Hey Scooter
Do you know if the F-35A can be fitted for probe and drogue refuelling like the B/C when built?
Yes. Space has been reserved in the F-35A design for a nose probe. There are international partners that will be using P&D on the F-35A.
The F-35 will carry 6-AAM’s from Blk 5 on and is nearly the match of the F-22. Which, has been well documented by the US Government and Lockheed Martin.
Feel free to provide a source for that! I just remember the USAF’s own simulations which indicated a clear advantage for the F-22 vs. F-35 wrt aircombat performance/effectiveness.
What Scooter should have said is that the F-35 is scheduled to receive that ability in Blk5. A little background….
Each block takes, from initial inception to IOC, many years to mature. Here is the latest (still a couple of years old and likely has shifted to the right a year or two) Post-SDD development schedule.
One of the things we can see is that, even if the shift to the right has already happened, we are in the “Detailed Planning” stage for Block 5.
Next, what is in Block 5. The DoD has kept very quiet on the details of what is included in each of the blocks, both Pre and Post-SDD. The one source we do have is the Norway docs from a few years ago.
I have found a few other sources as well that include JAGM with Blk4 and AARGM with Blk6.
Back to the 6xAAM issue. The DoD is already funding development of the 6xAAM upgrade. IIRC, earlier this year LM (through the Skunk Works) completed a study showing that is was possible with very little modification to the airframe.
While there is no guarantee of any one component being in any particular Blk upgrade, it is clear that the DoD has scheduled it for Blk5 and they are currently funding it’s development.
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