Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning and F-22 'Raptor' : News & Discussion

[Optimist]

Found it, The dreams of going with Sweden are gone

"Sweden and Germany signed a Letter of Intent at the NATO summit in Ankara to advance their air defense capabilities, sparking major developments for a joint 6th-generation fighter. Following the collapse of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Germany's Airbus is seeking Swedish defense firm Saab as a preferred partner to jointly develop a new 6th-generation aircraft. [1, 2, 3]

 

[Picdelamirand-oil]

Light News English

The Pentagon has blocked the public release of a congressionally-mandated annual report on the F-35 fighter jet program for the first time in over 20 years. The Government Accountability Office...

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The Pentagon has blocked the public release of a congressionally-mandated annual report on the F-35 fighter jet program for the first time in over 20 years.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which has conducted yearly assessments of the $1.6 trillion program since Congress mandated the reviews in 2005, said Defense Department officials determined the report contained "Controlled Unclassified Information," preventing any portion of it from being released — leaving only the title of the June 25 assessment publicly known: "F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Update on Production and Modernisation Efforts."
This move comes amid a backdrop of ongoing troubles for the program, including production delays, cost overruns, and supply chain issues, with the F-35's Block 4 upgrade package now expected no earlier than 2031 — at least six years behind schedule — and some planned capabilities being cut entirely.

The F-35 no longer merely overpromises and underdelivers; now, it underinforms.

 

[Picdelamirand-oil]

Ok, what has happened to the Rafale? You guys only get this worked up when the wheels have fallen off of it, It can't be over FCAS or a future 6th gen, nothing is happening there

There is public and non public data, it seems the GAO put non public data in it, I guess they will have to do a rewrite, You could look at it as the GAO has access to non public data, it is a transparent programme

As to block 4, They added stuff, they took stuff off, it's hard and won't be finished for a while

In the context of the F-35, this obviously looks like an attempt to suppress embarrassing information regarding production, modernization, TR-3/Block 4, engines, parts, availability, or costs.

The 2025 GAO report on F-35 acquisition was already highly critical: it highlighted Block 4 delays, engine and aircraft delivery issues, and incentive payments made despite delays, concluding that the program continued to overpromise and underdeliver.

The most reasonable interpretation, therefore, is that the 2026 report likely contained information the Pentagon did not want picked up by the media, allies, competitors, or foreign lawmakers. F-35 buyers—such as the UK, Japan, Italy, Poland, Germany, Finland, and Switzerland—rely on these reports to assess the program's actual trajectory. By blocking publication, Washington is reducing transparency precisely when the fleet is grappling with TR-3/Block 4 upgrades, declining availability, sustainment costs, and parts shortages.

This is highly detrimental to confidence. A healthy program can withstand transparency; when you start hiding the thermometer, everyone wonders just how high the fever is.

 

[Optimist]

Rafale is one of the most hidden, Where are the annual reviews? It's only when the upgrades are announced, we realise how terrible it was

The F-35 is the most transparent in history, By both the DOT&E and GAO and others, The GAO will have to rewrite their report, making all data that is public

 

[Picdelamirand-oil]

Rafale is one of the most hidden, Where are the annual reviews? It's only when the upgrades are announced, we realise how terrible it was

The F-35 is the most transparent in history, By both the DOT&E and GAO and others

We don’t need annual public crisis reports on the Rafale program. When RAND studies Dassault, it is usually not to document why the program is failing, but to understand why Dassault performs so well with such limited resources.

The F-35 is “transparent” because the problems are too large to hide: GAO, DOT&E and others keep documenting delays, cost overruns, readiness shortfalls, software problems and modernization slippage year after year.

 

[Bon Plan]

Found it, The dreams of going with Sweden are gone

"Sweden and Germany signed a Letter of Intent at the NATO summit in Ankara to advance their air defense capabilities, sparking major developments for a joint 6th-generation fighter. Following the collapse of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Germany's Airbus is seeking Swedish defense firm Saab as a preferred partner to jointly develop a new 6th-generation aircraft. [1, 2, 3]

SAAB requests will be the same than Dassault. Some skills less (no swedish engine industry for exemple).
At the end, if there is a end, Germans and Swedish will rely on a foreign engine.... a US one ?

 

[Bon Plan]

Rafale is one of the most hidden, Where are the annual reviews? It's only when the upgrades are announced, we realise how terrible it was

The F-35 is the most transparent in history, By both the DOT&E and GAO and others, The GAO will have to rewrite their report, making all data that is public

Our customers are our best ambassadors.
Egypt purchased it twice,
Qatar purchased it twice.
UAE made a huge order.
India purchased it twice and nearly a third time. They were very happy with it following Sindoor.
Greece ordered it twice.
Indonesia purchased 3 batchs.

Why an annual review ? it is delivered on time, on spec, on budget.

 

[Bhartiya Naagrik Sainik]

Online search for dimensions of F-22's IWB says it is classified. Anyways, 3D CADs can help in estimating current & new capacity, area, volume, etc of existing & new jets. Diagrams on internet are not 100% accurate, small adjustments needed.
For example here i adjusted diagram dimensions then Blender view-port dimensions as per official specs, making the outline currently. But IWB in diagram looks short to accommodate staggered AIM-120 AMRAAMs.

AIM-120 AMRAAM length 3.66 m, body diameter 17.8 cm, wingspan 48.4 cm.
In Diagram each IWB hinge is is 104 cm from center.
We've to leave say 4 cm + 4cm in center for door edge support. This leaves 100cm wide IWB both sides.
When 3x AIM-120 AMRAAMs are staggered then they seem to occupy 4m length & 94 cm width, leaving just 3cm gap with side walls & 4cm gap between fin & body of adjacent AAM.









But in reality it looks so easily comfortable to fit 3x AAMs.
I wish if we had a better pic with perpendicular angle & high resolution to know the gap b/w fins & adjacent AAMs.







In following pics notice how narrow the gaps are b/w SDBs, with edge/hinge.

 

[Amarante]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ocks-watchdog-s-review-of-costly-f-35-program

The Pentagon has blocked the public release of a congressionally-mandated annual report on the costly and controversial F-35 fighter jet program for the first time in more than 20 years.​

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said Defense Department officials concluded its yearly assessment of the $1.6 trillion program contained “Controlled Unclassified Information,” which meant none of the report could be released to the public, a GAO official said.

The report has offered a key window into the world’s costliest and most advanced defense program. But this time, only the title of the June 25 assessment is public: “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Update on Production and Modernization Efforts.”

The “GAO has covered the F-35 acquisition annually since Congress mandated reviews beginning in 2005,” said Jon Ludwigson, a director in the agency’s contracting and national security acquisitions office, who supervised the creation of the report.

“This is the first year that any of our acquisition reviews has been determined to contain CUI information” and be restricted from public release, he said. The censored report was still provided to the lawmakers on Congress’s four defense committees and continued “on our path of providing an update to the defense committees on the progress of F-35 modernization.”

An F-35 fighter near the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, July 3, 2026. Photographer: Andrew Leyden/Bloomberg

The Lockheed Martin Corp.-made F-35 is the most expensive weapons platform in US history, but it has been repeatedly criticized for cost overruns, late deliveries of engines and aircraft, delays to software upgrades and parts wearing out earlier than expected. Last year’s version of the report noted the F-35 program “continues to overpromise and underdeliver.”

Pentagon and program office spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has previously said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth runs “the most transparent Department of Defense in history.”

The watchdog’s annual performance report offers the public the only detailed appraisal of one of the Pentagon’s most closely-watched weapons programs, with previous assessments disclosing crucial delays associated with the program’s major software, hardware and engine upgrades.

The assessments also have proved valuable guides for lawmakers worldwide whose countries have purchased the aircraft, including the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan and Poland.

The CUI label has been criticized for years by lawmakers due to its broad, amorphous designations, effectively allowing the Defense Department to block the release of information it doesn’t want to be made public, even if none of the details are classified.

The Pentagon also censored GAO reports on nuclear modernization efforts under the Biden administration. In one example from 2023, the Defense Department restricted a report criticizing the reliability of the construction schedule for nuclear-armed Columbia class submarines, for example. /END