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F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

reuters.com

71–80 of 96 posts

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home in on the loudest RF source and try to ram it?

they don't have the engine and maneuverability to reach that speed. if they had, you'd have to have the same kind of logistic and complexity as a fighter craft, negating most of the above points about drones. missiles don't have the same restrictions because they don't have to have anything in the way of performance as loiter time or target search system or payloads. what you're thinking of are Anti Radiation missile…

[deleted]

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#72
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What all is it supposed to do beyond parts orders?

In a system like that, ordering parts is one of the least important elements. It covers things like tracking wear&tear of components so that you know when to replace parts, and more importantly, know when to schedule repairs - it's crucial that you have well-planned maintenance that ensures maximum availability of aircraft, so you need to stagger them - which is non-trivial to do. That's probably the "MVP" level, whi…

Your detailed comment is highly appreciated.

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>In practice, the US has already demonstrated that its primary airpower projection is via unmanned systems, the manned combat aircraft is the mounted cavalry c. 1920. 1. The US hasn't had to overcome a first-rate Integrated Air Defense System since the 1970s. UAVs, while hard to detect due to their small RCS, have extremely poor overall survivability. It's part of what makes them so cheap. 2. The US is rarely flying…

If history is any indication, the future of air power will be three years of absolutely terrible strategies after the next war starts, where the wrong weapons are being manufactured and the right weapons are being deployed incorrectly, then followed by one month of sanity which sets the military doctrine for the next two decades of peace, to remain in place as it becomes obsolete again...

[deleted]

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#74
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What all is it supposed to do beyond parts orders?

In a system like that, ordering parts is one of the least important elements. It covers things like tracking wear&tear of components so that you know when to replace parts, and more importantly, know when to schedule repairs - it's crucial that you have well-planned maintenance that ensures maximum availability of aircraft, so you need to stagger them - which is non-trivial to do. That's probably the "MVP" level, whi…

Ordering parts should be a fairly simple thing to get right in comparison to all the other things the system should do. And yet...it failed at that.

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#75
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a system like that, ordering parts is one of the least important elements. It covers things like tracking wear&tear of components so that you know when to replace parts, and more importantly, know when to schedule repairs - it's crucial that you have well-planned maintenance that ensures maximum availability of aircraft, so you need to stagger them - which is non-trivial to do. That's probably the "MVP" level, whi…

Ordering parts should be a fairly simple thing to get right in comparison to all the other things the system should do. And yet...it failed at that.

True, I think back with the unnamed project I mentioned, we had an idea to do basic automation for that, a button that would send a message on JMS to another system that would print it for the mechanics or in future pass it over to procurement directly.

But we were stuck moving what was supposed to be just deployment into "actually useful for something" state, including rewriting more and more of the code (because L-M license forbid us from modifying their code...)

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#76
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few EMP bursts can demolish the cloud, at least as we civilians know it.

How do you get EMP bursts powerful enough to do that?

Miles of copper wire, thick titanium tube, large neodymium magnet, and C4. The hard part is the simulations/experimental design of the titanium part such that the exploding C4 and melting wire don't disintegrate the whole device before the magnet has had a chance to pass through the whole coil.

Last time I did the math though, you'd only get a few tens of kilometers of effect radius with an 20ft shipping container sized device so realistically, EMPs are only deployable using nuclear weapons detonated in the atmosphere.

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home in on the loudest RF source and try to ram it?

they don't have the engine and maneuverability to reach that speed. if they had, you'd have to have the same kind of logistic and complexity as a fighter craft, negating most of the above points about drones. missiles don't have the same restrictions because they don't have to have anything in the way of performance as loiter time or target search system or payloads. what you're thinking of are Anti Radiation missile…

I know it's far-fetched, but what I was thinking about is if the F-35 is operating in CAS mode or otherwise flies through the area drones are in, then as long as the fighter is flying towards the drones, they may have a shot at placing themselves in front of the fighter, hoping the pilot will be distracted enough to ram them.

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#79
post #6

The functioning or non-functioning of the logistics system for the F-35 is largely irrelevant, as just demonstrated Lockheed is paid whether it works or not; and non-functioning is much safer for the program, as non-flying F-35s are safe from combat and accidents. In fact, low availability just provides an excuse for the Air Force to demand additional budget for aircraft. This isn't so much a combat system as a corpo…

>>In practice, the US has already demonstrated that its primary airpower projection is via unmanned systems, the manned combat aircraft is the mounted cavalry c. 1920. 1. The US hasn't had to overcome a first-rate Integrated Air Defense System since the 1970s. UAVs, while hard to detect due to their small RCS, have extremely poor overall survivability. It's part of what makes them so cheap. 2. The US is rarely flying…

these combat drones are manned, the human is just out in an air conditioned office building in nevada. there’s no reason you’d put someone at risk in a $150M fighter when you could bring 4-5 unmanned fighters with similar weapons platforms. i don’t think there’s any future with combat pilots flying top gun style

Re: F-35 logistics system to be reinvented and renamed, official says

#80
post #6

The functioning or non-functioning of the logistics system for the F-35 is largely irrelevant, as just demonstrated Lockheed is paid whether it works or not; and non-functioning is much safer for the program, as non-flying F-35s are safe from combat and accidents. In fact, low availability just provides an excuse for the Air Force to demand additional budget for aircraft. This isn't so much a combat system as a corpo…

>>In practice, the US has already demonstrated that its primary airpower projection is via unmanned systems, the manned combat aircraft is the mounted cavalry c. 1920. 1. The US hasn't had to overcome a first-rate Integrated Air Defense System since the 1970s. UAVs, while hard to detect due to their small RCS, have extremely poor overall survivability. It's part of what makes them so cheap. 2. The US is rarely flying…

Thank you for correcting a common (HN/SW) perspective I've seen recently. "Software will fix all problems, everywhere"
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