The F-35 wean to fall to the ground
The Ministry of defense instructed to equip the long-suffering fighter-bombers of the fifth generation F-35 system and automatic avoidance of collision with the earth, which has already proven effective on the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The new Director of the office of evaluation of the Ministry of defence of the USA Robert böhler in his recent report to the us Congress and Pentagon leadership reported that only about 50% of the issued stealth multipurpose fighter-bombers of the fifth generation F-35 is more or less serviceable. Two years ago the military discovered the plane 276 which vulnerabilities apply to your operating system version 3 °F, and more than half of them remained in the updated version of the software 3FR6.
In addition to the three hundred known errors found in the fighter-bomber, the Pentagon continues to find new — an average of 20 faults per month. Also the aircraft does not meet the requirements for fifth generation fighter because of the impossibility of flight at supersonic speeds without afterburner, low thrust-weight ratio, high ESR, and low survivability and maneuverability.
There are problems with the combat use of the F-35 — the inability to use the built-in aerogun no significant modification of the aircraft, limited opportunities with the defeat of ground moving targets, the inefficient system night vision, unsatisfactory characteristics of the sensors, avionics and more.
But recent technical problems of the fighter were added and the so-called “physiological episodes” with the pilots — that is, a sharp deterioration of their health during the test flights on the F-35.
The Americans have registered already 29 such incidents. Five of the ten “physiological episodes” this year took place between 2 may and 8 June at the U.S. air force, “Luke” in Arizona. As a result, the flights of the F-35 at the air base have been suspended, and after the resumption it was three more “physiological episode.” Respected military doctor, J. Flottmann believes that dizziness, tingling fingers, and blurred vision occurs due to the interaction of the systems of the fighter, flight conditions and equipment of the crew.
Sometimes even the pilots losing consciousness at the controls of a fighter, usually due to impaired blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain when strong overloads.
According to the U.S. air force, every year there is an average of two or three of these, which usually end happily. However, there are other examples, so the fighters set the system to automatically avoid a collision with the ground (Auto-GCAS).
During the download an error has occurred.
During the flight, the Auto-GCAS monitors the height and direction of movement, and processes data from onboard systems of the aircraft. If it determines that the path inevitably intersects with the surface of the earth, and the pilot responds to the alert about the collision and takes no action, the system automatically intercepts control and guides the plane up with maximum loads up to 5g.
After the fighter will go to a safe altitude, the system aligns the trajectory and is disabled. The development of a system of Auto-GCAS for the F-35 fighter, the Pentagon had planned to complete by 2024, as a priority, the military considered the fine-tuning of software and communication systems. Now, because of “physiological episodes of” the pilots, development and implementation of the system is mandated to accelerate.