First, the pilots have their heads measured and scanned. In the Marine Corps, those scans are used to build a portable helmet liner that goes between the F-35B pilot’s head and the hard-shell helmet itself.
“This styrofoam cap fits into any size helmet, enabling a pilot to take the helmet liner from squadron to squadron for use throughout his or her career,” a Marine Corps press release said.
Once the scanning is complete, the helmet optics have to be perfectly aligned with the pilot’s eyes. Technicians use a pupilometer, which measures the distance between the pilot’s pupils within two millimeters of its center.
Next, aircrew flight equipment technicians fit the pilots with oxygen masks and identify any leaks around the mask that could prevent proper oxygen flow.
“The next part is to ensure there is a proper distance between the mask and the visor,” Arteaga said. “We have to make sure when the pilot moves or talks, the mask doesn’t hit the visor. If it’s too close, it will bend the visor and distort the display image.”
That’s not the end of it though. After the initial fit, the helmet is inspected every 105 days and has a 120-day fit check to make sure it’s still snug.
the fact that there's no phrenology emotes on this site is a crime against humanity
The visor is literally a glorified VR headset, and it doesn't add any capability that a monocle over one eye (which the Russians started giving their pilots in the eighties) doesn't add.
Not even that, most headsets have mechanical IPD adjustments less than 2mm. You can get custom, 3d printed pads cheap, and silicon or PVC lasts longer than fucking styrofoam.
This is 100% grift.
One of the things they made a big deal about is the ability to control "high off-boresight" missiles that can shoot at a target behind the plane. Another is the HUD built into the visor. The main undocumented feature was decapitation.
This is the helmet Soviet fighter pilots wore in the 70s/early 80s. In the second picture of the article, you can see a version of it with the HMD over the wearer's right eye. It calls the HMD piece a "NWU-2M" but I can't seem to find any info on that specifically - not in English anyway.
So now I've looked it up and apparently American helicopter pilots beat Russian fighter pilots to this technology, and the first country to use the tech operationally was South Africa. But the whole point is that it lets you target things without having to swing your entire plane around to point at them, which greatly improves the attack capability of your aircraft (and is a big part of why the Soviet Su-27/Mig-29 were generally favored in short-range engagements over the F-15/F-16, though better radar tech and missiles gave the American planes an advantage in long range ones). The F-35 helmet reinvents the wheel on this technology and makes everything way more expensive and fragile than it needs to be.
Does it even protect against head injury or does that cost an extra hundred grand?
Quite the opposite, it's so heavy that there is a risk it will snap the pilot's neck if he ejects.
Yeah it sounds like a massive fleecing exercise for tech that really wasn't needed in the first place. The USA isn't going to get into next generation dog fights with Chinese fighters because that'd be suicide. They'll more than likely will be running A-10s over a south american country instead. We like to pick on the weak.
Aside from the fact that this grift is a massive jobs program, I think another reason that drones haven't taken over completely is the fighter pilots basically keep lobbying to keep their cool toys and cool jobs.
Ah, yes, styrofoam. A famously durable material that will definitely last an entire career.
This is why China is leagues ahead of the US military despite spending a fraction of the money
https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/were-going-to-lose-fast-us-air-force-held-a-war-game-that-started-with-a-chinese-biological-attack-170003936.html
Yeah they do this all the time because they want more money and shit. It's not too be trusted either way.
This whole thing is just war nerds breathlessly going "Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan" and then this call to action:
Despite loud alarms raised by the war games, the Pentagon has been slow to adjust its long-term spending plans or to invest in the kinds of military capabilities necessary to defend Taiwan or contested island chains in the South China Sea. Instead, older weapons systems like massive warships, short-range tactical fighter aircraft and heavy tank battalions continue to enjoy support from loyal constituencies both inside the Pentagon and in Congress. What’s needed, experts say, are bolder actions like the Marine Corps’ recent decision to completely divest itself of tanks and heavy armor by 2030 in order to invest in anti-ship missiles and mobile strike teams optimized for a conflict with China.
Surprise, the solution is NEW weapons!
