Lieutenant General Greg Masiello told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that the APG-85 radar cannot use its full capability until future F-35 engine and cooling upgrades arrive. The delay leaves the new radar tied to the aircraft’s current cooling limits instead of the performance envelope it is meant to reach.
Greg Masiello and APG-85
Senator Mark Kelly pressed him on the Northrop Grumman APG-85, the radar going into US F-35s. Masiello said its "full capability" depends on upgrades that are not yet in place, which means operators will not get the radar’s full value from the airframe as delivered today.
The current cooling capacity is 30 kW. The future requirement is 62 kW to 80 kW. Running the APG-85 more than doubles the cooling needed for the entire aircraft, so the limiter is not just the sensor itself but the power and thermal margin around it.
F-35 cooling and engines
The program expects to deliver upgraded engines in 2031. Masiello said the cooling system should arrive "a few years later". That sequence matters for F-35 operators because the radar’s practical ceiling stays below its design intent until both changes land.
The APG-85 is not interchangeable with the current APG-81 sensor. Deliveries of the APG-85 have been running late. That leaves US F-35 units waiting on a sensor upgrade that is already linked to platform changes outside the radar bay itself. A separate report on Gregory Masiello says six Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning Ii jets lacked radars also pointed to delivery gaps that affect fielding.
Running the APG
Masiello also disclosed that F-35Bs have been delivered to the US Marine Corps without radars. He said no other country will get the APG-85, which narrows the issue to the US fleet and makes the timing of the engine and cooling work the practical bottleneck for anyone expecting the new radar to be fully usable soon.
The wider pattern is familiar: airframe upgrades often decide whether a sensor can do what the brochure claims. A separate 2012 missile test in the Counter-electronics HPM Advanced Missile Project showed how electronic attack can scale when power is available, and a 2015 Air Combat Command leader said CHAMP "cost way too much", a reminder that capability keeps running into size, power, and cost constraints.
The open question is specific: which APG-85 functions need the jump from 30 kW to 62 kW to 80 kW, and which ones can run before the cooling upgrade reaches the fleet.
