TR Turkiye's F-35 Project and Discussions

Bogeyman 

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This Is the F-36 Kingsnake. It Could Be the Air Force's Next Fighter Jet.​


  • The U.S. Air Force has expressed interest in a new, non-stealthy fighter jet to replace the F-16.
  • Several aviation experts have banded together and invented a new jet out of thin air.
  • The result, the F-36 Kingsnake, would use the F-22’s engines, place less of an emphasis on stealth, and use digital engineering.
Last month, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown caused a stir when he announced the service was looking into buying a brand-new fighter jet to help replace the F-16 Viper. Such a jet doesn’t exist—yet—but thanks to new digital engineering techniques, it could actually enter service before 2030.

Now, the alternative aviation magazine Hush-Kit has brought experts together to design that potential F-16 replacement. The result: the F-36 Kingsnake lightweight fighter.

Hush-Kit huddled with aviation authorities Stephen Mcparlin and James Smith, who helped bring aircraft like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Eurofighter Typhoon to life. Then, illustrator Andy Godfrey from the Teasel Studio took their ideas and created this concept art for the F-36:

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F-36 Kingsnake, side view.

Hush-Kit used Gen. Brown’s specifications—a lightweight, inexpensive fighter jet that doesn’t emphasize stealth (making it a “fifth-gen-minus” design)—to design the F-36.

The average age of the Air Force’s 783 F-16C fighter jets is 28.7 years, making a 20-year development period for a new jet out of the question. Instead, experts wanted a fast design process that froze the plane’s specs within one year and relied on simple construction techniques, but also utilized advanced technologies such as 3D printing if it could get the fighter off assembly lines faster.

Re-using existing technologies would speed up the process. For example, the F-36 uses the F-22 Raptor’s F119 afterburning turbofan engine to achieve a top speed of Mach 2. The Kingsnake is equipped with an AN/APG-83 advanced electronically scanned array radar— the same one used in the latest version of the F-16—and an infrared sensor system derived from the Legion electro-optical targeting pod.

A “Luddite Czar” would prevent new technologies from creeping into the jet, drawing out the jet’s development time and increasing the likelihood Kingsnake would fall behind.

Like the F-16 it would replace, the Kingsnake would be a multi-role fighter jet capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The jet would carry missiles and guided bombs in internal bays, but as a non-stealthy plane, it would pack both on wing-mounted external hard points. The Kingsnake would also a gun, making it capable of strafing attacks against enemy ground forces.

The guiding principles behind the F-36 are speed of development, affordability, and the ability to incorporate new tech at a later date. “The F-35 is a Ferrari, the F-22 a Bugatti Chiron—the United States Air Force needs a Nissan 300ZX,” Hush-Kit’s Joe Coles tells Pop Mech.

Could the Air Force build something like the F-36 Kingsnake? Yes. The real question: Will it?

The requirement for a sub-5th generation fighter isn’t set in stone yet, but the Air Force will make up its mind by 2023.

Given that the Air Force recently admitted to designing and building its secret sixth-generation fighter jet in just one year, it could build a plane like the F-36 fairly quickly.

As for the F-36’s name, kingsnakes are North American snakes that live up to 30 years, which bodes well for the F-36’s service life. Kingsnakes are so named because they have a habit of eating other snakes—a fitting moniker for a fighter designed to replace the Viper.
 

Bogeyman 

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A Marine F-35B Fighter Jet Accidentally Shot Itself With Its Own Gun Pod​


The underside of a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighter was significantly damaged when a round fired from its underbelly 25mm gun pod exploded shortly after leaving the muzzle of the cannon mounted within. The accident, which occurred over the Yuma Range Complex in Arizona earlier this month, did not injure the pilot of the jet, who was able to bring the aircraft safely back to base.

Military.com was first to report on the incident, which took place on March 12, 2021, during a close air support training sortie at night. The Marine Corps did not identify the unit to which the F-35B was assigned, but said it was among those based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, which is collocated with Yuma International Airport. This base is home to elements of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, including multiple squadrons equipped with F-35Bs, as well as other aircraft.

"The mishap did not result in any injury to personnel, and an investigation of the incident is currently taking place," Marine Corps Captain Andrew Wood, a spokesman for the service, told Military.com. Still, the Naval Safety Center, which also handles such matters for the Marines, categorized the accident as a Class A mishap.

Class A is the most severe level in the U.S. military's mishap scale, which covers incidents in the air and on the ground. For aviation accidents, Class A mishaps are defined as those resulting in at least $2.5 million in property damage, or the total loss of the aircraft, or one or more individuals being killed or permanently disabled.

The specifics of how this particular mishap occurred are unclear. The F-35B, as well as the F-35C, can only carry the 25mm GAU-22/A Gatling-type automatic cannon in an underbelly pod, known as the GPU-9/A, while the F-35A has this weapon installed internally. The first live-fire tests of the gun pod took place in 2016. Despite concerns about the accuracy of the weapon in the past, it has since been cleared for at least some level of operational use, notably being fitted to Marine F-35Bs supporting the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia between December 2020 and January 2021.

Military.com reported that the particular type of round that blew up underneath the F-35B in this incident was a PGU-32/B SAPHEI-T type. This stands for semi-armor-piercing high-explosive incendiary-tracer. When it functions properly, impacting a target triggers a fuze with a slight delay in the nose of the PGU-32/B's projectile, which then sets off an incendiary element and a small explosive charge inside its main body. The resulting detonation then also spreads a small amount of zirconium, a compound that spontaneously ignites on contact with the air and burns at a very high temperature, causing additional damage.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS), which, among other contractors, makes PGU-32/B ammunition, says on its website that these rounds have "inherent delay function for improved terminal effectiveness" and "improved graze sensitivity." What this means is that the fuze in these rounds are designed to give the projectiles time to penetrate through some amount of armor or other "barriers" before detonating, for maximum effect, while the fuzes themselves are constructed in such a way to help ensure they go off even when they only glance a target, rather than hit it directly.

While we don't know, an early detonation of the projectile could certainly point to a malfunction of some kind with the fuze. Of course, the investigation could well turn up other points of failure that led to this mishap, as well. It's not clear right now if the round that exploded in this incident was even deliberately fired or if there might have been some broader weapons malfunction.

Accidental discharges of aircraft guns are certainly not unheard of. In November 2020, the 30mm M230 cannon on a British Army AH-64D Apache went off during ground maintenance following an inflight weapons malfunction. Thankfully, the round in question was a practice type with an inert projectile. Any results of the investigation into that incident have yet to be publicly disclosed.

In 2018, a Belgian F-16AM Viper fighter jet's 20mm M61 Vulcan cannon let loose a string of rounds during an apparent inspection. That weapon was loaded with high-explosive ammunition and the incident left another F-16AM destroyed and a third damaged, as well as two ground crew personnel injured.

While the exact extent of the damage to the F-35B involved in this recent mishap remains to be seen, there may be a silver lining of sorts to this event in that it could provide useful information about the jet's ability to withstand battle damage. As already noted, the jet was able to return to base after the round blew up.

No matter what, thankfully the exploding cannon round did not injure the pilot or anyone else.
 

Yasar_TR

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Very interesting that US Navy is keepin it’s 124 Harrier II Jump Jets in operational readiness till 2029, rather than replacing them with the F35B’s that they are so keen to sell to their allies!
They are actually modernising them to accommodate newer weapons like Aim120-C and Aim9x .
 

Fuzuli NL

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Very interesting that US Navy is keepin it’s 124 Harrier II Jump Jets in operational readiness till 2029, rather than replacing them with the F35B’s that they are so keen to sell to their allies!
They are actually modernising them to accommodate newer weapons like Aim120-C and Aim9x .
That'll prove more cost-effective than operating the F-35 in the long run.
 

Stimpy75

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I got someone in a discord group who works at Lockheed on the F-35 program as "data mencer" and asked him if they found replacement for the parts we build, the answer was simply yes but couldn't get into more details because of opsec
 

Stimpy75

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The pandemic actually helped with that because the slowdown in production due to COVID meant that the extra TAI parts in inventory lasted a longer time and there was some space to find alternate suppliers

This is what he added
 

Vergennes

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U.S. locks Turkey out of F-35 fighter jet program​


Now even if Turkey gets rid of the S400 it won't be able to re-integrate the F35 project.
 

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U.S. locks Turkey out of F-35 fighter jet program​


Now even if Turkey gets rid of the S400 it won't be able to re-integrate the F35 project.

Not end of the world they were going to kick us out ages ago.
 

Fuzuli NL

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I'm a big fan of the F-35 but the more I read about it the colder I've become to the idea of getting an overpriced ipad with a tracking device and so many strings attached that you can't operate it here or there.
Since that rediculous and erroneous claim that the S-400 would decipher the codes of this aircraft, it was clear that our beloved allies have been looking for any excuse to throw Turkey out of the JSF project. Coincidentally Israel had had voiced concerns about Turks aquiring such a game-changing weapon while at the same time, they happily are ready to sell it to some undemocratic regimes in return for normalising relations with Israel.
The writing is on the wall. We only need to focus on our projects.
 

CAN_TR

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Let's be honest it just would turn into another backmail instrument... Turkey should go to the court and demand all the invested money back.
 

Ryder

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Turkish F35 fanboys like 2.ordu from twitter are crying about the F35.

Somebody should knock some sense into them I hope he joins this forum one day. Warfare is not static it changes as much as I want the F35 i dont see it as end of the world.

In warfare anything goes whatever tool there is you use it. Nothing lasts forever I mean we started off with clubs and spears now look at it we have computers and drones.

Warfare does not stay the same it evolves.
 

Yasar_TR

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Let's be honest it just would turn into another backmail instrument... Turkey should go to the court and demand all the invested money back.
Turkey’s defence ministry’s counterpart here is Lockheed Martin. They will be asked to pay up for the undelivered planes and the monies they have received. Also for non-fulfilling a contract they are liable for compensating us. That would however occur in a perfect world. But still as a respectable company. I can not see LM not returning our money. Compensation will be a different story however, as there is a clause in the original contract for not being able to have a recourse due to non compliance to contract conditions.
 

Ryder

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I'm a big fan of the F-35 but the more I read about it the colder I've become to the idea of getting an overpriced ipad with a tracking device and so many strings attached that you can't operate it here or there.
Since that rediculous and erroneous claim that the S-400 would decipher the codes of this aircraft, it was clear that our beloved allies have been looking for any excuse to throw Turkey out of the JSF project. Coincidentally Israel had had voiced concerns about Turks aquiring such a game-changing weapon while at the same time, they happily are ready to sell it to some undemocratic regimes in return for normalising relations with Israel.
The writing is on the wall. We only need to focus on our projects.

I always said this before Israelis and the Jews are just as bad as the Arabs. In the Middle East the Arabs, Jews and the Iranians would eat us alive if given a chance. We lost the F35 because Israel wants to be top dog in the region.

Sick of seeing some Turks constantly fanboying for Israel. Even using bullshit history myths of how the Jews never betrayed us or fought against us many examples like the Nili Spy ring and the Zion Mule Corps.

Turks need to start looking for their interests and stop letting this bs black and white cartoon film takeover our minds. We are alone.

No doubt Erdogan and the akp have done some dumb foreign policy choices but remember when us Turks start defending our interests this is when they start becoming hostile to you they want you to be their lackey.
 

Combat-Master

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Turkey produces 188 parts of the F135 engine, with the transition of the parts being produced elsewhere the projected price will increase by 3%
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Only 75% of the 188 parts of the F135 engine were transitioned to be produced at Pratt & Whitney
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Seems F-35 is getting costlier, wonder how much price of F-35 goes up once majority of the producers in Turkey stop F-35 parts production.

Thanks to @Turan Oguz
 

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