Why Does the F-35 Have Just One Engine? Blame It On Those Damned JarHeads.

A huge limiting factor of the F-35 is that it has just one engine.  In a vast, sparsely populated country with extreme weather (yes, that would be Canada), twin-engine reliability is a huge bonus.  One engine goes out - from a bird strike or mechanical failure, whatever - and you've still got one to let you limp back to the barn.

The F-35's vastly more capable big brother, the F-22, has twin engines.   So why just a single, massive jet engine for the F-35?  There is an answer.

When the F-35 was conceived it had to be designed to suit a lot of potential users.   It was supposed to replace most of the American fighter inventory.  That included the F-16, the F-18 and the AV8B, the Harrier.   That dictated three versions of the F-35, all of them sharing a somewhat similar airframe - similar but different.

The U.S. Air Force wasn't picky.   They wanted the ordinary, straight up warplane.   The U.S. Navy wanted a beefier version capable of operating at sea and withstanding the pounding of carrier launches and landings.   But - and there's always a "but" - the U.S. Marine Corps wanted a plane that could fly like their venerable Harrier jump jets.  The U.S.M.C. wanted a short-take off/vertical landing ground pounder.

The U.S.M.C. requirement meant that all three variants of the F-35 would be single-engine.   The airframe had to be designed to suit one big-ass boiler.   And it's for the convenience of the United States Marine Corps that Canada, and the rest of America's Aerial Foreign Legion, is going to have to bite it and go single-engine with all the problems and risks that entails.

Aviation Week's Bill Sweetman pondered what a twin-engine F-35 might look like.   Then it struck him.   It would look pretty much like this:

In case you didn't get the memo, that's China's new J-31 stealth fighter that has more than a passing resemblance to the F-35.   Some speculate that's because China is believed to have filched a lot of the design and computer code from F-35 contractors.

Oh well.

A Few Good Men

Canada may be a Pacific Rim country just not, perhaps, to our corporate news media.  There's a lot happening in the South-Asia/East Asia arc involving China, India, the United States and, most recently, Australia.  Too bad Canadians hear so little of it.

Washington has now reached a deal with Canberra to deploy a permanent force of 2,500 US Marines to Australia.  The message is clear.

"...Obama said the US was "stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific", not excluding China.

"The main message that I've said, not only publicly but also privately to China, is that with their rise comes increased responsibility," he said.

"It is important for them to play by the rules of the road."

China has issued its own ominous warning to Australia about the price it may have to pay.

"The Global Times, a newspaper produced by the Communist Party-controlled People's Daily group, has been much more bellicose, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.

"An editorial warned it was "certain" that if "Australia uses its military bases to help the US harm Chinese interests, then Australia itself will be caught in the crossfire".

India, meanwhile, has been bumping shoulders with China in the South China Sea where India has joined with Vietnam to collaborate on a resource venture in territory that China claims as its own.  India's new "blue water" navy has already stated its goal of establishing sea control from the Bay of Bengal to the Kuril Islands which, quite coincidentally, blankets China's entire coastline.

The Chinese media has released new criticisms of India's military buildup.  The People's Daily says India's policy is three dimensional.

"One, India needs to exaggerate the ‘threat perception’ in order to justify its defence budget and arms purchases at a time when the economy is slowing. Two, India is adopting a ‘containment’ policy toward China. Three, India hopes to gain US’s military and political support. "


And, as if tensions with India weren't enough, now China is said to be facing a showdown with a joint US-Philippine resource venture in the South China Sea.


"Tensions over the oil-rich and strategically important South China Sea have escalated as Chinese state media accused the US and the Philippines of planning a ''grab'' for its resources.

"The South China Sea is a potential flashpoint between the US and China as the two powers seek to assert their diplomatic, economic and security interests in Asia, the fastest growing region in the world.

"The US has leapt on nervousness among smaller Asian nations about China's growing military might and bellicose diplomacy to reassert its long-standing role as an anchor of security in Asia, even as its economic importance wanes."