in high places" and a few greased palms . Unlike the new kid, many think the F-15 Eagle's best days are behind it.  Despite many years as the reigning champion , it has been surpassed by another prizefighter, the F-22.  This, despite the fact that the F-22's fights have all been fixed and real challengers ignored .  Some even say that the F-22 has issues that make it impossible to work with . The F-15 has not been sitting idly by, however.  The Boeing Bruiser keeps...

2015?  2016?  2017? It hasn't been a good month for the F-35. First, there was the revelation that some JSF parts were being outsourced to China .  Then came the arrest of a Pratt & Whitney engineer attempting to sell information to Iran .  Shortly after that, a non-profit group released a report questioning Lockheed Martin's overoptimistic job creation numbers .  There was also a former USAF Chief of Staff advocating for dropping the F-35's nuclear capability , but I don't see how less  nuclear proliferation is a bad thing. "Did you try turning it off and on again?" If all that wasn't enough, now we find out the F-35 is still having software issues that will keep it from meeting its initial operability capability (IOC) dates. Last May, the Pentagon announced the F-35's IOC dates .  First to come would be the USMC F-35B version, planned between July and December of 2015.  The USAF F-35A was to come the second half of 2016, whi...