Illustrative image showing an F-35 airframe being used in an aircraft recovery training exercise back in 2024. (United States Air Force)
The United States military has been reportedly receiving F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets without a fully installed onboard radar.
The issue was first reported by Avionics International and the affiliated Defense Daily on February 2 and 3. According to the reports, the issue affects F-35s delivered to the military since June of last year.
These aircraft were planned to receive the new AN/APG-85 radar, developed to replace the current AN/APG-81 radar on F-35s in Block 4 upgrade package starting with Production Lot 17. However, the new radar is being affected by delays and has reportedly yet to enter the production stage.
“F-35 Lightning II aircraft are being built to accommodate the F-35 advanced radar (AN/APG-85) for [the] U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps,” a spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) told The War Zone in February in response to questions about recent reports. “Initial fielding for some F-35 aircraft is planned for Lot 17, which began delivery in 2025 and continues through September 2026.”
These remarks neither confirms nor denies the reports about the radar-less F-35s. Congress is reportedly already informed about the issue.
In addition to the production delay, it is reported that the legacy AN/APG-81 radar — still used on export F-35s — requires a completely different mounting system and cannot be easily installed on airframes prepared for the newer radar.
This issue was highlighted by Representative Rob Wittman, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee.
“The APG-81 is different than the APG-85, and therefore delivering the aircraft, as currently configured, with an APG-85 radar versus an APG-81 radar is challenging,” said Wittman, according to The Aviationist. “The bulkhead configuration is key because for both of the radars, they are very different.”
Just like the AN/APG-81, the AN/APG-85 is an active electronically scanned array radar. It is said to be capable of long-range detection and tracking of air targets with high-resolution synthetic aperture mapping capabilities. Not much more is known about the radar.
To make up for the missing radar and maintain aircraft balance, additional ballast has been placed in the nose section of the F-35s.
These radar-less jets are reportedly intended to operate alongside fully equipped F-35s, relying on the platform’s advanced data-sharing and network-centric capabilities to receive targeting and situational awareness information. These fighter jets will be far less capable, however, especially considering that the antenna of the radar is a key part of the electronic warfare suite used in the F-35.
The issue is not surprising. The F-35 program has a long history of taking delivery of jets missing certain key features, which were later added on.
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f-35s don’t need radar to kick the crap out of iran just like the f-117s didn’t need radar kick the crap out serbia and they won’t need radar either to kick the crap out of russia when the times comes.
when u were growing up, well u still are… did u imagine you’re going to end up like this? what a sad existance 🤷♂️
imagine the stench in their cockpits after leaving russian airspace shitless
taliban crap on americunts 20 yrs🤣
even when you point out mutiple times the unnecessary vulgarity of their comments they just keep doing it. imo this is proof it’s done just to degrade the comments section and turn people away from sf.
hence just ignore them, and be aware of their strategy. and call them out each time to alert other readers. then question who might want to do this. expose them.
you mean like the f-117 that the serbians shot down? they said they were sorry, they didn’t know it was invisible…
x-d good one
afghanistan und vietnam brauchten auch kein radar um amerika zu verprügeln
being proud of crushing some handicapped, blindfolded, onehanded grandfathers…just like a real jew
with or without radar, the f35 is a flying turkey. a sopwith camel could fly rings around it. the whole project is a $2 trillion boondoggle. this turkey is on the verge of being dumped by canada and all the countries the amerikunts were trying to con into buying it. one of the worst aircraft ever produced.
….. and that’s before the chinks cut off all the rare earth that goes into it.
and one of the best aircraft for wall st mic markets.
you mean like when those f-117 were shot down by old long-wave radar tracking? yep, those f-35cfs will all go, radar or no. israel didn’t stay outside iranian air space for no reason. they turned into chicken-shit as soon as they were painted.
but they won’t get the drop on you, ‘cos you’re toilet trained. 💩💩💩=🇺🇲
i hope that a gang of druze mercenaries and bibi fanatics will one day seize damascus and burn down the presidential palace so that this ugly building will never exist again.
or you give it a minute more for the return of the pharaoh
some day people will have enough knowledge to take all of your jewish rats around the globe for what they are.. druze, kurds, isis, al quaeda and the rest of your degenerates of lost jewish stems will soon burn again as they deserved it
i hope the wailing wall is carted off, ground down, and used to build a public toilet there instead. the jooz can do their wailing somewhere else.
full time wailing inside the shitshow called the us congress.
like microsoft. sell it first, then fix it
…or never fix it. upgrade! upgrade! it’ll only be another couple trillion.
americunts are inferior species
the problem is back ordered washing machine chips.
thats the benefit of fighting third world nations only, awacs planes and some groundbased systems are enought if you have your bases in literally every country around the globe.. wait for the first war that breaks their hegemony, than you will see how blind and incompetent they really are. it literally needs one stealth fighter to break their arrogance and all of their ambitions and powercenters fall like stones^^
the uk air force did this in the past. they had to take tornado aircraft without radar. instead of the radar set, there was a lump of concrete in the nose cone. this was dubbed “blue circle” radar after the cement company.
maybe the amerikunts should invade grenada or panama again instead. like clint eastwood said, a man should know his limitations.
another totally faked page of ramses narrative exclusively punlblished with intentions by the sf moderators
lol what? ballast?
weeee don’t neeeed no steeeeenken apg radar !!!