The fact that a batch of "Lightning" fighters (F-35) recently received by the U.S. military were not equipped with radar is still causing controversy within the United States.

On the 11th, the U.S. "The Drive" website published an article acknowledging that there is indeed "indirect evidence" indicating that these F-35s did not have radar, but U.S. media insisted that even without radar, the aircraft would not affect their operational use.

In short, the "The Drive" website's point was: theoretically, as long as one aircraft in the formation activates its radar, other aircraft can share the radar data provided through the data link. Therefore, even if an aircraft does not have a radar, as long as it flies in coordination with another radar-equipped aircraft within the data link transmission range, it can still obtain the radar data generated by the radar.

The F-35 without radar can still be used theoretically

However, the risk of doing so is that the radar-equipped aircraft must maintain data sharing with the radarless aircraft at all times, which would greatly limit the flexibility of tactics.

Moreover, the lack of radar could bring another problem: radar is a core component of the aircraft's electronic warfare suite, capable of emitting narrow beams and extremely high power energy to enhance the aircraft's electronic attack capabilities. Therefore, without radar, the aircraft's ability to defend itself using the electromagnetic spectrum and to protect its allies would be severely weakened.

The direct trigger for this scandal involving the U.S. "Lightning" fighter jets was the serious delay in the development of the next-generation radar (AN/APG-85) by Northrop Grumman for the aircraft - this advanced active phased array radar based on gallium nitride technology is one of the core sensors in the aircraft upgrade package (Block 4), intended to replace the old radar (AN/APG-81).

This photo is not of the F-35 without radar, but rather an accident in 2024

However, due to technical issues related to power, cooling, and integration testing, the radar delivery schedule has been repeatedly delayed. Meanwhile, the fuselage interfaces and avionics architecture of the newly produced aircraft have already been adjusted for the new radar, making the old radar incompatible.

Yet, it's quite absurd that Lockheed Martin, the main manufacturer of the aircraft, ignored the radar delay issue from Northrop Grumman in order to fulfill the production contract, choosing to "force deliver" the aircraft without installing the radar.

Even more absurdly, this practice of "delivering first and then supplementing parts" is not something new. According to the U.S. "Defense News," the 17th batch of aircraft received by the U.S. military last year faced the risk of missing radar, and even the 18th, 19th, and 20th batches in the coming years may not solve the radar delay problem.

Lockheed Martin never cares whether Northrop Grumman has delivered the radar or not

The report stated that Lockheed Martin had privately proposed to the U.S. military to modify the fuselages of already delivered or currently produced aircraft to temporarily make them compatible with the old radar.

On the surface, this is to solve the problem of the missing radar on the aircraft, but people familiar with the U.S. defense procurement process should be able to see that once the U.S. military adopts this solution, Lockheed Martin would be able to get a new modification order and related funding.

In fact, the U.S. Government Accountability Office had already issued a special report on the delays in software and hardware updates of the "Lightning" fighter jets as early as 2024, detailing the repeated delays of the "Technical Update-3" upgrade package (TR-3) and the continuous delays in the delivery of the aircraft.

But it's unexpected that the problems pointed out in the report have not seen any improvement to date - not only is the radar delivery delayed, according to "The Drive" website, the U.S. military has long been forced to accept aircraft lacking certain key functions or components, and pilots can only train and use them under restricted conditions.

According to U.S. media, parts of different batches of F-35s are now no longer interchangeable

The U.S. media pointed out that in addition to external factors such as supply chain shortages, an important reason for the repeated problems in the delivery of the U.S. "Lightning" fighter jets is the Pentagon's long-term strategy of "parallel development," i.e., in order to save costs and time, the Pentagon often approves low-rate production before the design details of the aircraft are finalized.

The result is that instead of saving costs and time, it has created a lot of chaos - according to the U.S. media's account, parts from different batches of aircraft cannot even be interchanged, and the negative impact caused by this is still being felt today.



Original: toutiao.com/article/7605863485351723539/

Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself