some F35 info

[FLYBOYJ]

The Private F-35 Fix Is In Beyond 2020
—John A. Tirpak
It'll cost the Air Force "tens of millions" per year out of hide to hire contractors to do F-35 maintenance through at least 2020, because the service doesn't have enough people to do the work, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski said Thursday. While Congress "restored" some money to keep A-10s in service—after rejecting USAF's plan to retire the jet and transition A-10 maintainers to the F-35—"that took care of the flying hours [but] … would not have included money to do contract maintenance … So we've had to carve that out of all the other O&M [operations and maintenance]" accounts. The situation won't be fixed quickly, either, because even though USAF is looking to grow by several thousand airmen, it can't simply put new people to work on the F-35. The jet is too complex for newbies, and it takes "seven to nine years" to "grow" a maintainer to a high experience level, she said. Using contractors will "give ourselves time to build the organic workforce" needed, she said. Blue-suiters don't seem to be quitting to take higher-paying contractor jobs—yet—she said, but it's a concern. (Read the full report.)


There's a lot more to combat capability than just an airframe.

What's not said is just about every airframe in the USAF inventory at one time or another is maintained by civilian contractors. Line maintenance and some intermediate maintenance functions may be done by enlisted personnel, but some of the heavier maintenance and major modifications are done by civilians, either direct DoD employees or contractors.

For example;

B-1 receives upgrade at MROTC

and,

Tinker partners with Boeing on rare bomber fix

At Tinker, they do B-1, B-52 and KC-135 work (at least they did the last time I was there)

 

[buffnut453]

What's not said is just about every airframe in the USAF inventory at one time or another is maintained by civilian contractors. Line maintenance and some intermediate maintenance functions may be done by enlisted personnel, but some of the heavier maintenance and major modifications are done by civilians, either direct DoD employees or contractors.

For example;

B-1 receives upgrade at MROTC

and,

Tinker partners with Boeing on rare bomber fix

At Tinker, they do B-1, B-52 and KC-135 work (at least they did the last time I was there)

Yep...exactly correct. Many seem to think that all our aircraft are maintained purely by blue-suit personnel and that's simply not the case. The same is true in the UK where contractor staff provide all sorts of logistics, sustainment and maintenance services.

I posted the bulletins to illustrate that, while so many are focusing on the aeroplane, military capability is much broader, with far more challenges to manage. Simply ensuring you have the right numbers of military personnel is a tough nut to crack as budgets go up and down, almost with the seasons. There is a massive shortfall at present across the USAF for aircraft maintainers, which will impact operational effectiveness and, of course, costs. However, it's not a programmatic issue for the individual platform - it's a Service-wide challenge that needs to be addressed.

 

[Torch]

A Day in the Life of an F-35 Test Pilot

 

[buffnut453]

Latest on the program - the Block 3i software has been cleared to reach IOC (Source: Air Force Magazine daily digest):

Air Force's F-35 3i Software Cleared for IOC

The F-35 Joint Program Office has completed development of the software the Air Force will use to declare initial operational capability of its Joint Strike Fighter variant. Glitches in an earlier version of the Block 3i software had caused the jet's radar to shut down once every four hours, but according to the May 9 release that announced the completed development, aircraft have flown more than 100 hours with the updated software, and its stability is three times greater than the original version's. The JPO is beginning to upgrade the F-35 fleet with the Block 3i software this week, according to the release. The Air Force is expected to declare IOC with the F-35A closer to Oct. 1, rather than the desired August 1, due to difficulties with the Autonomic Logistics Information System.

 

[Torch]

Watch the video of the F-35 flying in formation (at high AOA) with the Thunderbirds

 

[GrauGeist]

Excellent!

Very interesting sound it made when he pulled out, too.

 

[Torch]

Air Force Pilots, Maintainers on F-35 Pros and Cons

 

[FLYBOYJ]

"For day-to-day operations, the airmen and Lockheed Martin contractors here generally agree ALIS has made their lives easier.

"It tells you everything you need to know instantly," Vernon said. "ALIS reduces our troubleshooting drastically, it makes my job very easy."

AF-3 crew chief Staff Sgt. Cody Patters, who previously worked on A-10s and F-16s, agreed, saying the F-35 is significantly easier to take care of than legacy systems. The only thing he does not like is the lag time as he waits for the computer to load a new task.

The system is also very user-friendly, Patters said.

"We could teach you in 15 minutes," he told Defense News."

Although I'm a supporter of this aircraft, my only concern is how easy this aircraft would be to repair "if" it took any battle damage.

 

[CharlesBronson]

Very good video, beautiful bird, I hope they bolted some armor on the USAF F-35s if they plan to use them as ground strafers like the A-10.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Denmark just issued a glowing review of the F-35

 

[Marcel]

Next week we get our first f35. It will fly from Leeuwarden and from Vokel, close by.

 

[Marcel]

First two F-35 jets landed on Leeuwarden Yesterday

 

[Wildcat]

Good vid!

 

[vikingBerserker]

It is a sweet looking plane!

 

[fubar57]

Nice...

Canadian F-35 contracts in peril if Ottawa buys elsewhere

 

[michaelmaltby]

"...Nice..."

... and only our Canadian 'experts' and liberal politicians know how truly, deeply. absolutely flawed this AC really really is .... they'll send the troops to Hong Kong in wool again ... and to Afghanistan in northern woodland camouflage again cause .... well ... they know what's best.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I'm guessing that Trudeau will come around when he realizes that most of the negative press about the F-35 is dated BS and when he also sees how much direct procurement and "offset" Canada will lose if Ottawa decides to go with another aircraft, especially if its not from the US. The other day I met a friend at happy hour (I'm in California) who is close to the program, a lot of progress has been made and continues to be made. His biggest chuckle (as he puts it) is some of the rumors of the F-22 line being started again. People are bitching about the F-35 cost, the F-22 will be over 200 mil a copy not including the cost to restart the production line!

 

[Marcel]

You know Joe, as good as the F35 may be, the aircraft is so expensive that my country will only buy 35 of them. Given that 1/3rd will be in maitenance a any given time, some will stay in the US and a flight will be on oversea missions, that doesn't leave us much to defend our own country. And almost nothing as a reserve. As most of those oversea missions can easily be pulled off by less capable aircraft, I still wonder if the government was right in buying this aircraft. A lesser capable, but cheaper aircraft could have been bought in greater numbers, giving us more reserve. Apart from the fact that we now buy this in the US (no offence) while an aircraft like the Grippen would have been bought within our own economical EU zone.
I am not opposed to the aircraft persee, fully aware of the capabillities of this aircraft, but giving our own situation, it just might not have been the best option to buy.

This weekend, during the airforce days at Leeuwarden, the two F35's were demo'ed. I think it has neve been as crowded on those days as this time. Almost 300000 people went there, giving the north of the country a trafic infarct of 2 days. Obviously, the aircraft is very popular here.

 

[Lucky13]

Why did they stop the production of the F-22?

 

[michaelmaltby]

"... I'm guessing that Trudeau will come around when he realizes that most of the negative press about the F-35 is dated BS".

$$$$'s do talk .... but he's delusional about so much stuff. I sent Marcel's F-35 arrival video link to my Liberal MP by email and suggested that perhaps the consortium of "early adopter" nations know something that Mr. T and his caucus don't. No soup for Trudeau!!!