Given the progress of the HAL Tejas, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to see any developments...
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Token
Senior Airman
^^^ This right here.
Most air traffic control centers rely on secondary radar (transponder response), that is true. However primary radar (real radar, relying on target return) still exists. So you still sometimes want the aircraft tracked for safety-of-flight purposes.
Plus there are hundreds, more likely thousands, of other radars in many benign airspaces. Things like weather radars, instrumentation radars, friendly military radars, university developmental and educational radars, etc, with the ability to see even "stealth" aircraft (how much less far they can see them than other targets is the only question). You have a super sophisticated aircraft that has a reduced RCS (Radar Cross Section), exactly how much the RCS is reduced is a closely guarded secret. Fly that thing around in friendly airspace and it would take about 15 minutes before someone, say a bored EE student working on a University developmental radar or something like that, to calculate the RCS.
If you are a radar operator / maintainer and you know the basic parameters of your radar, or have ever done an AGC curve of that radar against a known RCS target (such as a target sphere), you can use those parameters to calculate the RCS of any target you can track. Sure, there is the whole issue of aspect angle and the fact you are seeing / calculating a single aspect angle, but still, sensitive information. Enough "single aspect angles" and after a while you have a pretty complete picture.
I would bet very big sums of money that when the F-35 (or F-22, or B-2, or B-21) fly around in, for example, SoCal (or anyplace else they don't need to be hard to find), they fly augmented.
T!
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
A foreign object left inside an F-35 engine at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, in early 2023 caused nearly $4 million in damages, a recent Air Force accident investigation report revealed.
The item — a handheld flashlight — was sucked into the engine's air intake during a maintenance ground run on the night of March 15, Air & Space Forces Magazine first reported. The aircraft belonged to the 56th Fighter Wing.
During an idling procedure, a team of three maintainers started the engine without issue before going through typical checks, including idling for five minutes to monitor for fuel leaks.
It wasn't until the airmen turned off the engine that anything seemed amiss. During the shutdown, one maintainer noted "abnormal noises." None of the airmen were injured.
One of the maintainers carried out a tool inventory check after installing a "metering plug into an engine fuel line," the investigation noted. The process took place before another maintainer used the flashlight to carry out a "Before Operations Servicing" inspection, the report said.
Investigators determined that the maintainers' lack of adherence to standard cautionary items highlighted in the Joint Technical Data checklist before the run contributed to their leaving the flashlight behind.
Investigators also found that "complacency" related to the F-35′s Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, is partly to blame.
"The substantial number of checklists and difficulty in accessing the correct ones causes complacency when users reference the required maintenance procedures," the report noted.
Ultimately, the mishap damaged the aircraft's second stage rotor, third stage rotor, fifth stage rotor, sixth stage rotor, fuel nozzle, bypass duct, high pressure compressor, high pressure turbine and fan inlet variable vane, the report found.
In total, the estimated cost of damages associated with the accident came in at $3,933,106.
The report concluded that the inspecting maintainer "failed to clear the inlet of foreign objects after completing the required inspections for an engine run after they exited the aircraft inlet."
"Failure to complete checklist tasks resulted in a flashlight being left inside the inlet," the report said.
Misplaced flashlight in F-35 engine results in $4 million in damage
A handheld flashlight was sucked into the F-35's inlet engine during a maintenance ground run.
www.airforcetimes.com
Someone will be catching an extra deduction on his paycheck.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
A bad day at work. That one momentary lapse.
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
My MTI in Basic explained to us that shit like this is why they trained us to iron our underwear into exact 6" squares: "On a flightline, there is no room for mistakes."
cvairwerks
Senior Airman
Sounds like a combination of complacency, lackadaisical attitude and a willful failure to follow procedures. Beating into the brains of the newer kids in our operation about following procedures and not relying on memorizing stuff, makes for lots of frustration.
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
Checking inlets before startup was always done where I was stationed, it was almost last on the list.
We didn't get any $4 million flashlights, oddly enough.
cvairwerks
Senior Airman
In this case, it appears that whomever dove the inlet before the engine start, left the flashlight in there....
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
Yep. And it'll be his ass swinging in the wind.
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
Well, we do need to know how to fight stealthy opponents.
Here's a strange one that turned up on my feed this morning.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rvwskJTgYU
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rvwskJTgYU
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
COOL!
Token
Senior Airman
Similar to how it was put to us at one point, "if you cannot get folding your underwear correctly, I don't want you maintaining the defensive system that is going to save my ship".
T!
Thumpalumpacus
Captain
A Marine fighter jet that was being used for Top Gun training took a nosedive in January while parked at a Nevada Navy installation.
An F-35C Lighting II assigned to 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing's Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 311 "experienced an incident involving collapse of the nose landing gear" on Jan. 26 at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, Marine spokesman Capt. Stephanie Leguizamon said via email to Marine Corps Times on Tuesday.
No injuries were reported. The jet will return to service once it is repaired, Leguizamon said.
Often referred to as Top Gun, the elite Navy Fighter Weapons School teaches advanced air combat maneuvering tactics and techniques, according to the Navy.
The F-35C had been parked and shut down "following a routine training mission in support of the U.S. Navy's Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program," Leguizamon said.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
"It was like that when I got here."
cvairwerks
Senior Airman
Going to be interesting to see what caused that, especially since the gear folds forward.
