Nobody knows if the real PAK-FA will look anything similar to any of these three models, but we will probably discover it sooner than later: The Sukhoi PAK-FA will replace the MiG-29 Fulcrum and the Su-27 Flanker in the Russian Air Force, with a first flight initially projected for this year.

What we know for sure is that new Sukhoi fighter will directly compete against the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II. I, for one, hope that they never have to engage in combat. [Duler via The Dew Line]

The helmet projects an augmented reality world inside its visor. This image is created by a visualization, targeting, and situational awareness marvel called Electro Optical Distributed Aperture System, which combines the feeds from six advanced infrared digital cameras located around the aircraft and other sensors—like radar—into a seamless 360-degree spherical panorama, all in real time.

The panorama inside the helmet effectively makes the F-35 completely invisible to the pilot. In fact, he will be invisible to himself: If he looks down to his legs, he won't see anything but the ground. He will be able to look to any direction and get a clear view of what is happening, day or night. And not only the image is crystal clear at all times, but it also gets overlaid with information from the targeting system.

The targeting and radar systems can detect any moving object in the ground or the air, identifying them it as friend or foe, as well as their direction under any conditions. It then allows the pilot to lock on one, fire, and direct the weapons towards it.

The system is apparently so advanced that Northrop Grumman—the manufacturer—goes as far as saying that it makes the F-35's maneuverability irrelevant: "Instead of mutual kills, the F-35 simply exits the fight, and lets its missiles do the turning." I don't know if that will prove true in actual combat, but it doesn't make the helmet and DAS less impressive. [Flight Global]

The Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II Fighter, is the most costly project in Pentagon history, so it's a little bit problematic that some spies scampered in and nicked an unknown, but undoubtedly large, quantity of data without getting anywhere near caught. The cyber-spies encrypted the data on its way out, so nobody's really sure where they came from or where the data went, but some IP addresses have been tracked to China, prompting a little bit of back-and-forth between the DoD and the Chinese government.

A Pentagon report issued last month said that the Chinese military has made "steady progress" in developing online-warfare techniques. China hopes its computer skills can help it compensate for an underdeveloped military, the report said.

The Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China "opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes." It called the Pentagon's report "a product of the Cold War mentality" and said the allegations of cyber espionage are "intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations."

Though the most valuable information, including data on the F-35's flight control and sensors, is inaccessible (stored on non-networked computers), nobody's really sure exactly what happened, and nobody, from the manufacturers to the researchers to the Pentagon's press team, wants to talk about it. It's a pretty alarming read, check it out. Wall Street Journal, image also via WSJ

All the major navies in the world are now building them. The Russians have one of their big carriers, the Admiral Kuznetsov, back at sea and have stated that they plan to build 12 carrier battle groups. The Chinese and the Indians are also under way with plans, the Japanese are building a destroyer that will act as a helicopter carrier and the US are working on new-generation carriers. We’re an island nation and we have global interests so we need these four acres of moveable sovereign airfield that we can deploy wherever we want, whenever we need them.

The world is an unstable place and, post-Iraq and the global war on terror, access to other nation’s territory or airspace is more difficult.

Great. When have I heard this before? Maybe knowing that Dr Willett is head of the Maritime Studies Programme at the Royal United Services Institute, helps in understanding that maybe he has an special interest in this two mobile naval airbases.

The carriers—which will cost $5.9 billion, a lot less than the $14 billion that the US spends on their super-carriers—will host 36 F-35s and two EH-101 Merlin multi-purpose helicopters each.

Constructed in modules all across Britain, which will be later assembled in a very complicated process in a central shipyard—will be almost fully automated, requiring only a 1,500 crew. Here is the fact sheet:

• The surface of the16,000sqm flight deck is covered in a grainy,heat-resistant paint,similar to very coarse sandpaper. The entire painted surface amounts to 370 acres - slightly bigger than Hyde Park.

• Two huge lifts, each with a 70-ton capacity, are capable of transporting two aircraft from the hangar to the flight deck in 60 seconds.

• The ground-breaking twin-island layout allows more deck space for aircraft and better visibility of the flight deck. The forward island is for navigating the ship; flight control is based in the aft island.

• The ship's 29,000 sq m hangar is 150 metres in length and has 20 slots for aircraft maintenance.

• There are 11 full-time medical staff on board managing an eight-bed medical suite, operating theatre and dental surgery.

• Onboard water treatment plant produces over 500 tons of fresh water daily.

• Two Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbines and four diesel generator sets produce 109MW.

• Cabins are spacious and cruise-liner style, with en-suite toilets and shower facilities. Officers and senior ratings have single or two-berth cabins. The maximum number of crew in a cabin is six.

• The carrier will carry more than 8,600 tons of fuel, enough for the average family car to travel to the Moon and back 12 times. This gives a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles.

• Top speed will be in excess of 25 knots, sufficient to cross from Dover to Calais in an hour.

• The two five-blade propellers are each 30ft in diameter - that's one-and-a-half times the height of a double-decker bus.

Head to the Daily Mail for more details. [Daily Mail]

He even added a second seat on top—to drive his kid around—and other modifications that Lockheed Martin can't possibly match, like spitting confetti off its engine exhaust or the horrible built-in soft rock soundtrack. [ muziekkunstenaar via Dark Roasted Blend]

Click on the image above to get the high-res image

F-35 Shopping List

29,036 pounds of composite, aluminum, titanium, and miscellaneous alloys for the fuselage.

1 × Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan.

1 × Rolls-Royce Lift System (for STOVL model).

1 × Multi-Mission Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radar.

1 × Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System, for full 360º situational awareness.

1 × Electro-Optical Targeting System + 1 × Sapphire Window.

1 × Helmet Mounted Display from hell.

1 × GAU-22/A 25 mm cannon.

1 × 8" x 20" Multi-Function (panoramic projection) Display System (image below).

[The Dew Line]

"The aircraft flew very well, exceeding my expectations," Kromberg said. "I was surprised by the amount of power on the takeoff roll. And the handling, particularly with the gear up, was phenomenal. The aircraft was very stable flying in formation with another airplane. It was really a joy to fly."

So there you go: two thumbs up from Señor Flipper. I don't know about you, but I'm happy that the $40 billion total development costs have resulted in a plane that handles phenomenally well with the gear up (which is more than you can say about the Strategic Defense Initiative).

The F-35, nicknamed Lightning II in honor of the WW2 fighter P-38 Lightning, has flown only 28 times, all of them except this one commanded by Lockheed Martin's own test pilots, Jon Beesley and Jeff Knowles. The last flight happened on March 12th, for its first aerial refueling test shown here:

The F-35 Lightning II is scheduled to debut in 2011, after its maiden flight back in 2006. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan capable of delivering 40,000 pounds of force, with an additional Rolls-Royce Lift System for the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing variant, the F-35 has been designed to be the número uno strike fighter in the world until around 2040.

At that point, we all hope that 1) no more modern fighters would be needed after that date, or 2) they develop Veritech fighters to defend Earth against the Zentraedi. [LockheedMartin and Wikipedia]

Beyond making the pilot look like a spooky insect (comic book nerd moment: the Morpheus helmet from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comes to mind), the F-35 HDMS is loaded with all kinds of amazing goodies, like extreme off-axis targeting and head tracking "providing the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and tactical capability." The helmet was developed by Vision Systems International, a company that has other quite weird designs that are already operational, like the DASH and the JHMCS. Technical specs and another image of the F-35 HMDS after the jump.

F-35 HMDS Specs

- Binocular Wide Field-of-View
- Integrated day/night capability with sensor fusion
- Highly accurate head tracking hardware and software
- Digital image source for helmet vision displayed symbology
- Custom helmet shell, liner and suspension system for lightest weight, optimal C.G. and maximum pilot - comfort.

Unfortunately, no price yet for those who have in mind buying an F-35. – Jesus Diaz

Product page [Vision Systems International]