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"PENTAGON WORKING TO GIVE F-35 JSF NUCLEAR-STRIKE CAPABILITY"
Inside the Air Force - 4/24/2009
GENERAL: PENTAGON WORKING TO GIVE F-35 JSF NUCLEAR-STRIKE CAPABILITY The Defense Department and a handful of allies have launched an effort to ensure the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is capable of conducting the most devastating mission in modern warfare -- delivering a nuclear bomb. A senior Pentagon official announced the initiative, which aims to fulfill a long-standing requirement for the stealthy fighter, two days after The Wall Street Journal reported that cyber spies had successfully penetrated the $300 billion JSF program -- the most expensive weapons program in history. “We have a cooperative effort under way to move the F-35 into nuclear capability,” Maj. Gen. Donald Alston, assistant Air Force chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said during an April 22 speech to a group of military and civilian officials in Arlington, VA. “All the right deliberate steps are under way. “This involves the nations together who are involved in that program to come together, but we’ve been working in the Pentagon -- let alone inside the Air Force -- and with the allies,” the two-star continued. “The right next deliberate steps are being made with that, and we’ll hope to see that come to conclusion here in the near term.” F-35 partners include a number of nuclear-capable NATO alliance members and Israel, an undeclared nuclear power. Four non-nuclear NATO countries -- Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy -- have a nuclear strike mission. Air Force B-2 and B-52 bombers and F-15E and F-16 fighters are the only Air Force aircraft that can currently deploy nuclear weapons. Aircraft that carry nuclear weapons require special circuity that is different from the technology used in conventional weapons. Pentagon officials declined to provide additional details about plans to add nuclear-strike capability to the F-35, such as whether all variants will be configured for the strategic mission. "Nuclear capability has been an F-35 requirement since the program's beginnings, but it is not a component of the current system development and demonstration phase," a program official said in an April 23 e-mail. In December 2008, a task force led by former Defense and Energy Secretary James Schlesinger reported that some allies “are already pursuing an option for replacing their [dual-capable aircraft] fighter forces by investing in the development of the F-35, which has an operational requirement for delivery of nuclear weapons.” The highly publicized report concluded that the Pentagon “must ensure that the dual-capable F-35 remains on schedule” and that “further delays would result in increasing levels of political and strategic risk and reduced strategic options for both the United States and the Alliance.” The F-35 is designed to carry two large 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions. Some nuclear weapons weigh around 500 pounds and are roughly the same size as a 500-pound JDAM. The F-35 is still several years away from entering full-rate production and only a handful of test jets currently exist. The Marine Corps jets are not expected to reach their initial operational capability until the beginning of next decade. “Usually way before this stage of the program you’re beginning to hear about that sort of thing,” Richard Aboulafia, a senior aviation analyst at the Teal Group said in an April 22 interview. Part of the certification would include the development of a mission attack profile, according to Aboulafia. “What is your plane expecting to do when it drops the bomb; there’s all kinds of performance parameters,” he said. Early-generation fighters were designed to launch and then pull straight up in order to propel the bomb away from the plane, the analyst noted. “You’ve got to make the plane technically able to get away fast after launching, so . . . there’s all sorts of calculations there,” he said. Placing nuclear weapons on the JSF would also have treaty restrictions, which limit the number of nuclear capable aircraft the United States can operate. Air Force and Lockheed Martin officials referred all questions about the JSF’s nuclear strike capabilities to the F-35 joint program office. |
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