“APG-85 just in time advance procurement for long lead materials is required two years in advance due to APG-85 manufacturing timelines and F-35 aircraft lot insertion schedule,” according to the Air Force.
The first year of advance procurement (AP) “supports suppliers/systems based on lead time associated with the materials: microcircuits, connectors, magnet assembly, transceiver kits, inductor chips, forward housing assembly, signal processors, radiator structures, amplifiers, and chassis assembly,” while the second year of AP funding “completes material buys, manufactures, and delivers the completed radar for lead time integration into the complete air system aircraft,” the service has said.
Radar mountings in the F-35’s nose are different for the current APG-81 and the future APG-85 radar–a difference which has helped complicate fielding of the new radar which was to deliver with F-35 Lot 17.
F-35s have delivered without radars because the APG-85 bulkhead radar mountings in the aircraft’s nose are incompatible with the APG-81–a factor that has led to consideration of a a dual-mount bulkhead, though the latter may take two years to field.
A version of this story originally appeared in sister publication Defense Daily.
