Lockheed Martin recently released this video of test pilots at Edwards AFB, California, intentionally departing the F-35A and testing recovery procedures.

This sort of testing is vital since operational pilots will find a way to depart the jet no matter how departure resistant the aircraft is. It happened during operational testing for the F-22 when one of the pilots managed to get himself into an inverted spiral despite assurances in the Raptor's dash one manual that the jet could be maneuvered with "reckless abandon." If it can happen to a veteran Weapons School instructor pilot, it can and it will, at some point, happen to some brand new B-course graduate--it's just a matter of time.

Incidentally, the Lockheed pilot in the video is Dave "Doc" Nelson, who was formerly a F-22 developmental test pilot, and as he points out, the F-35 really does have excellent high angle of attack (AOA) characteristics. And if what Lea Haubelt, one of the flight test engineers, says in the video is true about the high AOA handling characteristics being better than expected, I'm not sure why the angle of attack limit is set at 50 degrees AOA when they have gone much higher during flight tests.

It may not be a capability that is used often, but extreme AOA performance can be useful at times. A good friend once described pulling more than 63 degrees AOA in the Raptor to escape being from being "shot down" by a high off-boresight missile-equipped Red air threat. It may have been useful for only a few moments, but sometimes it's the difference between life and death.

Last month on 19 April, the US Air Force's F-22 Combined Test Force (CTF) completed the 1,000th sortie on tail number 4007 at Edwards AFB, California. The aircraft is currently testing the Increment 3.2A software upgrade package which will add new electronic protection measures and new combat identification capabilities to the Raptor fleet.

"This sortie was one of the first flight tests of Increment 3.2A, the next major software upgrade to the aircraft which will enhance its lethality and self-defense capability," Lt Col Devin Traynor, F-22 CTF director of operations.

Though the USAF says that 4007 is the oldest Raptor out there flying--it's been flying since the engineering manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the program, there is an older Raptor that's still on flyable status--4006. Other old EMD jets, 4004 and 4005 are being used as maintenance trainers at Tyndall AFB, Fla., and Langley AFB, Va., respectively.

There has been some debate as to what to do with Ship 6--as an old one of a kind EMD jet, it's expensive to maintain. While it's on flyable status, there have been discussions about retiring it, and as of right now, there are no plans to fly it again. That being said, it's not heading to a museum anytime soon.

The USAF has only a tiny fraction of the Raptor fleet it once envisioned, so there has been some talk about bringing 4006 up to the Block 10 standard. It would be expensive, but it would cost far less than a new airframe--not that a new airframe is a realistic option since the F-22 production line ended last year.

The money could be drawn from the funds allocated to modernize tail 4013, which crashed late last year, and therefore will never use the cash allocated to bring it up to the Block 20 standard. "The sequester has put a damper on things for now," a source says.

Lockheed Martin's in-house magazine, Code One, posted this photo that was taken when the first F-22 Raptors were being fielded at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Doesn't feel like it was that long ago, but more than half-a-decade has gone by since then.  Here you can see a Raptor (probably either tail 087 or 090--if memory serves) followed by a Boeing F-15C and F-15E.

Back in 2007, the US had a monopoly on fifth-gen fighters, but now Russia and China are working on their own stealth fighters. In fact, Vladimir Putin told Ria Novosti earlier today that the PAK-FA will in service with the Russian Air Force by 2016--which is one year behind the original schedule.

Meanwhile, the US Marine Corps intends to declare the Lockheed F-35B operational with the interim Block 2B software build in 2015 at MCAS Yuma, Arizona. The Pentagon hasn't yet said exactly when the F-35A and C will be declared operational, but initial operational testing for the full Block 3F software is scheduled to be completed by 2019 according to the GAO.  

The US Air Force does not intend to keep the Block 30 Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk in service past the end of calendar year 2014 because the Lockheed Martin U-2 and other "classified platforms" can take-over its mission, senior service leaders told the US Congress on 17 April. However, service officials acknowledge that it will be hard to convince Congress to go along with the USAF's plans.

"We did not do that without carefully considering how we'd cover that mission with the U-2 and other classified platforms," says Lt Gen Charles Davis, military deputy for the office of the assistant secretary of the air force for acquisitions. Davis says that further discussions of those classified capabilities would have to be conducted behind closed doors. "There are systems out there that can do this in a variety of different ways," he says.

This is NOT the aircraft in question--this a Lockheed Skunk Works concept for a VTOL UAV.

The USAF would like to use money already appropriated for three additional Global Hawks to help buy back between three and five Lockheed F-35 production aircraft that the service expects it will have to cut later in fiscal year 2013, Davis says. The USAF also hopes to use part of the money to try restoring flying hours for portions of its operational combat aircraft fleet it was forced to ground in recent weeks.

Analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group says that among the classified platforms in question could potentially be a long-range stealth reconnaissance aircraft that has long been rumored to be flying in the Nevada desert. While it is hard to say for sure, it would make sense for such a platform to have low observable characteristics and have high altitude capability, he says. Given the lack of information, it is difficult to say if such a platform is manned or unmanned, however an unmanned aircraft would have far greater endurance. It could potentially be part of the USAF's long range strike family of systems--which includes a new bomber, cruise missile, electronic attack capabilities and hardware, Aboulafia says.

USAF intelligence chief, Lt Gen Larry James, speaking at an Air Force Association sponsored breakfast on 18 April, declined to comment on what classified platforms might compliment the U-2 to fulfill the Global Hawk's mission. But James did say that in the future the USAF hopes to gather and process intelligence data from "all sources" including satellites, manned and unmanned platforms among others for operations in an anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) environment.  

For penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the USAF would rely on the Lockheed F-22 Raptor and F-35, James says. But those aircraft cannot yet download the data they gather to the intelligence analysts located at the service's distributed common ground stations. "That's a desire, we don't necessarily have the money to do that right now," James says. "But we're thinking about how do you go after that."

This is a picture of an old Lockheed Martin concept for the A/F-X, which the US Navy once hoped would replace its Grumman A-6 Intruders and F-14 Tomcats following the A-12 debacle and US Air Force hoped would replace the Boeing F-15E, General Dynamics F-111 and Lockheed F117.

Initially it was simply designated the A-X program and focused on developing an advanced high-end carrier-based multi-mission aircraft.  The Navy wanted an aircraft with day/night/all-weather capability, low observables, long range, two engines, two-crew, and advanced integrated avionics and countermeasures. Greatly increased air-to-air requirements were added in 1991 after the Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter was cancelled.

The program was ultimately terminated on 1 September, 1993, during the bottom-up review in favor of what eventually became the Joint Strike Fighter program--which could be why the Navy has always been tepid in its support of the F-35C.

This Lockheed concept--this is a wind tunnel model--according to an industry source who worked on the design almost a lifetime ago, would have had performance that rivaled even the F-22 Raptor. It wouldn't have been quite as spritely, but it would have come pretty close.

The company did a lot of work with making the design's variable geometry wings and especially the wing/fuselage joint stealthy.  But it was apparent even at the time that this was going to an expensive proposition--new engines were probably going to be needed since even the Raptor's Pratt & Whitney F119s weren't going to cut it.

But it would have been pretty awesome if the Navy had actually bought this thing. Oh well...

There are few who would dispute that the Congressional sequestration, set to go into effect on 1 March, will be seriously damaging for the US Air Force and the other services. But could it also herald the rebirth of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor?

Amy McCullough at the Air Force Association's Air Force Magazine spoke to Air Combat Command chief Gen Mike Hostage in Florida last week. She reports that it potentially could. So there is that one piece of potential good news--but that would only happen if the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter were to be cancelled.

Read her article here

"I would have to refurbish the [F-15] and [F-16 fleets] and the legacy hardware I have today. I also have a very small fleet of tremendously capable airplanes in the F-22s. I would push to buy more of those," Hostage told the AFA.  If the F-35 were to be culled off in the wake of the sequester, the USAF would need 225 more Raptors, Hostage says.

 It would be expensive, but necessary to restart production of the stealthy twin-engine air superiority fighter because the fourth-generation fighters are not survivable in an anti-access/area-denial environment.

 "The problem is that all those fourth generation airplanes that my sister services are buying will not survive the fight in the latter half of the next decade. They are not relevant," Hostage says.

But reviving the F-22 is not Hostage's first choice, he says the service must have 1763 F-35s. "Numbers count. It's not just the high capability of our force. You need a quantity of that force in order to be capable," he says.

Lockheed Martin displayed a model of its prospective Cuda air-to-air missile at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando earlier today. The company had some additional details about their new weapon, but the display itself was actually tucked away in a distant corner of their booth.

Read the full story here

This is a picture of the product card that I took--apologies for the poor image quality.

US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors and UK Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons (FGR4) are participating in Exercise Razor Talon prior to their deployment to the massive Red Flag war-game at Nellis AFB, Nevada, later this month.

These photos were taken over Atlantic near Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, where the exercise took place.

The exercises are mutually beneficial to both the USAF's 27^th Fighter Squadron flying the Raptor and to the British, since that nation is still America's closest ally. My former colleague Brian Everstine at Air Force Times/Defense News recently wrote an excellent article on what the training benefits are for both sides.

A couple of notable excerpts:

"It's a pretty cool opportunity," said Capt. Austin Skelley, an F-22 pilot with the 27th Fighter Squadron who helped plan the joint exercise, called Western Zephyr. "People are really excited and eager to fight with and against Typhoon."

The Typhoon is a unique airframe from the F-22 pilot's perspective, offering advanced avionics, improved situational awareness and plenty of power in thrust and speed that pilots don't encounter when going head-to-head against F-15s, F-16s and F/A-18s, Langley pilots said.

"The Typhoon offers the F-22 a unique capability that sort of bridges the gap between the fourth and fifth generation," Skelley said.

Another one that might be of interest given some of the posts of recent weeks:

While the fighters are the most advanced from their respective countries, they have different abilities and advantages. The agility of the F-22 is what first jumped out to Wells, he said.

"Raptor has vector thrust: Typhoon doesn't," he said. "What the aircraft can do, it's incredible. The Typhoon just doesn't do that."

The Typhoon's strength, however, is in both carrying weapons and deploying them. With its two Eurojet EJ200 turbojet engines producing 20,000 pounds of thrust each and the distinctive wing and canard layout, the jet is strong in both its air-to-ground and air-to-air formats no matter what it's carrying. In its air-to-ground role, the jet flies with four beyond-visual-range missiles, a Lightning 3 designation pod, extra fuel tanks, [4 X 1000 (there is a slight copy error in the original)]-pound bombs and two short-range missiles. These can be aimed by the pilot looking in the direction of an adversary and targeting through a helmet-mounted system, Wells said.

"As we bolt things to the jet ... it still flies like a Typhoon," he said. "High and fast, and that's where she loves to be. She loves being at 40,000 feet and supersonic. It's brilliant in terms of performance and getting places."

On November 16, 2010, Capt Jeff Haney was killed when the bleed-air system in his F-22 Raptor malfunctioned and ultimately shutdown the jet's life support system. Even though Haney had no oxygen, and the emergency oxygen system was difficult to use (so difficult that it had to be redesigned), the USAF blamed him for the crash because he wasn't able to react to the situation quickly enough. Now the Pentagon's Inspector General has come to conclusion that the Accident Investigation Board report's conclusions are not supported by the facts. The USAF is, of course, sticking to its story.

Here is the report--see it for yourselves and come to your own conclusions.

DODIG-2013-041.pdf by

Here is the story

Assuming the US Air Force can secure the funding it needs (not a sure thing in this budget environment), the service hopes to upgrade its Aggressor F-16 fleet with  new center displays, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems (JHMCS) and electronic attack pods to better replicate enemy threats.

As it stands right now, the Aggressors under-replicate the threat, according to Air Combat Command. As one highly experienced pilot explains, there is no sophisticated method inside an Aggressor F-16's cockpit to tell the pilot if he's within the right parameters to shoot. "They were using grease pens to mark the [Weapons Employment Zone] on the canopies," he says. "You can imagine what that equates to with regard to accuracy of shots.  If the Air Force wants to get serious about the fidelity of training--FMTs can only do so much-- they need to equip the Aggressors with CATMs [Captive Air Training Missiles] and eventually helmets."

One other thing, apparently the F-15C is a far better aggressor than the F-16 due to the Eagle's airframe characteristics and performance, according Maj Gary Barker at ACC--the baseline threat is a Flanker, so that makes sense. Barker is a former aggressor pilot himself and flew the F-16. The fate of the 65th Aggressor Squadron's Eagles is "pre-decisional".

Read the full story here

I couldn't fit this into the story, but this is what the US Navy sent me:

"The Department of the Navy currently fields F-5, FA-18 and F-16s in an adversary role.  These aircraft with trained adversary pilots keep our fleet of Navy and Marine Corps pilots ready for worldwide contingencies.  As future platforms are acquired, the DoN will conduct an analysis to see what technologies will synergize to give the best training to the warfighter, at the lowest cost.  It is envisioned at this time that both live aircraft and Virtual/Constructive technologies will play a role by 2025.  These future combinations of training have the potential to provide Naval Aviation with the ability to rapidly evolve to confront the changing trends in technology, communications and conflict."   

In the future, as stealthy enemy aircraft begin to emerge, the F-35 appears to be the only candidate as a potential live fly "red air" threat. If it happens, "accurate replication of a valid threat will still be difficult," one senior USAF officer says. "We have spent--wasted--literally thousands of hours and millions of dollars on F22 red air replication. The jet was never designed to do it, and to my knowledge the F35 isn't either."