F-22 / F-35 5th Generation jets | News & Discussions.

[mike2000 is back]

Total global air supremacy. No challenger.

We spent a day with the people who fly and fix the F-35 — here's what they have to say about the most expensive weapons project in history

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland — In a nondescript US military hangar, steps away from Air Force One, sits America'spriciest weapons system.

"The F-35 is a needed aircraft to get us to where we need to be for the future of warfare," said US Air Force Maj. Will "D-Rail" Andreotta, the commander of the F-35A Lightning II Heritage Flight Team.

"What it's giving to the pilots is everything I'm seeing on my screens added to that the helmet, the situational awareness, and the advanced avionics that we have on the aircraft is gonna allow us to fight wars in places that we have very limited capabilities in right now," Andreotta told Business Insider.

Maj. Gen. Jay Silveria, a US Air Force Warfare Center commander, walking to an F-35A Lightning II with Lt. Col. Matt Renbarger, a 58th Fighter Squadron commander, before his final qualification flight at Eglin Air Force Base.US Air Force photo

In August, US Air Force Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, the commander of Air Combat Command, declared initial combat capability of 15 Air Force F-35A jets — a significant breakthrough for the weapons program, which has been set back by design flaws, cost overruns, and technical challenges.

"When you look at where the Air Force is headed, you look at coalition warfare and spend time in the Pacific, what this means to the interoperability, the ability to operate with others in the battle space and create the coalition warfare that we will always, always, fight with in the future, the centerpiece of that is gonna be the F-35," Carlisle said at the Air Force Association'sannual Air, Space & Cyber conference.

"The integration, the interoperability, the fusion warfare that this here plane brings to the fight ... it changes the game."

An F-35A conventional takeoff and landing aircraft flying with its afterburner over Edwards Air Force Base on a night mission in 2013.Courtesy of Lockheed Martin

The fifth-generation "jack of all trades" jet was developed in 2001 by Lockheed Martin to replace the aging aircraft in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.

The fighter is equipped with radar-evading stealth, supersonic speed, and "the most powerful and comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft in history," Jeff Babione, the head of Lockheed Martin's F-35 program, said in a statement.

And for an enemy to engage an F-35 would be like jumping into a boxing ring to "fight an invisible Muhammad Ali," as Gen. Tod Wolters, the commander of US Air Forces in Europe, told Business Insider.

In short, the F-35 gives pilots the ability to see but not be seen.

An F-35B from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 near its base in Beaufort, South Carolina.Lockheed Martin

What's more, Andreotta added, the F-35A is easy to fly.

"The F-35 is a very, very easy airplane to fly — that kinda sounds funny, but it really is ... Things that were difficult and time-consuming and task-saturating in an F-16 have now become easy," said Andreotta, a pilot in the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona who has 1,600 hours in an F-16.

"I can take information that I'm getting from the F-35 and push it out to other aircraft that don't have the capabilities that I have. That's huge. I would have killed for that when I was flying an F-16."

Maj. Justin Robinson flying the 56th Operations Group flagship F-16 Fighting Falcon, escorting the first F-35 Lightning II to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona in 2014.US Air Force photo

Unlike any other fielded fighter jet, the F-35 can share what it sees in the battle space with counterparts, which creates a "family of systems."

"Fifth-generation technology, it's no longer about a platform. It's about a family of systems, and it's about a network, and that's what gives us an asymmetric advantage," Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, said during a Pentagon briefing.

Elaborating on the advantages, US Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, the director of the F-35 integration office, said the aircraft was "one our adversaries should fear."

"In terms of lethality and survivability, the aircraft is absolutely head and shoulders above our legacy fleet of fighters currently fielded," said Pleus, an F-35A pilot and former command pilot with more than 2,300 flying hours.

An F-35A performing a test flight on March 28, 2013.Courtesy of Lockheed Martin

Alongside Andreotta, US Air Force TSgt Robert James, also of the F-35A Lightning II Heritage Flight Team and a pilot in the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, offered some insight as a crew chief.

"Aircraft maintenance is aircraft maintenance, but with the F-35 there is an ease in maintenance," James told Business Insider.

"What they did with the F-35, I feel, and again I do this every day, is that they thought about the maintainer as well as the pilot. They designed the aircraft in a way that the maintainer could do their job better," James said.

An F-35A Lightning II team parking the jet for the first time at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on February 8.US Air Force photo

And while the F-35 has become one of the most challenged programs in the history of the Department of Defense, US Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, F-35A Joint Strike Fighter Program executive officer, said "the program itself is making progress."

"Any development program is going to encounter issues," Bogdan said. "If you're building a development program and you don't find anything wrong, then you didn't do a good enough job building that program."

US Air Force Maj. Will "D-Rail" Andreotta and US Air Force TSgt. Robert James in front of an F-35A at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday.Amanda Macias/Business Insider

He added: "So it's not a surprise to me that on any given day that we encounter things wrong with this airplane. Now is the time to find those things and fix them. The perfect example is our insulation problem we have right now.

"The mark of a good program is not that you don't have any problems but that you find things early. You fix them. You make the airplane better, the weapons system better, and you move on."

Haters gonna hate and keep talking shit, while these beauties keep moving forward. GOD SPEED.Kudos. Cant wait to see these beasts on our Mighty QUEEN ELIZABETH CARRIERS PATROLLING THE WORLD SEAS.

 

[mike2000 is back]

U.K. To Earn Billions On F-35 Work
Sep 9, 2016Angus Batey | ShowNews

The industrial benefit for this country of being involved in this program is huge," says Sir Stephen Dalton, a former chief of the air staff. "Getting in there at the start as the only primary partner has been a huge economic, as well as strategic, success for the country."

• 
  As the program moves towards full-rate production, the rationale for that initial down payment is becoming clearer– not so much as it relates to the number of development jets and the integration of various UK weapons, but as an investment in the future of Britain's aerospace and defense industry. According to independent aerospace industry analyst Howard Wheeldon, the program has so far returned more than GBP6 billion (USD8.4bn) to British industry.
  
  "The amount of revenue the UK will generate from the program in its totality will create multiples of return on that investment," says Declan Holland, BAE Systems' commercial director for its UK F-35 business. "Ultimately, the UK will take in about GBP2bn of business each year on this program." Holland goes on to note that the program could continue into the 2040s.
  
  The impact on British industry is considerable, though reliable figures are hard to confirm. The UK Government and various industrial partners often claim there are "more than a hundred" British companies delivering content onto the jet, with "more than 500" firms involved in the wider UK supply chain.
  
  Sensitivities around sourcing specialist components or subsystems, and the nested contractual relationships that bind sub-suppliers to their customers, mean no company, not even prime contractor Lockheed Martin, holds a complete list of every business involved. Some firms may not even be aware that they are indirectly supplying the program.
  
  "I remember bumping into a guy from a company supplying coatings," says Dave Gordon, defense director for Rolls-Royce UK, "and as a result of the work he'd got on this platform he'd taken on four more guys. And they were all going to the same sandwich shop. That sounds like a cliché, but that's the kind of personal story that's often invisible at OEM level."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  As F-35 production takes off, so does business for a bevy of UK companies.
  
  
  BAE Systems
  
  
  
  The UK as a whole may produce 15-20% of every JSF, but 10% is made by just one company. BAE Systems is the sole source for the aft fuselage, and vertical and horizontal tails, which are manufactured at its plant in Samlesbury, Lancashire.
  
  "The program has enabled us to invest heavily in manufacturing capability," says Declan Holland, BAE's UK F-35 commercial director. "What we have on site is custom-built and leading-edge." He added:
  BAE Systems is a key industrial partner on the F-35 programme, bringing our military aircraft expertise to the development of the aircraft. We bring decades of experience in short take-off and vertical landing from our Harrier aircraft which has informed the technology behind the F-35, and are the lead design authority on crucial capabilities including the fuel system, crew escape and life support system.
  We conduct durability testing at our unique structural testing facility in East Yorkshire, UK, while our engineering teams work alongside our partners on flight testing and weapons integration work for the UK.
  In the US, our test pilots and engineers are working to get the aircraft ready to meet the needs of our customers. All in all, we play a leading role in ensuring the F-35 retains its fighting edge." Declan Holland, BAE's UK F-35.
  
  In an atrium overlooking the Samlesbury shop floor, operations manager Jim Fazackerley contemplates a chart showing the looming ramp-up to full-rate production. It looks like the profile of a mountain stage of the Tour de France, with the red dot marking today's date at the foot of the steepest incline. The last time Samlesbury saw comparable military aircraft production rates was during the WWII.
  
  Accommodating the rate rise requires meticulous planning. The current 130,000-square-foot facility was opened in 2012, but work is already underway on a 30-meter-long extension, which will double the number of workstations. The schedule is part of a strategic plan for the site drawn up a decade ago. "A lot of emphasis was put into understanding what we needed to do to become a high-rate facility," Fazackerley says.
  
  
  
  BAE Systems Electronic warfare suite on F-35
  BAE's team in Rochester, UK, provides the Active Interceptor Systems which the pilot uses to direct and maneuver the aircraft. Our engineers have also developed high-tech management computers which control the life-cycle costs of the jet, driving affordability for our customers. We even deliver micro-sensors which will warn aircraft inspectors of the risk of corrosion in hard-to-reach parts of the aircraft, reducing the need for costly, time-consuming inspections.
  "We do generate a level of concessions," Fazackerley says, referring to minor manufacturing defects such as oversized holes, which can be rectified by inserting sleeves before inspection and acceptance from Lockheed's on-site staff. "Two to three years ago we were probably generating in excess of 70 concessions per aircraft. Today it's less than 12."
  
  Some of the progress is related to technology, some to greater institutional familiarity with the processes: but investment in, and dialog with, the workforce is vital as the plant gears up for full-rate production.
  
  "The infrastructure, plant and equipment will all be in place to support the rates," Fazackerley says. "I think the challenges will be around getting the right people with the right skill sets into the business at the right time. There's a big emphasis here on engagement with the teams, because we need their help and support to identify the waste we can remove from the processes."
  
  Around 1,700 people are employed exclusively on BAE's British F-35 work, including the hundred or so seconded to Lockheed in Texas. This number will rise as full-rate production nears. BAE's academy in Preston is being relocated to Samlesbury this summer, and, as part of a government scheme, the company is extending its apprenticeship offering to sub-suppliers, who will be able to enroll trainees at no cost.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  BAE's Samlesbury assembly line for the F-35 empennage has been designed for high-rate production – it incorporates ideas from the auto industry.
  
  
  EDM
  
  A vivid illustration of the F-35's effect on British industry can be found in the Newton Heath district of Manchester. EDM, which manufactures two training devices for the program, moved here from Oldham after winning the contract in 2007, and is currently building an extension to its premises to handle increasing JSF production volumes. When it opens around the turn of the year, the company will have tripled its physical footprint since joining the program, while the workforce will rise from around 80 in 2007 to over 200 next year. Turnover before F-35 was GBP5m a year: current company forecasts put it at GBP25m in 2017.
  
  "Our business is split 50/50 military/civil," says EDM's sales and business development director Mick Bonney, "but this contract has really given us a huge comfort zone. We're looking out now to 2018, at least. When I joined EDM (in 2006) we were a contracting business. Every six months we were looking at where the next job was coming from. The longer-term order book gives some nice stability, which has allowed us to recruit and invest."
  
  EDM's contract is direct with Lockheed Martin in Orlando. The company supplied its first training device – a Weapon Load Trainer – to Lockheed in 2011. It was installed at Eglin Air Force Base the same year. The company has so far delivered five further systems, most recently to Hill AFB in 2015, and currently has Ejection Seat Maintenance Trainers under construction that will be supplied to Australia, Japan and RAF Marham in the UK. "The factory's full," Bonney says.
  
  EDM has its own supply chain of between 30-40 other companies, many of which have sub-suppliers of their own. While none of those only supply into EDM's F-35 work, Bonney estimates there are "five or six companies" which have gone from "doing a little bit for us but who now must be 50% F-35. They've had to ramp-up and invest in new machines."
  
  Bonney is hoping EDM will eventually be able to bid for support and sustainment work to extend the company's involvement beyond building the training devices. "We've got to push hard for that," he says. "We'd love to try to be involved in the UK support side, but we've not had those discussions Lockheed. They have their own support model – it's the complete package, a brilliant idea – but clearly we're keen."
  
  The F-35 work has already helped grow the rest of the business, too.
  
  "I don't have any doubt about that," Bonney says. "Folk know who we are and what we're doing. We'd never worked with Boeing, but we've got a contract now to produce their Helicopter Aircrew Training System for Australia. It's a fairly simple device, but it's an important helicopter trainer. We're working with Thales, CAE, BAE, Lockheed, and now Boeing, all the big guys. Which is all good news."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The first of EDM's Weapons Load Trainer devices was delivered to Eglin Air Force Base in 2011.
  
  
  GKN
  
  GKN supplies content to the F-35 program from sites in Europe and the U.S., but its British plants in Luton, Cowes and Filton are all involved with critical subsystems on the jets. Luton supplies an ice-protection system for the engine, while metallic structures are produced at Filton, and composite structures at Cowes.
  
  GKN's dedicated UK workforce is small. Some 50 people are directly employed on the program, though the head-count will double for full-rate production. But the products demand accuracy, which has helped determine the company's investment decisions and influenced its growth strategy.
  
  "The composite and metallic parts we make are complicated, and there is a drive for zero defects every time," says John Pritchard, CEO of GKN's aerospace aerostructures Europe business. "This means the production process must be at the leading edge of design and manufacturing technology."
  
  As a result, the company made what Pritchard describes as "a multi-million pound investment" in the Cowes composites facility, while the other sites were expanded, new equipment installed and new training initiatives inaugurated. Specialist staff development has taken place, but so too has investment in other human resources, while the knock-on effects have been felt in neighboring businesses outside the aerospace industrial base.
  
  "Apprenticeships have been established," says Pritchard. "Jobs have also been created covering support functions such as transportation, logistics, machine installation and maintenance. One of our sites has no easy access to retail amenities, so we now have a mobile food provider serving the site each day."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  GKN uses an automated flame-spray process at Luton for an ice-protection system integrated into an engine component.
  
  
  Leonardo
  
  The factory on the outskirts of Edinburgh currently run by Leonardo has had several different names above the door since it was established during the WWII to make gun sights for Spitfires. Laser technology has been produced here since the 1960s, and in the late '90s the plant won the contract to provide the laser for the JSF program's EOTS (electro-optical targeting system).
  
  That win revitalized the business following defeats in earlier competitions. Today the firm also supplies targeting lasers to the AH-64, and the Sniper and Litening targeting pods. Its post-JSF wins seeing the Edinburgh team replace previous incumbents. According to site management, the business is now the world's biggest supplier of targeting lasers, a deeply specialist niche which other firms have struggled to master.
  
  "I'm a believer that the market has the wrong appreciation of the value of a laser," says Alastair Morrison, SVP for radar and advanced targeting (R&AT). "You can actually see that with the number of people who've tried, and got a bloody nose, and decided that it's not a good idea."
  
  Despite the specialized nature of the work, the site still depends heavily on an extended supply chain. This enables Leonardo to keep on-site costs down, but requires the company to invest in managing its suppliers, and sometimes investing in their capability.
  
  "We have specialized procurement and manufacturing engineers who go out to the supply base," says Dr. Mark Smith, R&AT business's chief technology officer. "In case a specialist supplier goes bust or loses capability, we actively look to have more than one supplier, and sometimes it's cheaper for us to invest in that supply chain, and fund suppliers to do the very cutting-edge work."
  
  The F-35 work, though not the majority of the site's laser business, continues to play a vital role.
  
  "The scale and longevity of the program affords us the confidence to invest in all aspects of the product," says Morrison, adding that the work "ensure(s) we can develop and produce state-of-the-art lasers that continue to meet customer and end-user needs at affordable prices."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  An F-35 production contract has revived the fortunes of the laser business at Leonardo’s Edinburgh site.
  
  
  Stirling Dynamics
  
  This control-system specialist was founded in the Bristol suburb of Clifton in 1987 and has been supplying active inceptors for the F-35 simulator program almost for the whole of the firm's history. "(JSF) is not the be-all-and-end-all of what we do," says Gareth Vaughan, Stirling's aerospace and marine systems business manager, "but it's a significant part of keeping us going at the size we want to be, and growing as well."
  
  Stirling were involved in early work that led to the development of active inceptors, though the contract for the F-35's flying sticks went to BAE Systems. The company has delivered over 250 units to the simulation end of the program and has "a very significant number still to go," according to Vaughan.
  
  Even as niche a component as controls for the simulators has a considerable economic impact.
  
  "We employ about a hundred people," Vaughan says, "but we buy materials and components from far and wide. We have a network of specialists we work with: they tend to be businesses that are a bit smaller than us. I can't really go into where we source everything from - but there's companies we would have bought ones and twos from who we're now purchasing 40 or 50 supplied items a year from, so they're benefitting from our involvement in the F-35."
  
  The F-35 also provides a significant marketing hook, and the global nature of the program has helped Stirling expand its business.
  
  "We've been to F-35 supplier conferences in the U.S., and the U.S. market is the biggest in the world in terms of simulator controls, and simulation in general," says Vaughan. "Just within the Lockheed Martin supply chain there are other companies we can do business with. There's opportunity in there to partner or work together, direct to end users, or as a supplier into some of the next-level-up companies."
  
  
  
  The inceptors for the F-35 simulator perform identically to those on the aircraft, but cost less because the electronics are more simple and there is less need for redundancy.
  
  
  Rolls-Royce
  
  Although regularly cited as one of the UK's biggest players in the JSF program, much of Rolls-Royce's manufacturing work on the F-35B's lift system is actually done in the United States. But company staff argue it's not just the volume of the work that is important to Britain, but its cutting-edge nature.
  
  "While the assembly has moved over to the States, we still own around half of the design in the UK, and it's the complicated half," says Dickon Skinner, program executive for LiftSystem UK. "We own the compression system, the hollow blisks, the composite vanes that run down the center of the lift fan. We also own the actuation system, which is what does the really flash stuff on the 3BSM (three-bearing swivel module).”
  
  Skinner says some 38% by value of the LiftSystem is still manufactured in the UK, a little over half of that in-house at Rolls, the remainder by the company's British suppliers. That includes the actuators on the 3BSM which are supplied by Moog Aircraft Group in Wolverhampton, one of 17 major sub-suppliers Rolls has under contract for the program. "Those 17 suppliers and the Rolls-Royce effort contributes to just under a thousand jobs in the UK," Skinner says.
  
  The LiftSystem work leverages what Dave Gordon, UK director for defense at Rolls-Royce, calls the company's "rich STOVL heritage, of which we remain extremely proud." But while certain capabilities remained from the Pegasus/Harrier days – Gordon singles out experience with fluid dynamics and understanding of compressor applications – Rolls had to invest in new technologies and processes for the F-35's exacting power and weight requirements.
  
  The hollow blisk blades are made by joining two sheets of titanium then inflating them, and are fixed to the hub using linear friction welding, vibrating the blade against the hub at high speed to create a plasma weld. Test equipment is bespoke and expensive. "We measure several thousand features for the 3BSM casing for every aircraft," Skinner says, "and that requires some real precision-machining capabilities."
  
  The program also called on RR to work closely with Pratt & Whitney on integrating the system with the F135 engine. "We've got some experience on the civil side of working together," Gordon says, "but from a military point of view, working with a competitor on a partnered program was new territory. It's something we've had to work extremely hard on, but I have to say it works pretty well."
  
  Benefits to the company go beyond the readily quantifiable.
  
  "I can say from personal experience that I was able to attract the best people to the program just because it's exciting to work on," Gordon says. "There's no other application like this anywhere in the world, nor will there be for generations to come. It ticks all the boxes: it's sexy, it's interesting, it's technologically demanding. All of that stuff only helps when we try to keep our advantage in this game."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Roll-Royce leverages several novel manufacturing techniques F-35 lift fan's blisk (bladed disk).
  
  
  
  
  Minimal Risk for UK Suppliers
  
  A welcome side-effect of the UK government's 2015 Strategic Defense and Security Review was its re-commitment to Britain's original intention to buy 138 F-35s. This effectively removes the risk smaller, non-sole-source suppliers in Britain were running that a reduced UK buy – and a resultant reallocation of some of the UK's share of the work – could have resulted in their contracts being cancelled.
  
  Some questions still remain. The possibility of some of the UK's buy being switched from the F-35B to the conventional take-off and landing A model would have obvious implications for Rolls-Royce and the rest of their LiftSystem sub-supply chain. Yet even if the commitment to 138 jets is reviewed further down the line, the UK supply chain may already be too difficult – and too expensive to a program doing everything it can to reduce unit costs – to reconfigure.
  
  "The program is set up to capacitize to the big rate that's coming," says BAE's Declan Holland. speaking primarily about his own company, but also of the many businesses in the UK that supply BAE. "That capacitization has been a very well planned piece of work, for both the factories here and for our suppliers. So that's all now as near as damned in place. So the fact of the matter is, if there was a change, it would be difficult to do anything that would reduce our work share at this stage of the program."
• The company had some useful experience in the civil sector, producing eight sets per week of leading- and trailing-edges for the Airbus A320. Manufacture of Typhoon aft sections means plenty of hard-metal capability, and expertise exists on site. Lessons have also been learned from the automotive industry, where fact-finding missions to the nearby Leyland truck plant were augmented by the recruitment of several auto industry staff. The result is an integrated assembly line similar to those found in car plants, which allows fast indexing from one station to the next.
• http://aviationweek.com/shownews/uk-earn-billions-f-35-work

 

[-SINAN-]

Turkey confirms purchase of 24 additional Lockheed F-35 aircraft

Turkey has given its defence ministry the mandate to buy a further 24 Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft, Defence Minister Fikri Işık said in an interview with broadcaster A Haber on Tuesday.

The Undersecretariat for Defence Industries said last week that Turkey had decided to order a second batch of the aircraft. Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told Reuters that would comprise 24 jets.

Turkey expects to take delivery of the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-35A jets in 2018.

http://www.dailysabah.com/defense/2...chase-of-24-additional-lockheed-f-35-aircraft

 

[DavidSling]

New F-35 software could quell ALIS sovereignty concerns

• 
  

• 27 OCTOBER, 2016
  
• BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO
  
• WASHINGTON DC

Lockheed Martin will begin studying options for adding a software filter to the system that tracks maintenance and training data for the F-35 fighter as part of an effort to limit the amount of data that gets shared with US-based contractors over concerns about privacy and sovereignty.

The US government intends to award a sole source contract to F-35 prime Lockheed to conduct a trade study for connecting a "sovereign data gateway" (SDG) to the autonomic logistics information system (ALIS), according to a 17 October Federal Business Opportunities website announcement.

Lockheed's ALIS is programmed to keep track of thousands of operational details about the F-35 fleet, including data from health monitoring systems on board the aircraft as well as the training and flight logs for each of the pilots. As the global data hub, ALIS is supposed to order parts and schedule training as they are needed, saving operators the burden of managing and back-filling spare inventories. For the system to work, the jet must automatically transmit information after and even during each flight by an F-35 to Lockheed's ALIS hub in Fort Worth, Texas.

But that automated stream of data also worries some of the F-35's international customers.

To address those concerns, the SDG software will remain within the partner country’s central point of entry and will control the flow of data to the Autonomic Logistics Operating Unit (ALOU), the F-35 Joint Programme Office says in an emailed response to questions.

The software will allow each partner country to inspect and verify data flowing to and from the US hub, the JPO stays. The software will also be able to block, modify or delay sensitive data. One example of sensitive data are details in the pilot's training and flight records, which in some countries are protected by privacy laws.

“Most partners have this inspection requirement as a prerequisite to their own certification and approval of ALIS on their national networks,” he says. “An example of SDG's use could be to enforce regulations in place to protect data containing personally identifiable information, which in some cases is subject to national privacy legislation.”

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...re-could-quell-alis-sovereignty-conce-430823/

 

[DavidSling]

Two Operational F-35s Flying Again After Undergoing Insulation Fix
By: Valerie Insinna, November 2, 2016 (Photo Credit: Riccardo Niccoli/Stocktrek Images)
WASHINGTON — Two of the F-35s that had been sidelined in September because of faulty insulation have been repaired and are now flying, and the remaining 13 planes are currently going through the modification process, Air Force and Lockheed Martin officials have confirmed.

The service in September suspended the flight operations of 15 F-35As after discovering that the insulation around the jet’s avionics cooling lines had begun disintegrating into the fuel tank. Another 42 F-35As in various stages of production at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth-based facility were also affected by the supply issue.

After undergoing repairs, two aircraft from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, returned to flight on Oct. 24, and another three planes are scheduled to finished being fixed on Nov. 4, said Air Force spokesman Micah Garbarino.

All 15 operational F-35As affected by the faulty insulation are in various stages of undergoing repairs, Greg Ulmer, Lockheed’s vice president for F-35 production, told Defense News in a Nov. 2 interview. The company is also working through 42 production aircraft — including four aircraft at the final assembly and checkout facility in Italy and four in the Japanese FACO — and will complete modifications by next summer so that all aircraft can be delivered by the end of 2017.


Defense News
Bogdan: F-35 Coolant Line Fix Coming in Weeks
Ten of the 15 F-35As at Hill were impacted by the insulation problem. The other five affected aircraft include two US and two Norwegian F-35As at Luke AFB, Arizona, and one plane at Nellis AFB, Nevada. All of the US Air Force jets are planned to be back in service by the end of the year.

Lockheed works with multiple suppliers that provide the insulation for the coolant tubes, and as such the F-35Bs and F-35Cs used by the Navy and Marine Corps were not affected by the faulty insulation. The company has not revealed which supplier is responsible for the nonconforming part, but Lockheed has said it will continue working with that company to meet the growing F-35 production demands.

“It's really important to note that this is not a design flaw with the F-35A,” Air Force spokesman Mark Graff said in a statement. “This is a case of a supplier using improper material and improper sealing techniques for a part on the aircraft. The situation was addressed and the supplier will manufacture parts using correct materials and processes.”


Defense News
15 F-35 Models Grounded Due to Wiring Issue
Graff said the service is seeing “rapid progress” on repairing the operational joint strike fighters. Repair work began on Oct. 7, and each aircraft takes about three weeks to complete.

Air Force maintainers from the 388th and 419th fighter wings begin the repair process by removing the aircraft’s fuel and paneling, Garbarino said. Then a Lockheed Martin team takes over, first cutting holes in the aircraft so that they can access the fuel tank and then removing the bad insulation. The team also installs screens to keep the fuel siphon tubes from becoming clogged. Finally, the contractors mend the aircraft skin and low-observable coating and deliver it back to Air Force maintainers, who check the plane before it returns to operations.

Because Hill had only five operational F-35s available before repairs on the first two jets wrapped up, pilots were sent to Luke AFB, Eglin AFB in Florida and Nellis AFB in Nevada for the flight training needed to keep up their proficiency, Col. Jason Rueschhoff, the 388th Operations Group commander, said in a news release.

Maintainers also turned around aircraft three times a day to allow for three sorties daily, said Col. Michael Miles, the 388th Maintenance Group commander.

“Normally, the most a fighter wing will turn their aircraft is twice a day,” he stated in the release.

Production Aircraft

Ulmer said that Lockheed is making its “best effort” to fix the 13 impacted production F-35As — 10 US Air Force planes, one jet for Japan, and two for Israel — that were due to be delivered this year. Its foremost priority was modifying the first two Israeli aircraft, a task that is now complete.

“Those aircraft have actually flown out, post-mod,” he said. “Right now, having flown those airplanes out, they are on track to support the December in-country delivery for Israel.”

Lockheed is also on track to deliver the Japanese jet as promised by the end of 2016. Modifications are complete on that airplane, and it is going through normal aircraft acceptance procedures ahead of a first flight planned for this month, Ulmer said. One Air Force F-35A has gone through the repair process, and four other airplanes are in various stages of the modification.

Lockheed and its international industrial partners will compete modifications for eight planes being built by the Italian and Japanese FACO in the first quarter of next year, “significantly prior to their intended flying operations,” he said.

The method of fixing the fighters is the same whether the planes are operational or still in production, Ulmer said. The only difference is that each plane at Lockheed’s Fort Worth facility is inspected by boroscope so that the company can tell exactly where the nonconforming insulation is on all of the planes, preventing any extraneous maintenance work from having to be done.

But unlike the fielded jets, the production planes are in differing stages of construction and assembly. This presents a challenge to company, which has to ascertain the most efficient way to fix each airplane without pulling it out of the normal production flow. For instance, it would be difficult to do the modifications just after wing construction is complete, so that work would be pushed off until after the wings are mated with the fuselage.

“We look at our processes and [see] where does it make sense to insert the mod over or on top of concurrent work to try and save as much time as you can. We are essentially starting a new airplane in the factory every four days for this modification in general,” he said. “We are learning as we go, as we learn, we may find there are specific times to do this.”

http://www.defensenews.com/articles...-flying-again-after-undergoing-insulation-fix

 

[Adir-M]

More 35 days from now the f35i will in the hands of the israeli air force

 

[DavidSling]

More 35 days from now the f35i will in the hands of the israeli air force

There's a dedicated thread that I formed for new's about F35i, please make sure to post news there too
https://defence.pk/threads/cultural...-transparency-israels-first-adir-f35i.435975/

 

[gambit]

An excellent article from Lockheed on the F-35's flight control system.

http://lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2015/C1SemperLightning.html

 

[DavidSling]

 

[randomradio]

The Indian Navy may end up buying some F-35Bs.

 

[DavidSling]

 

[DavidSling]

 

[500]

4th gen vs. 5th gen:

 

[Naif al Hilali]

Anybody post these nice interview videos yet?

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7fy6U3cmCGc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wEda8RRlxZQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

First one is with an F-35 pilot about multi-airframe fleet affordability vis-a-vis the world's wealthiest nation and comparison of the F-35 with the F-16, A-10, and F-22.

Second video is with the same pilot on the F-35's helmet and its capabilities and limitations.

Refreshing honesty in both.

 

[dexter]

F-22 Raptor in Action - Insane Takeoff • High-Speed • Sonic Boom & Flight