FORT WORTH, Texas, March 26 (UPI) -- U.S. company Lockheed Martin says it has been upgrading the stealth capabilities of its F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement last week that the U.S. Navy's version of the Lightning II was planned to take its maiden flight next year, and that the company was adapting the aircraft's stealth technology and construction to the challenging conditions carrier operations in the world's oceans, especially under combat conditions.
"The F-35C's stealth will bring a profound increase in capability to the Navy's fighter fleet. What it will not bring is increased maintenance," said Steve O'Bryan, a former carrier fighter pilot and director of F-35 Domestic Business Development for Lockheed Martin.
"The Lightning II is a 5th generation fighter with supportable stealth that was designed into the aircraft from the very beginning. It will endure extreme abuse without degrading its stealth radar-signature performance."
Lockheed Martin describes the F-35 JSF as "a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter."
There are three main different versions of the F-35 that are being built. All of them are adaptations of the same basic design and can be maintained by the same overall maintenance and support system anywhere in the world.
Those three basic types of the same aircraft are designed to replace no less than 13 different kinds of aircraft that have been operating for 11 nations. If the Lightning II performs according to its specifications, Lockheed Martin says that despite the high per unit cost of the plan, it will still prove to be one of the most economical aircraft in history.
The company said the first aircraft in the program are currently still on time to be handed over to the U.S. armed forces in 2010.
The prototype test F-35 has so far carried out 35 flights and Lockheed Martin said they proved highly successful and surpassed performance projections. expectations. The first short takeoff/vertical landing -- STOVL -- F-35B is planned to fly for the first time in a few months. There are 19 test aircraft being built or on the flight-line. Work has already begun on putting together the first two production F-35s, the company said.
