The F-35 failed to achieve the expected results, and its survivability in the face of Chinese and Russian weapons is worrying

The chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee said on August 31, 2021, as he pushed for more investment in smaller unmanned platforms that upgrades in missile technology in the past few years have made the F-35 less survivable than previously expected.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Brookings Institution, was quick to point out that the F-35's survivability is still "considerably higher" than other fighter jets and compared it to the F-16.

The F-16 is still the most common fighter in the US Air Force, and the US Air Force will use it until the 2030s, and overseas customers may use it until the 2070s. Currently, the US Air Force and Lockheed Martin have cooperated to open a new production line at the Greenville, South Carolina plant to produce F-16 Block 70/72 fighters, which means that the F-16V will be used for self-use in addition to export.

"But it also has environments that it can't go into because missile technology has advanced so much since we started building it," Smith said.

The missiles here mainly refer to China and Russia's advanced air-to-air missiles and land-based/sea-based air defense missiles.

Lockheed Martin, maker of the fifth-generation stealth fighter, claims the F-35 is the "most lethal, survivable and connected fighter in the world." The Air Force plans to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which would make it the Air Force's largest fleet.

As of May 2021, the F-35 fighter jet has become the second largest fleet in the US Air Force, second only to the F-16 fighter jet. There are now 283 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the US Air Force's arsenal, compared to 281 A-10 attack aircraft, 234 F-15C/D fighters, and 218 F-15E fighters.

Smith, on the other hand, has made no secret of his displeasure with the F-35 program. In March, he called the fighter a "rat hole" and accused it of being too expensive, and in June he slammed the program's high maintenance costs. Much of his criticism has focused on the issue of sustainment, where cost overruns have become a recurring theme for many in Congress. Smith reiterated that theme on Aug. 31, pointing to a provision included in the presidential markup for the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which he released on Aug. 30, that would limit the number of F-35s the Air Force can sustain starting in October 2026. As of May 7, 2021, the Air Force had about 283 F-35s in its fleet and called for the purchase of 48 more in the fiscal 2022 budget. The exact number of F-35s the service can maintain will depend on how much sustainment costs in fiscal 2025 exceed the service's stated goal of $4.1 million per aircraft per year.

Currently, the hourly maintenance cost of the F-35 is as high as $36,000 to $33,000, which has been reduced to $44,000 in 2018. If calculated according to this standard, the US Air Force will either reduce the number of F-35s or reduce the frequency of use. Lockheed Martin has promised to reduce these costs to around $25,000 by 2025.

However, the question of survivability presents a different challenge. In the past, the Air Force has said that the F-35 "performs very well in a highly contested environment" and the goal is to progress to "excellence." At the same time, the Air Force has also acknowledged that it is no longer able to achieve widespread control of the air in a high-end conflict, but rather seeks "temporary windows of advantage" in a "highly contested threat environment."

In other words, the U.S. Air Force also admits that when facing opponents like China and Russia, it cannot guarantee full air superiority and can only "temporarily gain an advantage."

In such an intense threat environment, Smith said, a platform like the F-35 is too big to go completely undetected. Instead, he advocated for greater investment in "smaller, more survivable platforms, in many cases unmanned platforms." Smith specifically pointed to the concept of drone swarms as a way to potentially take on some of the missions originally envisioned for the F-35. "We've seen this in some of the combat in Syria and in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict," Smith said. "You have a swarm of undetectable drones that can still deliver a pretty powerful blow -- you don't see it coming, it takes you a long time to shoot it down. That's why we're investing in this. In a lot of ways, this can accomplish a lot of missions that the larger platforms can't, because the larger platforms are more easily detected."

The concept of drone swarms has been on the Air Force's radar for several years, with former U.S. acquisition boss Will Roper calling them the future of warfare in 2019. Meanwhile, the Air Force has invested in platforms to defend against such drone swarms, including a high-powered microsystem that can take out a wide swath of drones at once.

Microwave anti-drone weapon "Thor", a project of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

In addition to criticizing the F-35's survivability, Smith has pushed for more competition in the program, particularly on the engine side. Pratt & Whitney's F135 engines have been the source of lengthy repairs and delays, and both GE and Pratt are currently participating in the Air Force's adaptive variable cycle engine transition program.

Adaptive variable cycle engine transition planning concept technology

The F-35 currently uses Pratt & Whitney's F135 engine. In 2011, the Pentagon canceled General Electric's plan to build a second engine (there are two engines on the F-15 and F-16, there is also an "engine war"), leaving a single supplier for the Department of Defense's largest procurement program. The Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy are all buying variants of the fifth-generation fighter, as are many of America's allies and partners.

The F-35 engine wears out quickly and takes a long time to repair, resulting in an engine shortage for the F-35. As of July 8, 2021, there are as many as 41 F-35As of the US Air Force, one F-35B belonging to the US Marine Corps, another F-35C from the US Navy, and three fighters delivered to foreign air forces, a total of 46 F-35 fighters have been forced to ground due to lack of engines.

F135 engine used by F-35 fighter

Smith said the Adaptive Variable Cycle Engine Transition Program (AETP) is primarily designed for future platforms such as the Next Generation Air Dominance program (NGAD), but "these engines may also be used in the F-35."

General Dynamics (GE) announced that it has completed the test of the first XA100 variable cycle engine. It is the power technology foundation of the sixth-generation aircraft and a potential replacement for the F-35. After the core engine is reduced in size, it can even be used to upgrade platforms such as the F-22, F-15, and F-16.

“I think we have the ability now to create an engine competition in the future,” he added. “We’re going to push for an engine competition because that’s one of the most important things. The F-35 engines … are burning out faster than we thought and taking longer to repair than we thought. I think we have the ability to push for an engine competition and we’re going to do it.”

In his markup for the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, Smith proposed directing the Pentagon’s acquisition chief to submit to Congress a “strategy for continued development, integration, and operation of the Adaptive Variable Cycle Engine Technology Program propulsion system into the U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet beginning in fiscal year 2027.”

The Adaptive Variable Cycle Power Plant (AETP) program can be seen as a planned upgrade for the F-35