L'Italia acquista i primi 3 F-35

[ISO-8707]

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Italy claims first F-35 transatlantic crossing
 
05 FEBRUARY, 2016

 

BY: JAMES DREW WASHINGTON DC

 

An Italian Air Force pilot flying the first Italian-made F-35A Lightning II has made history today after completing the maiden transatlantic crossing of the stealthy, single-engine Lockheed Martin type.

What’s more, aircraft AL-1 was refuelled en route by Italy’s own Boeing KC-767 tanker, which received F-35 tanking certification at Edwards AFB between July and September last year.

 

The aircraft took off today from Lajes Field on Portugal’s Azores island group at 7.30am local time before turning south over Canada to touch down at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River in Maryland at about 2.24pm on 5 February – approximately 7h and more than 2,000nm later.

 

At the controls was Italian test pilot Maj Gianmarco, callsign “Ninja” – a former Panavia Tornado pilot who graduated from the multinational F-35A pilot school at Luke AFB in Arizona in November and has accumulated 80h of flight time on the type.

 

It was a moment of national pride for Italy when AL-1 touched down. After triumphantly unfurling his nation’s flag from the cockpit, Gianmarco was greeted by top generals from the Italian AF who travelled aboard the KC-767 to witness the occasion.

 

“The first aircraft to cross the pond is Italian, flown by an Italian, with Italian support,” Gianmarco told reporters at the base. “I’m really proud of it because we’re not following somebody in this. We’re on the very front line.

 

"We’re making history here because we built it, we’re flying it, because we’re supporting it, because we’re here at the very same level with America. I’m extremely proud of that, and we should be proud as a nation of that.”

 

 

In June 2014, a contingent of US Marine Corps F-35Bs had been poised to make the transatlantic crossing to London to attend the Farnborough Airshow until an F-35A caught fire at Eglin AFB in Florida, temporarily grounding the fleet.

 

American and British F-35s are again preparing to cross the North Atlantic Ocean to attend the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) and Farnborough Airshow in July, but it’s now too late to claim the monumental achievement. Those pilots will settle for second place but the first Lightning II flight from America to Europe.

 

Gianmarco was selected six months ago to ferry AL-1, and he admitted there have been many sleepless nights leading up to this moment. He says those marines who had been prepared to fly to Farnborough in 2014 helped him prepare for this first crossing. “I will give them all the help they need to do this. Semper fidelis!” he says.

 

The F-35A happened to be joined by an Italian Eurofighter Typhoon and its own KC-767 tanking companion, which were heading to a separate Red Flag exercise and split off to land at Pease Air National Guard Base in New Hampshire. Two Lockheed C-130s were flying underneath the group armed with inflatable life rafts in case of one of the pilots was forced to eject.

 

“We kept a tight formation and were able to refuel through clouds,” he says. “[The C-130s] guaranteed us 30min to 60min time before they drop you a big raft.”

Gianmarco says the group spent 5h of the 7h in poor meteorological conditions with headwinds of 120kt flying to St John’s, Canada before heading south along the East Coast through a warm front with moderate to severe turbulence, including during refuelling.

 

“The first [refuelling] was in cloud, the second was in cloud, the third was in turbulence — but we had 100% success,” he says. “There were no disconnections. The F-35 is really, really stable. The flight control system is very impressive because it’s really easy to stay back there and enjoy the ride.”

 

The aircraft, tail number MM7332 of the Italian AF’s 32nd Wing, refuelled a fourth time as a precaution before landing at NAS Patuxent River.

 

The first leg of the journey from the final assembly and checkout (FACO) facility at Cameri Air Base, Italy to Lajes Field happened on Tuesday and involved three in-flight refuellings. Poor weather prevented the second planned hop on Wednesday and again on Thursday.

Gianmarco says AL-1 is a more mature model than the aircraft he flew at Luke AFB, and he had complete confidence in the machine prior to making the crossing despite it being the first production model of a completely new assembly line.

 

“We had the chance to fly for 15h with the KC-767 before crossing the pond. In 6h for the first flight and 7h for the second one – we had no issues, and I mean zero,” Gianmarco says. “This is the first aircraft assembled outside of the US. We have 11,000 young workers at the FACO working as a team for this result, together with the operational wings and the air force to reach this successful achievement."

AL-1 will remain at NAS Patuxent River for two to three months of electromagnetic environmental effects (E3) testing before continuing on to Luke AFB to join the multinational training team that includes American, Australian and Dutch aircraft and pilots, plus teams from foreign military sales customers Japan and Israel.

 

AL-1 as the first sample of a new production lot will be placed inside an anechoic chamber where engineers of US Naval Air Systems Command will subject the aircraft to every possible electromagnetic waveform that it might encounter in flight and in war.

 

“We define what RF environment this plane will operate in and will subject the plane to all those electromagnetic environments,” says E3 site director Kurt Sebacher. “We want to make sure when this plane flies by a SPY-1 radar or an air search radar that we do not have anomalies.”

 

Eventually, five Italian aircraft will transit to Luke, where they will be shared among pilots of the F-35 partner training programme. The sixth example will become the first operational aircraft of the 32nd Wing.

The Cameri plant is owned by the Italian government but operated by Alenia Aermacchi of Finmeccanica. Assembly of the lead example began in July 2013 and AL-1 first flew in September 2015.

The line will deliver aircraft for the Italian and Royal Netherlands air forces. Italy could procure as many as 60 F-35As and 30 F-35Bs depending on funding and the local political environment.

 

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/italy-claims-first-f-35-transatlantic-crossing-421670/

 

 

 

Cita

The Italian Air Force has successfully accomplished the F-35’s first transatlantic crossing
Feb 06 2016 

By David Cenciotti

 

The Italian Air Force made the history by successfully accomplishing the F-35’s first transatlantic crossing.

On Feb. 5, the first Italian Air Force F-35, the first JSF built outside the U.S., landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Mariland, at the end of a 7-hour transatlantic flight from Lajes Air Base, in Portugal.

 

The aircraft, dubbed AL-1 and serialled MM7332 departed from Cameri on Feb. 3 and was scheduled to land in the U.S. on the following day but the trip was delayed due to strong winds over the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The aircraft was piloted by one of the two ItAF pilots who successfully completed the training at Luke AFB last year.

 

 

 

The aircraft arrived at Pax River, where it will be involved in testing activities before moving to Luke Air Force Base, was accompanied by two KC-767 tankers, two KC-130Js for logistical and SAR support, and one two-seater Eurofighter Typhoon acting as chase plane. One of F-2000B remained at Lajes as spare, and will wait until all return from the States within a couple of days (except for the JSF).

 

http://theaviationist.com/2016/02/06/italian-f-35-first-transatlantic-crossing/

Modificato 6 Febbraio 2016 da ISO-8707

[Martin Venator]

I dubbi di Israele sull'F-35 - Analisi Difesa

Israele, Stati Uniti a parte il più accanito sostenitore del rivoluzionario F-35, starebbe rivedendo almeno in parte le sue convinzioni.Ad affermarlo, citando fonti governative e militari, sono alcuni organi di stampa di Gerusalemme, secondo i quali la Heyl Ha’Avir/Israel Air Force vorrebbe dotarsi, almeno in parziale alternativa, di nuovi caccia multiruolo Boeing F-15I “Raam” da affiancare ai 25 che schiera dal 1997 equipaggiandoli con sistemi elettronici prodotti dall’industria locale più avanzati ancora di quelli che già fanno di quella israeliana la variante più dotata del modello d’origine F-15E “Strike Eagle”.
Meglio questa soluzione – almeno per il breve/medio termine – che “trovarsi con decine di Joint Strike Fighter molto costosi ma con funzionalità limitate”, riporta Israel National News.
Questo fino a quando il “sistema F-35” non entrerà pienamente a regime, non monterà cioè l’ultima delle 4 release previste per la prima versione del post-sviluppo del software, la Block 4, imbarcabile secondo l’ultimo rapporto DOT&E del Pentagono solo intorno al 2025 e sperabilmente non votata solo alla mera correzione delle disfunzioni dei block di software precedenti. Un traguardo ancora lontano questo, che verosimilmente preoccupa un po’ tutto il partenariato del programma oltre ai semplici acquirenti del JSF come Israele.

[...]

Il primo è la sudditanza tecnico-operativa di ogni flotta estera di F-35 (evidentemente anche di quella largamente “personalizzata” dall’industria israeliana) nei confronti degli Stati Uniti, che custodiscono la chiave per il funzionamento e i necessari upgrade del sistema di supporto logistico ALIS attraverso cui passa anche la formulazione dei dati di missione, e sul cui suolo opereranno i relativi siti di riprogrammazione.
Una leva (anche politica) assai importante per Washington, che persino un “alleato di ferro” come Israele teme possa tradursi in un inaccettabile super-potere. Il secondo motivo è la stessa vulnerabilità intrinseca in termini di cyber-warfare di una catena tecnico-operativo-logistica che ha come fulcro un sistema informatico globalizzato che “gira” sul Web, affidandosi in massima parte a collegamenti sottomarini per definizione mal difendibili.

[...]

C’è già una prima avvisaglia: Gerusalemme starebbe proponendo a New Dheli di costruire insieme un nuovo caccia ispirato a quel “Lavi” di Israel Aircraft Industries che Washington impedì di fatto all’alleato di sviluppare e produrre.
Sarà interessante sondare le reazioni degli otto partner interazionali del programma JSF e degli altri acquirenti alle novità che vengono da Israele.

[Martin Venator]

Articolo lungo, posto solamente il link senza selezionare passi. 

 

http://www.analisidifesa.it/2016/04/f-35-un-bambino-un-po-ritardato/

 

Il senso, comunque, è che l'F-35 avrà pure ottime caratteristiche, ma rischia di renderle disponibili tra 5/10 anni e, in alcuni casi, con costi aggiuntivi. Sempre che, per allora, quelle caratteristiche siano ancora allo stato dell'arte...

[stev66]

Non sarebbe comunque il primo aereo giunto a completa maturita' dopo 10 anni ( qualcuno ha detto mig 23 ? )

[Martin Venator]

La Danimarca verso l'F-35?

 

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/f-35-beats-every-other-fighter-jet-in-scandinavian-air-1776511111

 

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/05/11/danish-government-likely-recommend-buying-f-35s/84249050/

 

http://www.difesaonline.it/mondo-militare/f-35-ufficiale-la-danimarca-%C3%A8-lundicesimo-paese-scegliere-il-jsf

[Martin Venator]

http://www.difesaonline.it/industria/lockheed-martin-e-israele-celebrano-il-rollout-del-primo-f-35-adir-di-israele

[Martin Venator]

https://theaviationist.com/2016/06/27/f-15e-strike-eagles-unable-to-shoot-down-the-f-35s-in-8-dogfights-during-simulated-deployment/

 

 

Cita

The fourth column shows something interesting: during the exercise, the F-35s were challenged by some F-15Es and suffered no losses.

 

Non capisco perché li abbiano confrontati con degli Strike Eagle e non con degli Eagle da superiorità aerea. 

[Cosimo]

non è quello che avevano allestito per tamponare il pensionamento dell' f111?

[stev66]

Probabilmente anche in duello simulato con un cr42 avremmo lo stesso risultato ☺

[Martin Venator]

18 minuti fa, Cosimo dice:

non è quello che avevano allestito per tamponare il pensionamento dell' f111?

 

Ok, ma perché confrontarlo con la versione da strike e non con quella da superiorità aerea? Solo perché l'F-15E ha l'AESA? Non l'hanno upgradato anche sui C/D? 

16 minuti fa, stev66 dice:

Probabilmente anche in duello simulato con un cr42 avremmo lo stesso risultato ☺

 

Se ho capito quello che intendi...