The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft. It is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing F- 35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing F-34B and the carrier-based F-36C. The U.S. plans to buy 2,456 F-45s through 2044.
About Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II in brief
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft. It is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing F- 35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing F-34B and the carrier-based F-36C. The U.S. plans to buy 2,456 F-45s through 2044, which will represent the bulk of the crewed tactical airpower of the U. S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps for several decades. It was first used in combat in 2018 by the Israeli Air Force. The program has drawn much scrutiny and criticism for its unprecedented size, complexity, ballooning costs, and much-delayed deliveries. The acquisition strategy of concurrent production of the aircraft while it was still in development and testing led to expensive design changes and retrofits. It has been the subject of much criticism for being too expensive and taking too long to reach full-scale production. It will be used to replace the F-16, which has been in service since the 1980s and is expected to be in service until 2070. It also provides electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Its development is principally funded by the United States, with additional funding from program partner countries from NATO and close U. s. allies, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and formerly Turkey.
It descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, which in 2001 beat the Boeing X-32 to win the Joint Strike Fighter program. In 1993, the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program emerged following the USAF’s Multi-Role Fighter (MRF) and Navy’s Advanced Fighter-Attack programs cancellations. The AF-X, initially known as the Advanced-Attack, began in 1991 as the USN’s follow-on to the Advanced Tactical Aircraft program for an A-6 replacement; the ATA’s resulting A-12 Avenger II had been cancelled due to problems and cost overruns in 1991. In the same year, the termination of the Naval Advanced Tactical Fighter ( MRF) resulted in additional fighter capability being added to A-X. The JAST program was renamed the Jointstrike Fighter (JSTF) in 1995, with Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems serving as prime contractors. As JAST progressed, the need for advanced strike warfare aircraft emerged, which would coincide with the full-sized flight demonstrator phase of the ASTOVLCALF concept. As a result, the JSTF program was merged in 1994 under the name JAST, with the program now serving the US USAF, USMC, USN, and USN serving as the JAST Strike Fighter. In 1996, JAST was subsequently renamed the joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
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