The new hook has been tested WITHOUT the new damper on land based roll-in and landing tests already. It goes to sea for testing WITH the new damper next year. That should hopefully put this issue to bed.

The 9x Blk2 datalink can be updated from any sensor that provides data.

In the F-35, this can be radar, IRST, ESM, EODAS, or offboard sensors.

Are there any altitude restrictions?

I haven’t seen mention of any.

Thanks for the details.

As for the F-35, recent announcements about envelope expansion have stated that it’s doors have been open at m1.6.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/press-releases/2013/february/130211ae_f-35a-completes-flutter-testing.html

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Feb 11, 2013 – An F-35A Lightning II conventional takeoff and landing aircraft, known as AF-1, completed its final test mission for clean wing flutter recently. Flutter testing was conducted to ensure the jet’s structure could withstand various aerodynamic loads verifying the F-35A’s design. The mission, flown by Maj. Ryan “Gunner” Reinhardt, marks the conclusion of three years of testing that now allows the F-35A to proceed with tests continuing to expand its flight envelope and validate predictions in real-world scenarios. The testing demonstrated the F-35 is clear of flutter, at speeds up to 1.6 Mach and 700 knots with weapon bay doors open or closed, critical to performing its combat mission. Data collected proves the F-35A flight dynamics maintains a large margin between its designed airspeed and airspeeds where possible flutter could occur.

Did you notice that I said nothing about specific dates?

That’s what happens when they change the schedule, everything else slides to the right.

However, the slide to the right did not change the structure of the post-SDD block plan, it’s funding, or it’s hardware requirements (more lessons learned form the F-22 dev & upgrade schema).

The main difference is that the F-35’s Post-SDD upgrade plan is already being funded & worked on while still in SDD.

Also, the F-35 program made sure that the F-35 did not need extensive hardware upgrades for the first decade of Blocks. They also left a whole ICP bay empty in the tail for future upgrades, designed the Avionics around a middleware concept, etc.

“In short the F-35 is going the way of the Apache, M1 tank, C-17 and Osprey to name a few famous examples.”

Cobra > Apache. M60 > M1.

I really hope you are kidding/trolling/smoking some good stuff because I have served on both the M60A3 & M1A1 and I would have to disagree 🙂

Can we please return this to a News thread and leave the debates on teh other thread….

On that note:

F-35, Voice of the Warfighter