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No, he is. Talked to him (Vice Admiral Venlet) yesterday.

Is Vice Admiral Venlet retiring? Being forced out? Or just regular Navy to AF rotation to head the JSF program?

What is the general assessment of Venlet's leadership during the JSF tenue?

Edited by Kei Lau
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VADM Venlet is leaving on the normal rotation. Believe it or not, it's been two years since Heinz was fired.

I think his legacy will be that he brought a lot of transparency too the program. Heinz started it, but wasn't around long enough to see it through. The prior PEOs seemed to be playing "Imp in the bottle" with the program, getting their three star ticket punched and moving on before the whole mess collapsed.

Keep in mind Venlet was going to retire out of NAVAIR before getting tapped for the job.

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Is Vice Admiral Venlet retiring? Being forced out? Or just regular Navy to AF rotation to head the JSF program?

What is the general assessment of Venlet's leadership during the JSF tenue?

He's not being forced out. But he was cryptic on his future plans... I think the general consensus here in DC is that the Admiral got this program on the right track-at least as much on the right track as humanly possible. I know General Bogdan, he'll be a damn good program manager.

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VADM Venlet is leaving on the normal rotation. Believe it or not, it's been two years since Heinz was fired.

I think his legacy will be that he brought a lot of transparency too the program. Heinz started it, but wasn't around long enough to see it through. The prior PEOs seemed to be playing "Imp in the bottle" with the program, getting their three star ticket punched and moving on before the whole mess collapsed.

Keep in mind Venlet was going to retire out of NAVAIR before getting tapped for the job.

He's not being forced out. But he was cryptic on his future plans... I think the general consensus here in DC is that the Admiral got this program on the right track-at least as much on the right track as humanly possible. I know General Bogdan, he'll be a damn good program manager.

It is very good to hear this positive news and credit given to where credit is due.

I still feel that it was so unfair to General Heinz who brought the problem at JSF to light and gave the program a chance to get back on track. Yet, he was "fired"! It was rumored that Heinz had a run-in with his boss Gates about the second engine program.

If Gates really wants to stop the second engine program, his arguments will be severely undercut on the Hill should the programs top official be stating in the best Marine fashion the simple point that has driven lawmakers from the beginning to fund the program having a second company competing against the main engine provider will force better performance from the main contractor and lead to lower costs.

Edited by Kei Lau
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This blog is interesting, but confusing.

British Forces Broadcasting Service is reporting that the Tornado GR4 bomber will leave RAF service in March 2019. The Joint Strike Fighter will effectively replace it, although no decision will be taken on how many new planes to buy for another three years, according to the broadcasting service.

In addition it is unclear whether the JSF will be ready to take over from the Tornado in 2019. The Typhoon will also be available to the RAF if the F-35 is not ready for operations, according to other reports.

First, using the JSF as a bomber will ruin its stealth feature. Why risk a higher cost airplane for general ground support? The RAF current Typhoon were held back from ground support role due to cost consideration.

It sounds like RAF is considering new JSF order for the Tornado replacement. If the JSF is not ready for operational delivery in 2019, will RAF cancel the part of order for Tornado replacement and get Typhoon instead?

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First, using the JSF as a bomber will ruin its stealth feature. Why risk a higher cost airplane for general ground support?

It will only ruin it's stealth capabilities if they need to service the target with more than two internally carried JDAM's.

As far as using something like this for general ground support, I've always thought it was massive overkill to use an F-35 for this role. However, it does allow you to reduce the number of different airframes in your inventory. That approach will keep costs down. Until you lose a $200 million jet on a strafing run, shot down by bad guy with a $150 AK-47.

I'm pretty sure that is why the US in Vietnam did not use the hyper-expensive, sophisticated F-111 for close air support. Instead opting for cheap, rugged (and to be honest, somewhat disposable) A-1's, A-37's, T-28's.

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This blog is interesting, but confusing.

British Forces Broadcasting Service is reporting that the Tornado GR4 bomber will leave RAF service in March 2019. The Joint Strike Fighter will effectively replace it, although no decision will be taken on how many new planes to buy for another three years, according to the broadcasting service.

In addition it is unclear whether the JSF will be ready to take over from the Tornado in 2019. The Typhoon will also be available to the RAF if the F-35 is not ready for operations, according to other reports.

First, using the JSF as a bomber will ruin its stealth feature. Why risk a higher cost airplane for general ground support? The RAF current Typhoon were held back from ground support role due to cost consideration.

It sounds like RAF is considering new JSF order for the Tornado replacement. If the JSF is not ready for operational delivery in 2019, will RAF cancel the part of order for Tornado replacement and get Typhoon instead?

Dont lose any sleep over it, I am guessing the UK will be changing their minds and changing them back again, until 2019.

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I know a lot of you have been waiting for this day:

A wonderful milestone, indeed.

Was the weapon bay doors open all the time during the test? I did not see it open and close in the movie.

Also, what is the purpose of the external missile on a wing pylon?

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A wonderful milestone, indeed.

Was the weapon bay doors open all the time during the test? I did not see it open and close in the movie.

Also, what is the purpose of the external missile on a wing pylon?

Normally an external missile on a wing pylon is so they can shoot someone down... ;)

But that was a dummy. I suspect they'll be flying the heck out of the AIM-9X so they have it fully characterized by the time it comes online. Think nabout it--the JSF will be carrying AIM-9X the vast majority of the time, so might as well get used to it now.

The bay doors were kept open so they could have a consistent, steady airflow across the bay. They have instrumented the heck out of it to make sure they fully characterize the separation aerodynamics. Looked to me like a perfect job given the flight conditions. Big day indeed.

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Neu, was that an accidental double-post on the news link, or were you intending to post two different websites?

I was just that enthusiastic that I had to post it twice.

Actually was going to directly post the youtube site, but its already linked in the PR.

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Also, what is the purpose of the external missile on a wing pylon?

Maybe there were cameras attached to it? In weapon drop tests with other aircraft, they attach cameras to the aircraft wing itself, but maybe they don't want to go drilling holes in their expensive stealth skin.

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The could have attached cameras on any of the other hard points, not sure why they would carry a dummy missile to mount a camera...

Simplest explanation is they want to have the aircraft in a reasonable configuration for the bomb drop, and as it is likelier to drop bombs with AIM-9X than not, it makes sense to have the AIM-9X mounted.

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..or a tight test schedule forces them to test captive AIM-9X carriage at the same time as bomb separation tests?

Actually had this conversation with some of our test team that are refugee's from JSF (started as a different topic). The basic answer is that there are more test points with ordnance/heavy aircraft weights than without at this point that unless the flight requires the aircraft to be clean, it'll have weapons loaded. Similary (though not visible) most B flights have had internal loads, exception being envelope expansion and the sea trials to date. Next round the aircraft will have representative ordnance.

HTH

Spongebob

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Slightly different angle ...

web_120808-O-GR159-001.jpg

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXTENT RIVER, Md. (Aug. 8, 2012) F-35B test aircraft BF-3, flown by Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Levin, completed the first aerial weapons release for any variant of the aircraft. BF-3 dropped an inert 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition over an Atlantic Ocean test range from an internal weapons bay. The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter designed for use by U.S. Marine Corps, as well as F-35 international partners in the United Kingdom and Italy. The F-35B is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings to enable air power projection from amphibious ships, ski-jump aircraft carriers and expeditionary airfields. The F-35B is undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River, Md., and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., before delivery to the fleet. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy Lockheed Martin/Andy Wolfe/Released)

>>> Hi Res <<<

As one can see, it had another AIM-9X loaded as well ...

-Gregg

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