STOVL Plane Has Mission-Spec Systems
Lockheed Martin completed the first F-35 Lightning II equipped
with mission systems this week, a milestone that will lead to the
first avionics testing on board an F-35 aircraft.
The short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35 variant left the
factory on Wednesday, January. 21, and goes to the fuel facility
for functional fuel system checks before it is scheduled for
delivery to the flight line by the end of January. Its first flight
is expected this summer.
Mission systems, or avionics, are the on-board sensors that
enable the aircraft to detect, locate, identify, track and target
adversaries from long ranges; detect fast-moving incoming threats
such as missiles; and receive and transmit large amounts of
battle-space information through secure data links. These 5th
generation sensors and data links will be integral to providing the
warfighter in the air and on the ground a fused picture of the
battlespace.
"Testing of this aircraft will represent the fourth tier of our
avionics validation process, comprising ground-based laboratory
testing, airborne lab testing of individual sensors on surrogate
aircraft, airborne testing of the fully integrated mission systems
package on the Cooperative Avionics Test Bed, and, finally,
airborne testing of the integrated system on an actual F-35," said
Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35
program general manager.
The aircraft, called BF-4, will carry the Northrop Grumman
AN/APG-81 Active Electronically Scanned Array radar and Integrated
Communications, Navigation and Identification suite, and the BAE
Systems Electronic Warfare system. The Block 0.5 mission systems
software, which incorporates more than half of the combat-ready
Block 3 software, will drive the system. BF-4 will be updated with
additional equipment and software through Block 3, the last block
in the System Development and Demonstration program.
The jet is the latest addition to the fleet of five F-35s
already undergoing testing. Earlier aircraft are validating F-35
subsystems and flying qualities while retiring technical risk.
BF-4's first flight is planned for mid-year 2009, following a
comprehensive series of ground tests.
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal
industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two
separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the
Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team
F136.