News Review: First F-35 mission system test aircraft flies | ADM May 2010

1 May 2010

The first mission systems-equipped F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, a STOVL F-35B, has flown for the first time at Lockheed Martin's Ft Worth facility, marking the debut of what the company describes as "the most powerful and comprehensive sensor package ever to fly in a fighter".

The F-35's full mission system suite will be common to all three variants and includes: Northrop Grumman AN/APG-81 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar; Lockheed Martin Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS); Northrop Grumman Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO-DAS); BAE Systems Electronic Warfare (EW) system; VSI Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS); Northrop Grumman Integrated Communication, Navigation & Identification (ICNI); Lockheed Martin Integrated Core Processor (ICP); Honeywell Inertial Navigation System (INS); Raytheon Global Positioning System (GPS).

The F-35 BF-4 will begin testing with the AESA radar, EW, ICNI, ICP, GPS, INS and HMDS, then integrate the remaining sensors as flight testing progresses.

F-35A and -C test aircraft will be similarly mission systems-equipped, with mission systems commonality among the three variants near 100 per cent.

High avionics commonality is intended to be an enabler of rapid training, interoperability, and lower production and support costs.

The F-35's avionics have already undergone more than 100,000 hours of laboratory and flight testing, including sensor-fusion testing in the program's Cooperative Avionics Test Bed, a highly modified 737 airliner incorporating the entire F-35 mission systems suite, including an F-35 cockpit.

F-35 software has demonstrated remarkable stability, and sensors have met or exceeded performance predictions, says Lockheed.

BF-4 will join three other F-35Bs in the flight test program at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

It is equipped with Block 0.5 software which incorporates air-to-air search and synthetic aperture radar modes, IFF transponder, integrated UHF/VHF radios, electronic warfare radar warning receiver, and navigation functions.