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Old 11th Nov 2014, 15:02
  #91 (permalink)  
KenV
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
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I thought I'd add a few points related to an emergency field arrestment hook vs a carrier arresting hook.

In a carrier arrestment, the trap is made with the aircraft essentially still flying and the engine(s) brought to MIL power during arrestment. In an emergency field arrestment the airplane has already landed and has usually slowed considerably with the engine(s) at idle. The forces and dynamics involved in each case are very different. The design is therefore necessarily very different.

With regard to F-35 Sustainability (which includes reliability, maintainability, supportability, and some other factors). The F-35 will be very expensive to sustain. The reliability numbers are not good, with the plane needing LOTS of maintenance, much more than the Hornet. Maintainability is also not as good. Relative to the Hornet the F-35 will require much more maintenance and that maintenance will be significantly more difficult to perform. That's at least partly the price of stealth. Supportability is problematic and the Navy is still struggling with how to resolve that. For example, the F-35's F-135 engine cannot be brought aboard the carrier by the COD bird. So at-sea engine replenishment is going to be a problem. Below decks storage and engine cradles/carts cannot handle the F-135 engine. It's the price the Navy pays for the airplane having one really big engine vs two smaller engines. And its no wonder that USN is planning on having many more Super Hornets in its future air wings than Lightnings
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