Inside the F-35 Lightning jet assembly line: Weapons and Warfare

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

HELLO AND WELCOME TO A SPECIAL EDITION OF WEAPONS AND WARFARE. FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M RYAN ROBERTSON, AND THIS WEEK, WE ARE COMING TO YOU FROM THE LOCKHEED MARTIN F-35 ASSEMBLY FACILITY IN FORT WORTH, TEXAS.
EVERY THREE DAYS, A NEW JET COMES OFF THE LINE AND HEADS TO THE NEXT PART OF ITS JOURNEY BEFORE EVENTUALLY BEING HANDED OVER TO ITS NEW OWNER.
SO TODAY, WE’RE GOING TO GET A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT THE WORLD’S PREMIER FIGHTER JET AND VISIT WITH SOME OF THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING IT FROM THE ASSEMBLY LINE TO THE FLIGHTLINE.DESPITE ITS STATUS AS THE PREMIER FIGHTER JET IN THE WORLD, THE F-35 IS ALREADY STEEPED IN HISTORY, STARTING WITH ITS NAME. DUBBED THE LIGHTNING TWO IN HONOR OF THE LOCKHEED P-38 LIGHTNING, A TWIN PISTON-ENGINED FIGHTER FLOWN BY THE ARMY AIR CORPS IN WORLD WAR TWO.

NEARLY FIFTY YEARS LATER, THE F-35 WOULD EVENTUALLY EMERGE FROM A JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PROGRAM THAT SOUGHT TO REPLACE THE F-16, THE F-A-18, THE A-10, THE F-ONE-17, AND THE HARRIER.

TO DO THAT ENGINEERS CAME UP WITH THREE VERSIONS OF THE SAME JET, ALL EMPLOYING STEALTH TECHNOLOGY.

FOR THE AIR FORCE THAT’S THE F-35-A, CAPABLE OF CONVENTIONAL TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS.

FOR THE MARINE CORPS IT’S THE F-35-B, DESIGNED FOR SHORT TAKEOFFS AND VERTICAL LANDINGS ON AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIPS.

FOR THE NAVY, IT’S THE F-35-C. BUILT FOR CARRIER BASED OPERATIONS.

IN 1997 LOCKHEED MARTIN AND BOEING WERE SELECTED FOR THE CONCEPT DEMONSTRATION PHASE OVER EFFORTS FROM McDONNEL DOUGLAS AND NORTHRUP GRUMMAN. ORIGINALLY CALLED THE X-35, THE LIGHTNING WENT UP AGAINST BOEING’S X-32.

BY OCTOBER 2001 THE D-O-D HAD SEEN ENOUGH. LOCKHEED MARTIN AND ITS X-35 WERE AWARDED A SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION CONTRACT. A LITTLE LESS THAN FIVE YEARS LATER THE FIRST F-35A ROLLED OFF THE FORT WORTH ASSEMBLY LINE.

A SIDE-BY-SIDE COM PARISON OF THE F-35 TO ITS CLOSEST COUSINS, THE FOURTH-GENERATION F-16 AND THE F/A-18 REVEALS SOME INTERESTING DETAILS.

IT’S ACTUALLY SLOWER THAN IT’S AIR FORCE PREDECESSOR.

IT HAS MORE RANGE THAN THE F-16, BUT LESS THAN THE F/A-18.

AND IT CAN CLIMB AS HIGH AS THE F/A-18, AND A LITTLE HIGHER THAN THE F-16.

BUT HERE’S WHY THE F-35 IS FLYING IN A CLASS ALL ITS OWN,

IT’S ARMED WITH A SUPERIOR SUITE OF SENSORS, WHEN COMBINED WITH SIX ONBOARD CAMERAS, GIVES THE PILOT A MUCH BIGGER PICTURE OF THE BATTLE SPACE.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, IT EMPLOYS STEALTH TECHNOLOGY. NOT ONLY IN EXTERIOR DESIGN, BUT ALL WEAPONS AND FUEL TANKS ARE INTERNAL. REDUCING IT’S RADAR SIGNAL SO MUCH THAT IT’S ESSENTIALLY A GHOST TO OPPOSITION FORCES.

WITH THREE VERSIONS REQUIRED TO FIT EACH BRANCH’S SPECIFIC NEEDS, IT WOULD TAKE NEARLY A DECADE OF TESTING BEFORE THE MARINE CORPS TOOK DELIVERY OF ITS FIRST F-35B. A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR LATER, THE AIR FORCE WOULD GET THE KEYS TO ITS INITIAL F-35A. AND IN FEBRUARY OF 2019, THE NAVY RECEIVED ITS FIRST F-35C.

[Edward “Stevie” Smith]

“When I got here in 2016, the F-35 program only took about half the plant. And it really shows the growth that we’ve been able to develop as we’ve taken up the entire facility and are really at that full rate of production of about 156 airplanes in the year. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
RETIRED NAVAL AVIATOR EDWARD “STEVIE” SMITH IS LOCKHEED MARTIN’S DIRECTOR OF F-35 DOMESTIC BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTS.

[Edward “Stevie” Smith]

“The plan is producing more than 150 Airplanes a year. We now to deliver to our 18 different customers and counting. We’ve got new captures going on all the time. And our government is in negotiation with countries both in Europe and the Indo-PACOM theater for delivering this catered world class capability to them.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
TO THE UNINITIATED, THE SHEER SIZE AND SCALE OF THE PRODUCTION FACILITY CAN BE DAUNTING. AND THAT’S JUST WHAT YOU CAN SEE, BECAUSE BEHIND THE SCENES THERE IS A GLOBAL NETWORK OF MORE THAN 1,900 COMMERCIAL PARTNERS PLAYING A ROLE IN EVERY JET ROLLING OFF THE ASSEMBLY.

WITH SUPPLIERS FROM 48 STATES AND TEN COUNTRIES THE ASSEMBLY OF EVERY F-35 IS TRULY A GLOBAL EFFORT.

[Edward “Stevie” Smith]

“It’s pretty complicated. We’ve got a world class supply chain, not only with us, but with our partners BAE and Northrop Grumman, and with Pratt and Whitney, who provide our power plant. They all deal with their supplier bases. So now almost 1800 of those suppliers are located here in the United States and our territories. And then the rest are with key partners around the world. It taking advantage of direct use by in the aviation industry or lack of sports. And not only do those, you know 83rd Plus supplier deliver every day, but we’re constantly bringing on new suppliers and suppliers that then move off the program. So it is a full time job managing that.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
ALL OF THAT ADDS UP TO ABOUT 156 NEW JETS ROLLING OFF THE LINE EVERY YEAR. BUT IT’S NOT BEEN WITHOUT ISSUES. IN MAY THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REVEALED THE FORT WORTH FACILITY WAS RUNNING OUT OF SPACE TO PARK F-35s. JETS THE GOVERNMENT WOULDN’T TAKE DELIVERY OF UNTIL A HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE UPGRADE KNOWN AS THE TECHNOLOGY REFRESH 3, OR T-R-3, COULD BE INSTALLED.

THE UPGRADE INCLUDES IMPROVED DISPLAYS, BETTER COMPUTER MEMORY AND MORE PROCESSING POWER. TR-3 WAS ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED TO BEGIN INSTALLATION IN APRIL 2023, BUT SOFTWARE PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES INTEGRATING IT WITH THE NEW HARDWARE MEANT PARKING NEW AIRCRAFT AND WAITING FOR TESTING.

COMPOUNDING THE ISSUE WAS THE SCHEDULED BLOCK 4 UPGRADE THAT WILL EXPAND THE JET’S WEAPON-CARRYING CAPACITY AND ENHANCE ITS ELECTRONIC WARFARE CAPABILITIES. BUT THAT CAN’T HAPPEN WITHOUT T-R-3.
BUT IN JULY THINGS CHANGED. AFTER THE F-35 JOINT PROGRAM OFFICE DETERMINED OPERATIONAL UNITS COULD SAFELY FLY WITH A TRUNCATED VERSION OF T-R-3, DELIVERIES WERE RESUMED WITH WHAT THE AIR FORCE CALLS A PHASED APPROACH. WITH A FINAL GOAL OF DELIVERING F-35s WITH FULL T-R-3 COMBAT CAPABILITIES IN 2025. AN ALABAMA AIR NATIONAL GUARD UNIT AND NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE WERE THE FIRST RECIPIENTS. IN A RELEASE ANNOUNCING THE RESUMPTION OF DELIVERIES, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MIKE SCHMIDT SAID:

“Our focus has been on providing our customers with aircraft that are stable, capable, and maintainable, and this phased approach does that.”

[Edward “Stevie” Smith]

“This is not something that you can just go and buy it off the shelf. These processor and super fan and protected hardware, it needs to be developed. And we work closely with our partners to do that. You know, we had some stumbling blocks along the way, but we’re quickly catching up. And now testing that key block four software and delivering that to the warfighter very soon.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
BUT BEFORE THAT HAPPENS, EACH NEW F-35 IS PUT THROUGH RIGOROUS TESTING. THAT RESPONSIBILITY BELONGS TO A GROUP OF LOCKHEED MARTIN TEST PILOTS.

IF THE AIR FORCE AND NAVY’S FIGHTER WEAPONS SCHOOLS, AKA TOP GUN, REPRESENT THE TOP ONE PERCENT OF ALL AVIATORS, THESE PILOTS ARE EVEN BETTER THAN THAT. PILOTS LIKE SCOTT McLAREN, CALL SIGN SHARK. A RETIRED AIR FORCE F-16 PILOT WHO NOW PUTS THE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED FIGHTER AIRCRAFT THROUGH ITS PACES.

[Scott “Shark” McLaren]

“A lot of the times the best way for me to describe it is we all like to go to the amusement park, we all like to ride roller coasters. Yeah, I get to do that for my job.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
McLAREN SAYS ONE OF THE BIG ADVANTAGES THE F-35 OFFERS IS IT BUILDS OFF WHAT AN EXPERIENCED PILOT ALREADY KNOWS.

[Scott “Shark” McLaren]

“Now you have a capability, an airplane that can do those same missions, but you have an airplane that can do those same missions, and more. And oh, by the way, it’s the pilot that has that same training and level that went into the F 16. Put them into this airplane that has more capabilities. Well, now they’re able to perform up here. And now we’re just talking from a different level altogether. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IN OCTOBER OF LAST YEAR WE VISITED WITH ONE OF SHARK’S COLLEAGUES, RETIRED NAVAL AVIATOR TONY “BRICK” WILSON, WHO’S ALSO AN ADVOCATE FOR THE F-35.

[Tony “Brick” Wilson]

“The F 35 is much more than just a fighter, okay, it’s also a fantastic ISR platform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, because it does have the capability to absorb all this information, and then push it back out. So when we talk about things like 21st century security, you can think about the F 35. Being an airborne data node. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
AND IT’S WHAT THE LIGHTNING DOES WITH THAT DATA THAT BOTH PILOTS SAY GIVES ANYONE IN THE COCKPIT THE UPPER HAND ON ANY POTENTIAL MISSION, BECAUSE IN THE 21ST CENTURY–DATA IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND SPLASHING DOWN–
WHEN A PILOT IS FLYING INTO A POTENTIALLY HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT HAVING THAT INFORMATION IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE MUNITIONS THEY’RE FLYING WITH.

[Scott “Shark” McLaren]

“All the information that comes in now goes through our sensor fusion and sensor fusion if you want to think about it as an app on a phone is exactly what it does. It takes the information in processes the information displays it to me on my displays in a usable format. So now I’m able to use all it’s very similar type and name of all the capabilities or the sensors that were on a previous generation of an airplane. But now, because sensor fusion is processing the information for me, now I can use that and make decisions even faster. It also opens the door for more missions that I can accomplish inside that airplane. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
A SINGLE F-35 IS A FORMIDABLE FOE FOR ANY OPPOSITION, BUT WILSON SAYS THE TRUE AIR SUPERIORITY COMES FROM TWO OR MORE F-35s, ENTERING THE BATTLE SPACE TOGETHER, LINKED THROUGH A MULTI-FUNCTION ADVANCED DATALINK, OR p (Mad-el – sounds like metal) FOR SHORT.

[Tony “Brick” Wilson]

“I can’t really talk too much about the capabilities that MADL brings because it’s classified, okay, but what I can tell you is that if an F 35, you know, I’ve got a single F 35 airborne and has a certain level of capability. As soon as I add a second F 35 airborne. And they’re linked via MADL, it’s a matter of one plus one is greater than two, because of the enhanced capability.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
FURTHER ENHANCING THAT CAPABILITY IS A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT THAT HAS SEEN A REMARKABLE EVOLUTION OF ITS OWN OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES.

THE HELMET.

FOR YEARS PILOT HELMETS ESSENTIALLY PROVIDED THREE THINGS. PROTECTION, COMMUNICATION, AND A HOOK-UP FOR AN OXYGEN MASK, THINK MAVERICK IN TOP GUN.

BUT AS TECHNOLOGY EVOLVES, SO TOO DOES THE HELMET. AND THERE’S NO BETTER EXAMPLE OF THAT THAN THE CARBON FIBER GENTEX SHELL FITTED WITH THE COLLINS AEROSPACE HELMET MOUNTED DISPLAY SYSTEM. IT’S A FIRST OF ITS KIND TECHNOLOGY WITH A $400,000 PRICE TAG.

THE HEADS UP DISPLAY, OR HUD, IS NOW BUILT INTO THE HELMET, RATHER THAN AFFIXED IN THE COCKPIT. ALSO BUILT IN, NIGHT VISION AND VISUAL TARGETING–WHICH MEANS THE PILOT CAN TRACK A TARGET SIMPLY BY LOOKING AT IT..

[Scott “Shark” McLaren]

“I know that now my imagery, everything that’s going to come out of these oculars these projectors up at the top are going to be reflected off of my visor and come right back into my eyes. No, now I have the information that’s very usable. And from the outside world, very usable on the inside of the cockpit. But it’s not that’s not just it. So now I have all the other sensors, my radar etc. And everything coming in, I have it on my display out in front. But when I want to translate it from this two dimensional display into the real world, it’s done automatically for me through fusion. And now I just moved my helmet around and I can see from what’s on my two dimensional display, I can see it translated into the real world based on where I move my helmet.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING LIKE D-J KHALED

{and another one}

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ANOTHER OF THE MANY INTERESTING FEATURES OF THE HELMET, IS THE ABILITY TO LOOK THROUGH YOUR LAP AND THE FUSELAGE, CREATING ESSENTIALLY A GLASS COCKPIT. IT’S NOT X-RAY VISION, BUT IT’S STILL WICKED AWESOME…
AN ARRAY OF SIX CAMERAS STITCHES TOGETHER EVERYTHING THAT’S VISIBLE OUTSIDE OF THE AIRCRAFT.

“So it’s like an augmented reality like, essentially a glass cockpit very much augmented.”

“Yes, because I can see with my eyes and I can see everything on the outside world around me. But I have the addition of the tactical type information, the imagery or whatever I want to have up here overlaid on top of it. So giving me that extra piece of information that I just didn’t have from my own eyes or for them sent from the sensors themselves. This pieces it all together.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]
IF ALL SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING STRAIGHT FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO YOU, YOU’RE NOT ALONE IN THINKING THAT.

[Tony “Brick” Wilson]

“If you’d asked me or told me when I first started flying about this helmet, I’m like, this is something I just always do. This is not, you know, I’m never gonna see it in my lifetime. And now it’s here, right? And we’re only getting better with our helmet technology. So, you know, the capability I see today, I can only imagine and get excited about what’s in the future with this helmet.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

Well, the pilots here at Lockheed Martin might be some of the best trained in the world before any new pilot takes the stick of an F 35. They need a little bit more training on how to do that. And that process starts with simulators that are an awful lot like this cockpit demonstrator. Now, I’ve never flown a plane in my life, but I’m about to take off from an aircraft carrier. Alright, so are we ready and I’m airborne flying over Hawaii. Let’s go find some bogeys.”

IT’S A SETUP ANY GAMER OR PRIVATE PILOT WOULD LOVE TO EXPERIENCE. WHILE IT’S NOT A ONE TO ONE EXAMPLE OF WHAT AN F-35 PILOT HAS ACCESS TO, IT’S AS CLOSE AS ANY CIVVY LIKE ME IS EVER GOING TO GET. IF YOUR FLIGHT SIM SKILLS ARE MID…THE DEMONSTRATOR MIGHT BE A LITTLE INTIMIDATING, EVEN IF IT NEVER LEAVES THE GROUND. FORTUNATELY FOR ME I HAD SOME EXPERT ASSISTANCE TO MAKE SURE MY PILOT SKILLS WERE ON POINT.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

“So we’re here with Jason Craig call sign Stunt. Yes, he’s going to teach us a little bit about this F-35. simulator. So what am I looking at?”

[Jason “Stunt” Craig]

“Alright, so the one thing you’ll notice the difference between the F 35 cockpit and a lot of the older fourth generation fighters, it’s a lot cleaner. There’s a lot less switches, there’s a lot less gauges in this cockpit. There’s like touchscreens in front of me too. And so yet you get the large panoramic display, we call it in front of you, with four main portals that you can resize and move around to whatever fits your mission at the time.

“All right, you ready to go? Yeah. All right. So I’ll take it off a freeze here. So just start rolling. Yeah, just push the throttle all the way forward to full afterburner. There’s 100 knots, wait for 150 There it is pullback on the stick. You’re only gonna sit about 15 degrees nose up. And landing gears right there. Good and put that up. Landing gears up and we’re airborne.”

“Alright, so what we want to bring up for engaging air targets is our tactical situation display and you can you can keep climbing up to say 20,000 Maybe yet 10 to 15 degrees nose up not not quite that much. Yeah, right about in there.”

“See on your weapons display here, the weapon flash and off it goes so now it’s heading towards that target. To get the other one, so target management, switch bump it to the right. Now we select the other target red button one more time so the weapon bay doors are opening the rocket motor lights, the missile fires, the weapons bay door closes, and that’s all there is to it. So now the the missiles go up high because air is thinner, they can go further and faster and they’ll go out and then come down on the target from the top. As you can see here missiles are headed out.”

“Did he fire one at me?”

“He did and it missed.”

“Jerk.”

“And there’s the impact so you can see the wreckage.”

“Okay.”

“Falling down there. And the other wingman I think went over the top. Oh, there he is right there. So there’s the two enemy contacts right there.”

“Splash one. Splash two.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

OUR TIME AT THE FORT WORTH LOCKHEED MARTIN FACILITY WAS NOT INFINITE–
WE DEFINITELY KEPT A PRETTY TIGHT SCHEDULE, SO I ONLY GOT TO SPLASH TWO BOGEYS–AN ACCOMPLISHMENT I WILL STAND BEHIND.

WHEN YOU SEE THE MAGNITUDE OF THE OPERATION UP CLOSE–TALK TO THE PROUD AND DEDICATED PEOPLE BUILDING THE PLANES–
AND LEARN CRAZY FACTS LIKE THERE’S 16 SOME ODD MILES OF WIRING JUST IN THE NOSE OF ONE OF THESE THINGS–
YOU CAN REALLY APPRECIATE JUST HOW EFFECTIVE THE F-35 PLATFORM TRULY IS–
IN THE HANDS OF THE RIGHT OPERATORS.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

All right, folks, that’s gonna do it for us here on this episode of weapons and warfare. But before we go, I want to give a quick shout out to all the people at Lockheed Martin that helped make this visit possible. They’re too humble for me to name them. But I just want to say thank you to all of you. We know this doesn’t happen every day. And the access that you were able to give us helps us tell your story to our audience. So thank you for senior producer Brett Baker, video editor Brian Spencer and graphic designer Dakota patio. I’m Ryan Robertson with Straight Arrow News signing off.