StormILM
January 5th, 2015, 00:08
With the flood of dis/misinformation on the F-35 project(which yes, some in the press are accurately reporting some of the "true" bug issues of the development), there is yet another totally fabricated story that just came out regarding the F-35's 25mm cannon "not being able to be used until 2019 due to a programming glitch". The actual source of this story has not been clarified but I can shed light on what the actual truth is regarding the plans of the new 25cannon. First off, the way the aiming software works with the Helmet Mounted Display is and will remain highly classified because in reality, there is nothing in existence that comes close to the extreme off angle accuracy this final system will offer. Based on what I have been able to get out of very little publicly disclosed information on this subject, I made my own supposition post on a couple of forums regarding the matter which I will post below in addition to a well informed reply from someone with more technical information than I had at the time:
-I have read this report which is extremely vague. Being that this cannon holds a very limited number of rounds and the targeting capability is via the HMD (and not through a fixed dash mounted HUD) The HMD aiming system would give never before seen capability in high off-angle Deflection Shots), my guess is that the problem is one of calibrating the burst fire sequencing to the continuously computed impact point of the HMD aiming reticle. The easy way around this would be to simply program a graduated aiming funnel or stadia line reticle and collimate it into the FOV of the HMD and then add a simple trigger preset burst fire control command.
The reply:
"The gun capability comes with Block 3F software, and that has long been planned
or release at Q3 of 2017.
Also that article from The Daily Beast has no credible sources, just "an AF official" here, "some pilot" there.
Here's an excerpt that puts things to light:
CONOPS for F-35 CAS w/cannon consist of a high angle strafe at 30 -45 degrees @ 9000 ft of slant range.
The minimum dispersion requirements for the F-35's gun system (cannon, round, fire control/avionics) are extremely exacting: < 3.1 mrad (i.e. 80%of the rounds fall within a circle of 27ft. radius at slant range ).
The cannon itself contributes about 1.4 mrad and there has to be a new round introduced because none of the partners (with one exception) will accept a Depleted Uranium round.
Then there's the requirement for three operationally effective passes with the cannon. Meeting that and the dispersion reqs and the Pk reqs (which necessitated a large round which in turn limits ammo capacity) requires an automatic employment mode where the pilot places the HMD boresight on the ground target (or slews the sensor suite there) and the avionics then provide wind and steering corrections along with "FIRE" cues.
Thisbeing noted, the original and updated plans on the 25mm cannon are not flawed at all nor behind schedule, they were part of a series of planned module integrations and there still may well be further updates on the system to further enhance the effectiveness of the cannon. One possibility could be an ammunition update using an offspring of the new Guided Gun/Cannon Rounds currently in advanced testing stages by DARPA which yes, small projectiles which can change flight path and follow a target. '
So again, separating the wheat from the chaff on such stories, it's easy to see that these loose as a goose stories that spawn in the press are quite often shaky on truth.
-I have read this report which is extremely vague. Being that this cannon holds a very limited number of rounds and the targeting capability is via the HMD (and not through a fixed dash mounted HUD) The HMD aiming system would give never before seen capability in high off-angle Deflection Shots), my guess is that the problem is one of calibrating the burst fire sequencing to the continuously computed impact point of the HMD aiming reticle. The easy way around this would be to simply program a graduated aiming funnel or stadia line reticle and collimate it into the FOV of the HMD and then add a simple trigger preset burst fire control command.
The reply:
"The gun capability comes with Block 3F software, and that has long been planned
or release at Q3 of 2017.
Also that article from The Daily Beast has no credible sources, just "an AF official" here, "some pilot" there.
Here's an excerpt that puts things to light:
CONOPS for F-35 CAS w/cannon consist of a high angle strafe at 30 -45 degrees @ 9000 ft of slant range.
The minimum dispersion requirements for the F-35's gun system (cannon, round, fire control/avionics) are extremely exacting: < 3.1 mrad (i.e. 80%of the rounds fall within a circle of 27ft. radius at slant range ).
The cannon itself contributes about 1.4 mrad and there has to be a new round introduced because none of the partners (with one exception) will accept a Depleted Uranium round.
Then there's the requirement for three operationally effective passes with the cannon. Meeting that and the dispersion reqs and the Pk reqs (which necessitated a large round which in turn limits ammo capacity) requires an automatic employment mode where the pilot places the HMD boresight on the ground target (or slews the sensor suite there) and the avionics then provide wind and steering corrections along with "FIRE" cues.
Thisbeing noted, the original and updated plans on the 25mm cannon are not flawed at all nor behind schedule, they were part of a series of planned module integrations and there still may well be further updates on the system to further enhance the effectiveness of the cannon. One possibility could be an ammunition update using an offspring of the new Guided Gun/Cannon Rounds currently in advanced testing stages by DARPA which yes, small projectiles which can change flight path and follow a target. '
So again, separating the wheat from the chaff on such stories, it's easy to see that these loose as a goose stories that spawn in the press are quite often shaky on truth.