"F-35F" a F-35B derived standalone port

[Ex3B 266]

So I noticed, years after Arma 3 has been out, there are still very few mods for an F-35B, and none are standalone.

Spoiler

Early in Arma's history, Chortle's put his out, but its way out of date with the new sensors, stealth, pilot camera, jet hitpoints, and dynamic loadouts

The USAF mod is working on one, but its still not out, and I suspect it will have a lot of other non-vanilla complexities (afterburner for instance), I doubt it will be standalone

CUP: incapable of VTOL operation (STOVL only), which makes it not suited for hover taxing, which is great for use with the LHD for instance

Aegis: probably the best one, but its not standalone. Furthermore I wanted to make additional changes, but I am not in anyway trashing this one.

I think my F-35B port is not bad at the moment, much better than when I first uploaded it and shared in the addons discussion forum, so I figured I'd make a thread in the "complete" forum, although I still plan on tweaking it.

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1583193287

 

So I started with a port of the Arma 2 F-35 (ie an X-35 model), and updated it. Its got working radar/sensors, stealth properties, dynamic loadouts, partially configured hitpoints, and a pilot camera.

I've made the model more F-35 like, and less X-35 like (such as the lift fan cover, a bump on the nose for the EOTS, a sawtooth edge on the tailpipe, a changed canopy, etc).

Early version showing the sawtooth edge:

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I've also given it much more capabilities than Arma 2's loadout. Maximum A2A loadout is now 6 missiles

Spoiler

 

As the AGM-88C (C!!! wtf, the E model was already around in 2018) is too big, I made a smaller and weaker ARM, the ALARM (Advanced Light Anti Radiation Missile). 2 hits are needed to disable/destroy a Tigris (in testing, the crew is able to bail before the tigris goes up in flames after the 2nd hit, and survive).

 

Each of the two outer pylons supports: 1x Bim-9x/1xASRAAM/1xAMRAAM D/1xALARM/1x12 DAR Pod/1x12DAGR pod

Each of the two inner pylons supports: 1-2x AMRAAM D/1x ALARM/4x SDB/4x Scapel/1x GBU-12/1x CBU-85

It has an internal 20mm gatling gun with 300 rounds

 

I had thought about giving it a 25mm internal gun (files for such are in game, but not well balanced)- however for a space and weight limited V/STOL model, a smaller 20mm cannon makes more sense. Also since it can fire rockets for use in CAS, a heavier hitting cannon isn't needed so much for taking out armored targets.

Therefore it gets the same 20mm cannon as the blackfoot - which should be a 3 barrel version of the good old M61 Vulcan, "the world's lightest 20 mm Gatling cannon".

 

Top speed is the same as the Black Wasp for now (I think I'll scale it back a little*). Radar stealth and range is the same as the black wasp. Its IR stealth is a 20% reduction in detection range (a 0.8 multiplier). Its IR sensor is the same as that found on the A-164 wipeout, except not limited to view distance settings (I don't know why they do that for vanilla assets *).

 

* The F-35 and the F-18 have similar top speeds, but both are significantly slower than the F-22. If the F-181 is supposed to be a F-18/F-22 hybrid, then it should be faster than the F-35

 

I also found the pilot view in the F-35 from Arma 2 to be too obstructive, so I changed it to improve the field of view.

(its an old pic, but the geometry is more or less the same, the default gun has changed, the CM magazine size, and the sensors as well)

 

Fictional lore for the F-35F in armaverse:

Spoiler

After the C-model of the F-35 was unexpectedly the most troublesome, the Navy withdrew from the F-35 program to focus on development of the Black Wasp, starting from old designs of a navalized Raptor. Many regretted that the JSF design was "inherently compromised" due to concessions to the STOVL variant, and wished it had simple been an update to the F-22 with a carrier variant. Previous experience showed that a joint Air-Force and Navy fighter could work well, as with the F-4 Phantom, and many felt the STOVL variant in addition to this was too ambitious.

None-the-less, the F-35B was a massive upgrade to the old Harrier for the Marines and NATO partners lacking full size carriers. The Air force and Marines, in cooperation with NATO partners pressed ahead with an update to the F-35. The F-35 D (CTOL) and F-35E (STOVL) featured reduced weight and improved range in part thanks to improved materials and engine efficiency.

Once criticized for its expense and waste, the overall program became much more efficient due to a variety of factors. The declining western economies drove down labor prices, resulting in cheaper jets. CSAT began to be considered an existential threat to the western nations, and politicians began to be more concerned with efficiency than pork barrel projects. Even more importantly, CSAT's favoritism towards their state owned or linked companies resulted in many multi-national companies beginning to show more loyalty to the western countries that were nominally their homes. Embezzlement and overcharging decreased, and the F-35 upgrade program actually began to proceed quickly and at a reasonable price.

The increased threat of anti-ship/anti-runway ballistic/high speed cruise missiles created renewed interest in the V/STOL variant. The Navy wished to be able to distribute its airpower to smaller ships such that the loss of a carrier wouldn't be so strategically catastrophic; while the Air force desired the ability to set up multiple forward bases, to have multiple rebasing options in the event of an incoming missile strike that is not successfully intercepted.

The three services came together to collaborate on another version, that would be used across all services as a true Joint-Service strike fighter. The definitive F-35F STOVL fighter was born.

The availability of small guided munitions obviated the need for a larger caliber gun, and a lightweight 3 barrel 20mm gatling cannon was installed instead. The VTOL system's reliability had been dramatically improved, with a large increase in time between maintenance/overhaul. The weapon bay dimensions were optimized in light of the new racks and small size munitions, and stealth was somewhat improved, keeping an edge over eastern stealth designs and AESA air defense radars.

*A conventional take-off G variant is also in the final stages, with a high energy laser (with a 360x360 degree field of fire) where the lift fan is on the B, E, and F models, which will grant it near invulnerability to anti-air missiles and ensure victory in any close range dogfight, ushering in the age of the 6th generation fighter.*

* This is purely fluff/fiction, I am not working on a mod to add any such variant to the game

 

These pics are a little out of date (textures have been darkened, but they show the basics:

Spoiler

 

 

I welcome feedback.

 

[Ex3B 266]

Updated:

changed the cockpit so that the textures aren't distorted.

Made the 2nd RPM gauge indicate engine vector, so you don't need to go in 3rd person view to see that

 

 

Added a less stealthy STOVL variant with external weapon pylons.

 

Made the underside lighter, so its dark on top, lighter on the bottom.

[bovine3dom 70]

Hey @Ex3B, we've been using your F-35 in the 16AA for a couple of months now. On the whole we really like it.

 

We noticed a couple of bugs:

 

The "mirroring" in the pylon configuration in-game doesn't work as you have set every F35 >> Components >> TransportPylonComponents >> Pylons >> Pylon* to have a mirroredMissilePos. You should only set them on one half of the pylons - the pylons for which it is not set can then be changed by the players, and the ones with the mirroredMissilePos will be greyed out and follow what they have set for the other pylons. Currently everything is greyed out once you tick "mirror" 🙂.

 

The other issue is that in multiplayer we have noticed that we can hear what appears to be the landing gear retracting from a very long way away, far louder than the actual engine of the jet itself. Is there anything we can do to help debug this?

[Ex3B 266]

Hmmm, I can fix the mirror thing, I never actually have used mirror before, so I never noticed it. With only 4 pylons, I always set them manually. As for the landing gear sound issue, I've never used the F-35 in multiplayer, so I didn't realize that, I'll take a look and see if I see anything that might be the cause.

[Ex3B 266]

Mirroring of pylons now works.

I fixed the issue with it taking a long time to come to a stop when you do a rolling landing.

I've added a variant named F-35B with doubled IR, active radar, and passive radar sensor ranges, and doubled weapon ranges for the ARM missiles and A2A missiles, now it just needs some better SAMs and fighters to oppose it.

Also a slight tweak, the external pylons variant can mount 19x DAR pods