Not yet unfortunately.Melchior Timmers wrote: ↑05 Aug 2021, 12:29 Anyone more info on the tie-ups of the buno - RAF serials of BK-22 and further?
TIA
F-16.net has..Bjorn wrote: ↑06 Aug 2021, 11:47Not yet unfortunately.Melchior Timmers wrote: ↑05 Aug 2021, 12:29 Anyone more info on the tie-ups of the buno - RAF serials of BK-22 and further?
TIA
Greets,
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and new Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall have a history, and some parts of it look to be repeating themselves.
Kendall, now in his third week leading the Department of the Air Force, oversaw DOD weapons buying as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics from 2012 to 2016. For the two years before that, he served as principal deputy undersecretary and acting undersecretary in the same office.
Now, Kendall said, the Pentagon seems to be in a similar situation: The Air Force should be buying the F-35 that it needs—specifically the Block 4 upgrade with Technology Refresh 3, “which is having problems,” Kendall said.
TR3 includes a new core processor, a radar upgrade, and a new cockpit display, along with software updates to enhance electronic warfare capabilities. This refresh would “unlock” the jet’s Block 4 improvements. Because the Block 4 version is what the Air Force wants, negotiations have focused on fewer aircraft over the upcoming production lots. The F-35 Joint Program Office has said the TR3 upgrade will come in Lot 15, set for 2023, “as required.”
“It’s critically important to the success of that program and the capability of that platform that we get the Technology Refresh 3 fielded into it, get the Block 4 upgrade fielded,” Kendall said. His acquisition philosophy: to get “meaningful military capability in the hands of operators. That’s what it’s all about. And we need to get to Block 4.”
The F-35 still is a “dramatically improved capability” over fourth-generation aircraft, Kendall said. The jet represents a “game-changing tactical air warfare capability. And it is expensive, compared to much earlier systems, which are much simpler and less capable.”
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