F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread

[FORBIN]

They do !

US Air Force declares first F-35s ‘operational’

The US Air Force on Tuesday 2 August declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for its very first squadron of F-35A Lightning II jets, situated at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The declaration follows a period of extensive training for the squadron and comes one year after the United States Marine Corps (USMC) declared IOC for its F-35Bs.

The 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill is now the world’s first operational F-35A squadron, flying ‘combat-coded’ aircraft running on the latest software block. The unit consist of 12 aircraft and 21 pilots, plus many support personnel. The first Lightning II arrived at Hill in September 2013.

Wether the squadron will soon make use of its IOC and deploy for operations abroad remains to be seen. Ccritics are quick to point out that the advanced Lockheed Martin F-35 is far from ready for actual combat. For exampe, the internal gun is still being tested at Edwards Air Force Base.

US Air Force tops brass however recently hinted to a deployment to Europe perhaps in 2017. That year, the USMC will first deploy its F-35Bs to Japan

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Air Force Declares F-35A Ready For Combat

WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Tuesday declared its first squadron of F-35As ready for battle, fifteen years after Lockheed Martin won the contract to make the plane.

The milestone means that the service can now send its first operational F-35 formation — the 34th Fighter Squadron located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah — into combat operations anywhere in the world. The service, which plans to buy 1,763 F-35As, is the single-largest customer of the joint strike fighter program, which also includes the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and a host of governments worldwide.

The Air Force, which follows the Marine Corps in approving F-35s for operations, had a five-month window between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 to proclaim initial operational capability. After notifying Congress, Air Combat Command head Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle signed off on the declaration on August 2.

To reach the milestone, Hill Air Force Base needed at least 12 combat-ready jets capable of deploying globally to provide what officials have termed basic close-air support, air interdiction and limited suppression and destruction of enemy air defense missions. Also required were enough pilots, maintainers and equipment to support the squadron.

Getting to that point was not exactly easy, as the F-35 program hit a few unforeseen snags this year. F-35 Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan announced in spring that the program office had identified instances of “software instability” that would cause the jets to have trouble booting up and, once the software was running, prompt the random shutdown of sensors

Then, Lockheed in June disclosed that the latest version of the plane’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, ALIS 2.0.2, would not be available until at least October. ALIS is the F-35’s maintenance backbone, and is used for everything from mission planning to ordering spare parts.

The F-35 appeared to turn the corner after seven planes from Hill deployed to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Utah. There, pilots and maintainers confirmed they could successfully operate and repair the plane away from home base, even with an earlier version of ALIS. They also demonstrated that Lockheed’s software update had fixed software instability problems, reporting zero glitches during the 88 sorties flown.

After that deployment, Carlisle said the current version of ALIS would not be a “limiting factor” that would keep the F-35 from becoming operational.

The squadron at Hill then completed its own checklist, which included tasks such as ensuring enough pilots were combat-ready and subjecting them to an oral examination. On July 27, members of Hill Air Force Base’s 34th Fighter Squadron told the press they had amassed 12 modified F-35As and 21 combat-mission-ready pilots and completed all the paperwork needed to make an IOC declaration.

Todd Harrison, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said declaring IOC is a sign the F-35 program has moved beyond the well-known cost overruns and development issues that marked so much of the fifth-generation fighter's development.

"I’m sure there will still be kinks that come up in the system in the coming years but for the most part, I think this means the program has stabilized, they’re on a good trajectory, [and] most of the potential for major cost overruns and technological challenges are now behind us," he said.

Critics of the program have said declaring IOC is more of a marketing move than an actual operational one, as the service set the IOC requirements itself. Harrison acknowledged that view, but said IOC is still an improtant step forward.

"It’s not doing everything they wanted it to do. It’s had all kinds of problems along the way. But they are at the point now where it is stabilizing, so it’s still a milestone of progress."

The Road Ahead

Carlisle said in July that even though he would feel comfortable sending the F-35 to a fight as soon as the jet becomes operational, Air Combat Command has formed a “deliberate path” where the aircraft would deploy in stages, first to Red Flag exercises, then as a “theater security package.”
The fighter probably won’t deploy to the Middle East to fight the Islamic State any earlier than 2017, he continued, but if a combatant commander asked for the capability, “I’d send them down in a heartbeat, because they’re very, very good.”

Over the next several years, the Air Force plans to stand up two more operational squadrons at Hill. That will entail growing the F-35 maintainer corps from the 222 currently trained personnel to almost 700 maintainers, said Lt. Col. Steven Anderson, deputy commander of the 388th Maintenance Group.

“We’ve got at least another 150 in the training pipeline,” he said. “On average, it’s 12 months to take a 4th-gen legacy aircraft maintainer and turn them into a fifth-generation maintainer, so those maintainers that are in the pipeline now will be standing up our next couple squadrons.”

Burlington Air National Guard Base is set to become the second operational base — and the first Air National Guard base — to host the F-35, and will receive 18 joint strike fighters to replace its F-16s, Richard Meyer, the Air Force’s deputy chief of the F-35 system management office division, said in a July 29 interview.

Around 2020, Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska, will get two squadrons of 24 F-35s. Those aircraft are not slated to replace any fourth-generation fighters at the base, and will bring added capability, he said

The Air Force’s first overseas base, RAF Lakenheath in England, will follow about a year afterwards. Lakenheath will be home to two F-35 squadrons in addition to the F-15E and F-15C squadrons it already has.

The service is still evaluating which installations to select for the fifth, sixth and seventh operational bases, Meyers said. The fifth and sixth bases will be Air National Guard bases, while the seventh will be one of four reserve bases that currently host F-16 or A-10 squadrons: Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona or Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, which is home to Air Force F-16s.

"You have to do an environmental assessment to ensure the base meets all the requirements of the environment of the new plane,” Meyers said. That assessment entails evaluating whether new military construction is needed and whether existing facilities need any alterations to be able to support the aircraft. “It just takes a while.”

F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin congratulated the service on meeting the IOC milestone. "With the F-35A, the Air Force now has a fighter combining next-generation radar-evading stealth, supersonic speed, fighter agility and advanced logistical support with the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft in history," the company said in a statement.

Pratt & Whitney, which produces the F135 engine used in all three variants of the jet, also sent a statement congratulating the service.

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[Jeff Head]

...and the beat goes on.

 

[Air Force Brat]

About the 100 first need some fix but was planned before about 1 billion for all IIRC

I was sure you remenber and your a nice person Brat a Gentlemen but with sometimes a mouth allow me but i like it much haha

Thank you Master Forbin, I am a big fan brother, and I'm sure you now know why I'm the Air Force "Brat", LOL. I really appreciate your sense of humor and the wonderful information and posts brother, I'm glad you have "set up camp, in our band of brothers", I most certainly try to be a gentleman, and defend those whose honor is besmirched by lesser men, even aircraft who are unfairly criticized by those who want to appear "smart". I appreciate your honesty, and that of my brother Jura, "its always good to maintaint a healthy skepticism about politicians and things that seem to good to be true".

at the same time, this Forum has "opened my eyes" to the very real perception that many of our members have, and has caused me to "re-assess" my own perception of reality. I hope that each member knows that the "brat" loves and respects you, even when I get a little "snotty", and apologies ahead of time.

 

[Jura The idiot]

... Jura, "its always good to maintaint a healthy skepticism about politicians and things that seem to good to be true".

...

... nicely put and let me add two things:

#1 let's wait and see if F-35 performs as advertised by the vendor (its line being repeated by the US Military, "quantum leap" and stuff), but
#2 the question remains (and soon may be gone, or asked by many, that's why I'll pose it for the SDF record now) if those tremendous resources had been better used on other aircraft than F-35

EDIT what I mean by #2:
kinda abstract economics rule says one should look at what would've been achieved by alternative project(s) in comparison to the one actually procured ... for example if you had invested one mil into something, you should then compare your gain, of for example 100 Grand, to what you would've earned if you had invested into something else, and evaluate the actual investment based on this: had it been realistically possible to gain 200 Grand by investing that one mil differently, your 100 Grand surplus would be a failure LOL!

 

[Air Force Brat]

... nicely put and let me add two things:

#1 let's wait and see if F-35 performs as advertised by the vendor (its line being repeated by the US Military, "quantum leap" and stuff), but
#2 the question remains (and soon may be gone, or asked by many, that's why I'll pose it for the SDF record now) if those tremendous resources had been better used on other aircraft than F-35

EDIT what I mean by #2:
kinda abstract economics rule says one should look at what would've been achieved by alternative project(s) in comparison to the one actually procured ... for example if you had invested one mil into something, you should then compare your gain, of for example 100 Grand, to what you would've earned if you had invested into something else, and evaluate the actual investment based on this: had it been realistically possible to gain 200 Grand by investing that one mil differently, your 100 Grand surplus would be a failure LOL!

" THEME Song to TV Show Batman," "Riddle me this Batman! Ceasar Romero (master Jura) to Batman, Adam West (Air Force Brat)

Question 1???

"Well Riddler?? I'll have to run that through the BATCOMPUTOR"

AAAAAHHHHH! here we go, it says that had we rolled all this money into an upgraded Raptor! we would have the worlds greates fighter/bomber ever, but since we didn't the F-35 is the second greatest fighter/bomber the world will ever know!
Question 2????

see answer above!

and now Riddler! back to yur nice Kozy Jail Gulaug!

 

[FORBIN]

Did you know

Initialy impossible to catch the cable with the tail hook ! after problem fixed do amazing job !

Navy Schedules F-35C for Third Set of Carrier Trials

The Navy’s F-35C Lightning II strike fighter is scheduled to begin carrier qualifications (CQs) for the third and final phase of its developmental test program (DT-III) this week, a Navy spokesman said in an e-mail announcing the planned event.

DT-III will be conducted onboard USS George Washington off the Virginia Capes Aug. 3-23. If the event proceeds on schedule, DT-III will begin with an F-35C landing onboard George Washington on Aug. 3

“A broad range of elements associated with carrier suitability and integration in the at-sea environment will be tested during DT-III, including day and night CQs, launch and recovery with external stores, approach handling qualities with symmetric and asymmetric external stores, Delta Flight Path testing, Joint Precision Approach and Landing System testing, crosswind and maximum-weight launches, military-/maximum-power lunches, and night operations with the [Generation] III Helmet-Mounted Display,” said Cmdr. Dave Hecht, public affairs officer for commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic.

The F-35C as put through its first set of carrier trials, DT-I, in November 2014 onboard USS Nimitz in the Southern California operations area. The F-35C, operated by Air Test & Evaluation 23, made the aircraft’s first carrier landing on Nov, 3, 2014. The pilots in the event accomplished 33 flights that included 124 catapult launches, 222 touch-and-go landings, and 124 arrested landings.

DT-II for the F-35C was conducted in October off the Virginia Capes onboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. This event included catapult launches and arrested landings with internal stores.
The F-35C is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in 2018, when a full 10-plane squadron will be operational.

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[Jeff Head]

"day and night CQs, launch and recovery with external stores, approach handling qualities with symmetric and asymmetric external stores, Delta Flight Path testing, Joint Precision Approach and Landing System testing, crosswind and maximum-weight launches, military-/maximum-power lunches, and night operations with the [Generation] III Helmet-Mounted Display"

View attachment 29679

GREAT!

I can't wait to see the pics coming out of this evaluation period!

 

[FORBIN]

Soon, very soon

 

[Jeff Head]

Soon, very soon

I can't wait.

So I will have to whet my appetite (and everyone else's) with pictures from the earlier at sea carrier quals! LOL!