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The Joint Strike Fighter, the JSF, is being developed by
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for the US Air Force,
Navy and Marine Corps and the UK Royal Navy. The stealthy,
supersonic multi-role fighter is to be designated the F-35.
The JSF is being built in three variants: a conventional take-off
and landing aircraft (CTOL) for the US Air Force; a carrier
based variant (CV) for the US Navy; and a short take-off and
vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft for the US Marine Corps
and the Royal Navy. A 70 - 90% commonality is required for
all variants. The Concept Demonstration Phase of the programme
began in November 1996 with the award of contracts to two
consortia, led by Boeing Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. The
contracts involved the building of demonstrator aircraft for
three different configurations of JSF, with one of the two
consortia to be selected for the development and manufacture
of all three variants. In October 2001, an international team
led by Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract to build JSF.
An initial 22 aircraft will be built in the programs System
Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. Flight testing
will be carried out at Edwards Air Force Base, California,
and Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland. The fighter
is expected to enter service in 2008.
The requirement is for: USAF F-35A -air-to-ground strike aircraft,
(1763); USMC F-35B - STOVL strike fighter (480); UK RN F-35C
- STOVL strike fighter to replace Sea Harriers (60); US Navy
F-35C - first-day-of-war strike fighter to replace (480 aircraft).
If the JSF can secure this sort of volume of sale it should
be well placed to take over from the 'teen series of fighters
as the defacto standard Western type.In January 2001, the
UK MOD signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate
in the SDD (System Development and Demonstration) phase of
JSF. Following the contract award a number of other nations
have signed on to the SDD phase including Australia, Canada,
Denmark, Italy, Netherlands and Norway.
The aircraft has the usual features for a stealth aircraft,
blended wing and body, carefully selected sweep angles, incorporation
of RAM and other composite materials and internal weapons
bays. The weapons bays are located beneath the fuselage forward
of the main undercarriage. Each bay has two hardpoints for
a variety of weapons including AIM-9, AIM-120 and JDAM. For
lower intensity situations where stealth is not such an issue
the aircraft can also be fitted with external stores pylons
for fuel or weapons. The CTOL and CV variants of the aircraft
will also be fitted with a new 27mm cannon. Other differences
between the variants are the lift fan for the STOVL variant
and structural strengthening and a larger wing for the CV
variant. The lift fan displaces some of the fuel in the STOVL
variant and reduces their range slightly while the larger
wing of the CV variant has the opposite effect.
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