So far, the F-22 and F-35 have been developed along parallel paths. Except for one of the F-35’s engines, the direct links between Lockheed’s two “fifth-generation fighters” are surprisingly thin. It seems both Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force like it that way. If an official — or even unofficial — photo exists showing both aircraft together in flight, I’ve never seen it.

The disconnect extends deep beneath the titanium and steel skin. Major subsystems for both aircraft are based on different computing architectures. So improving hardware or software on the F-35 yields no benefit for the F-22, and vice versa.

No decisions have been made, but Lockheed officials at the F-22 factory are asking if that should change, only 16 months before the production line is shut.

The concept involves installing the F-35 computing architecture and certain hardware in the F-22. Even Lockheed acknowledges the idea would require “significant initial investment”, but could yield “some cost savings” in the long-term. Discussions with the US Air Force are underway.

“Say, if we want to add something to [the F-22] CNI suite, F-35 could take that wholesale with minimal modifications,” says Jeff Babione, vice-president and deputy general manager of the F-22 programme. “So you’ll see this bouncing back and forth where F-22 develops something for F-35, and F-35 develops something for F-22.”

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2010/10/lockheed-proposes-f-35ing-the.html

You keep deluding yourself like that. I can only hope the french government thinks the same way. we will rack up more sales.

As has been observed previously, you can’t argue coherently against the points and facts stated so you attempt to drag the discussion to your level.

LOL I cant coherently argue against the points? Your the one going into a frothing rage about what is obviously U.S. policy, do we have facts or not?
Did Clinton take the U.S. out of the Paris air show or not? Is the F-35 more sophisticated than the Rafael or not? If a F-35 and a Rafale crashed today, and the Chinese government only could reach 1 crash site in time, which crash site would they choose? YOU can hold your breath till you turn blue kid but it wont change history. If i was OBama i wouldn’t let the French watch the F-35 if it was on T.V.

A nonsense claim to stay polite. The main secret of the F-35 is not stealth and none will have an idea how long it will last at all. The main difference of the F-35 system is the sensor-fusion from the start, when the Eurocanards reached that level step by step only. Just the Rafale F4 will come close to the level of the first Block F-35s f.e. Even the British nor the other user of the F-35 will get free access to the source code of the F-35 systems. When the F-35s will enter frontline service the technology and materials used are a decade old already. When a fighter is entering frontline service in numbers the work about a successor is starting already. As claimed before it is the software and sensor-technology with the highest demand in development time, when the “fighter=fuselage” is of secondary importance and time is left to decide which offer from a producer will be taken about that. The Europeans are looking into UCAVs, because the related technology will allow to built a fighter variant of that in short notice if the need may arise in the future. 😎

Translation: we can really build a stealth fighter if we wanted to butt err.. we wont. nah nah nah nahh nah.

This is news to me! Do you have the story background (or links) to the story? Thanks in advance.

However, I do wonder if other motivations may have been involved. A few years ago, there was a lot of talk about the F-22 making a debut international appearance at the 2007 Paris Air Show. That didn’t happen either.

For decades, the Pentagon has been concerned about French espionage inside the US aerospace industry. These concerns reached a head after the landmark 1991 Paris Air Show, which featured an appearance by the Lockheed F-117 stealth fighter. Two years later, the Clinton Administration boycotted the appearance of any US military aircraft at the show apparently over concerns about French spying. [Read a New York Times article about the episode.]

There have been many rumors about what happened on that fateful F-117 trip. It was long before my time. If anybody here remembers or was there, please share.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2009/06/spies-f-22s-and-the-paris-air.html

Lockheed’s F-117 stealth fighter made an appearance at the 1991 Paris Air Show, but two years later, the Clinton administration boycotted the appearance of any U.S. military aircraft at the show.

One industry executive, who asked not to be named, said the French government had reportedly used its ultra low-frequency, long-range radar to track the aircraft on its approach to the airfield, sparking concerns among U.S. officials.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55E20Z20090615

I’m not sure if it would be U.S. policy to even sell the French the fighter

All I can say is, clueless.

I don’t see any right angles unsealed seams or huge sewer vent sized gaping
grills on the bottom of the plane. No right angles. it follows the continuous curvature technique

newer pics

please visit the site for more

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/gallery_slideshow.html?item_id=941