From what I have heard and the Skunkworks has said, “moderate” changes to the bay.

btw, it’s now on the “want” list for Block 4.4 which leads me to believe that they are blending the “Notional Block 4/5” from the graphic above into Blocks 4.1/2/3/4

The USAF has also said that EOTS upgrades are another “Must Have” for Block 4 (no sub-block specified).

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I give you, the F-32 Monica

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Which is, as I understand it, 2017+2 years? 20 aircraft is already a unit strength which is good to put the aircraft through its paces.

No. There are planes today that are getting ready to fly 3F very soon. The 2017 date is when SDD is done with 3F development and testing.

Thanks for the update. Are there indications how much time/cost is saved vs the traditional approach?

Yeah, tens of millions and many years saved per weapon that is integrated with UAI vs traditional ways.

Give me about 10 minutes to dig up some supporting docs. (I am at work at the moment).

Once UAI comes online in Block4 (it was never Block3 btw), it will put to bed most Weapon Integration issues in one fell swoop.

Just to clarify, SDB2 and JSM were never part of any SDD/Block3F plan so they by definition can’t be “missing” from something they were never a part of 🙂

The thing is, in actual combat operations, the combat system would be almost certainly programmed to ignore events like a ballistic missile launching hundreds of km’s away, because they would only serve to distract the pilot with information which is not relevant to his mission.

In the F-35’s IOC software, it most certainly will ignore it as it’s not programmed to ID & track them, yet.

However, they will in the future for one main reason, information is life.

There is no reason why you would not track such events as it does not add any strain on the pilot or significant processing power. In fact, you could even filter those events out of the pilot’s tactical display but still pass the info along to the fleet/division/brigade level. This way the info can be fused with know Blue & Red forces to determine if it’s a friendly tbm, mlrs, mortar, or even arty shell. They would then be able to follow up much quicker to prosecute any threats before the tbm, mlrs, mortar or arty shell have even landed.

Imagine what this could have done for the Scud hunters of GW1.

To answer the question of how the radar and esm are connected, they share a direct fiber-optic link where they act more as a single component rather than two separate items that send their individual data to the displays.

Integration of EW sensors with the F-35’s AN/APG 81 active electronically scanned array (AESA), communications and electro-optical distributed aperture systems puts offensive, defensive, coms and data-gathering sensors at the service of the pilot to process onboard and offboard data. The EW system employs a range of dedicated antennas and shares the AESA antenna for tasks such as electronic support measures or signals collection and analysis. The F-35’s high-gain, electronically steered radar array provides jamming support under the control of the EW system. Because the AESA array provides very directional radio frequency (RF) output, the JSF could target a very small area and selectively jam it, which enhances survivability by reducing electronic emissions.

Integration of the EW system’s elements is intended to reduce system volume and power requirements and increase affordability. But it also can aid survivability, compared with federated systems. Integrating the radar warning and countermeasures functions, for example, shortens response time. “The [systems’] handshake is intimate,” Branyan says.

Of the various mission sensors, the EW elements, aided by the AESA antenna, probably would detect the enemy first, after which the aircraft’s electro-optical system could scan it. The radar and EW apertures cooperate closely in the RF domain. The F-35’s AESA antenna and the EW receivers are connected to support quick, long-range searches throughout the AESA antenna’s bandwidth.

http://www.aviationtoday.com/av/military/F-35-Electronic-Warfare-Suite-More-Than-Self-Protection_845.html