I don't understand here, why still taking so much time doing flight testing here?
In production means rolling out planes at fast rate.
Or this yellow primer is just a gimmick? It's still at test flight stage with its leisurely pace and using the primer to mislead people into believing its in production stage.
F35 test flights are still ongoing. Is that a gimmick also?
It's now common practice to start LRIP while tests are still ongoing, but after they have frozen the airframe design.
A huge part of 5th gen fighters is the software, both avionics and FBW.
If they are into LRIP, it means they are happy with the airframe refinements and other hardware, and test flights are now mostly about finalising and tweeting the FBW control laws. Those laws could be updated on all aircraft with a software update.
This way, by starting LRIP, they can shave years off of the programme compared to waiting until completely finishing testing before starting production.
When the first LRIP birds are delivered to the Air Force, most of their higher combat functions are probably locked off, but since the pilots would need time to convert to the new type, that shouldn't matter. Since no one would be pushing a fighter they have never flown before into combat manuvers before they are fully familiarised with its layout, controls and basic handling, and that will take months at a minimum.
All the while the test flights are still ongoing, so by the time the first Air Force pilots are ready for more advanced manuvers, hopefully the test programme would have cleared more of the flight envelope. So after s FBW software update, they can open up more capability on the LRIP planes for the Air Force to progress with the training of their pilots.
At the same time, any feedback from the Air Force pilots could be fed back to the test programme, so they can make adjustments and refinements where necessary.
