Can't turn, Can't climb, Can't run: F35 problems

[fly_tornado]

United States suspends F-35 flying for engine inspections

 

written by australianaviation.com.au October 12, 2018

 

 

A US Marine Corps F-35B crashed last month. (Defence)

 

The United States Department of Defense has suspended flying its Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets due to the need to inspect fuel tubes within the aircraft’s engines.

 

“The US services and international partners have temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations while the enterprise conducts a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft,” the Department said in a statement on Thursday (US time), according to multiple media reports.

 

“If suspect fuel tubes are installed, the part will be removed and replaced. If known good fuel tubes are already installed, then those aircraft will be returned to flight status. Inspections are expected to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours.”

 

The decision comes after a US Marine Corps F-35B crashed in South Carolina near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in late September. The pilot ejected safely and there were no injuries.

 

The Department statement said initial data from the ongoing investigation of that accident had led to the decision to ground the fleet.

 

The US Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy are all operators of the F-35, as well as allies including Australia, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom.

 

About 300 F-35s have now been delivered and are in service around the world.

 

The UK Ministry of Defence said on Twitter it had paused some F-35 flying as a precautionary measure but not all aircraft had been grounded.

 

 

[kgwilson]

With all of the documentation required when manufacturing and maintaining something as large, complex and expensive as the F35, you'd think they would know what batch the fuel tubes came from on every aircraft and whether these are good ones or not.

 

 

[M61A1]

With all of the documentation required when manufacturing and maintaining something as large, complex and expensive as the F35, you'd think they would know what batch the fuel tubes came from on every aircraft and whether these are good ones or not.

Yes, they can usually tell from the documentation, but to be 100% sure they do a physical check. On military aircraft there are a lot of lifed components, they termed "maintenance managed items", but there are a lot of smaller components like pipes and fittings that are not lifed, but "on condition". These are not tracked or "managed". In the Australian defence system, techos are issued a "Special Technical Instruction" in this sort of instance. That document will usually detail what the problem is , what part numbers to look for or identifying features to look out for, the urgency and what rectification procedure is to be applied.

 

 

[red750]

We are ready to fight tonight!

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

All very impressive, meanwhile millions of Americans have no access to good healthcare, bridges and highways are crumbling, their education system is one of the world's poorest and the divide between rich and poor is growing ever wider.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

but $702B budget burning a hole in the Pentagon's pocket

 

 

[Tucano]

Higher,faster,bigger and heavier is the Air Force philisophy - if you have time read the book Boyd the jock who developed Energy Management Theoy and you will understand the cozy relationship between the generals in the Pertgon and the builders, it will all be clear.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

...you will understand the cozy relationship between the generals in the Pertgon and the builders, it will all be clear.

We hear that in the leafy suburbs around D.C, some of that corruption is actually trickling down to the lower paid.

 

Some of the little guys (the ones who actually pay tax) are employed building mansions for the retired military men who now work for the weapons industry.

 

 

[Marty_d]

We hear that in the leafy suburbs around D.C, some of that corruption is actually trickling down to the lower paid.

Some of the little guys (the ones who actually pay tax) are employed building mansions for the retired military men who now work for the weapons industry.

That's the way it goes, OK.  Generals work for weapons manufacturers.  Ex-politicians work for mining lobby groups.  (Well, the ones with no morals.  The ones WITH morals donate most of their pension to environmental causes and live simply...)

 

The weapons industry must have some clout, as a sitting president is willing to overlook the blatant and brutal murder of an American journalist with no repercussions for the prince who ordered it, to protect their profits.  Mind you he's not much of a president, or anything else for that matter.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Well a great propaganda news article for the You Ess of A. Meanwhile Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Malaysia & a few others have Sukhoi Su 30 - 35 family which which have been in production since the 1990s & while not a stealth fighter can out manoeuvre anything the Yanks have and are far more capable in almost every department plus you can get 3 or 4 of them for the price of 1 F35. Stealth doesn't stop you from being shot down anyway as the yanks found out when they lost a F117 stealth to a SAM in the Bosnia/Croatia conflict in 1999. 

 

 

[red750]

The first two F=35's have landed at Williamtown.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Oldest F-35B Could Hit Service Life Limit In 2026

 

Jan 30, 2019Steve Trimble | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

 

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F-35B: USMC

 

Structural defects mean the earliest F-35Bs delivered by Lockheed Martin could reach a service life limit by 2026 after 2,100 flight hours, according to the Pentagon’s director for weapons testing.

 

The design specification of the F-35B called for a service life of 8,000 flight hours, but early production models fall “well under” the durability requirement, Robert Behler, director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E,) wrote in his latest annual report to Congress.

 

The new DOT&E assessment comes after several years of durability testing that exposed multiple structural cracks. Lockheed completed two service lifetime cycles of durability testing on a static F-35B airframe called BH-1, but canceled a plan in February 2017 to perform a third series.

 

Structural redesigns, including a new approach for the wing-carry-through, had made BH-1 unrepresentative of the final production standard, the DOT&E report states. The F-35 program has obtained funding to acquire a new structural test article, but it was not yet on contract, the report adds. Bloomberg first reported the DOT&E’s findings on the F-35 program.

 

“Items identified in the Annual DOT&E report are well understood and have been resolved in partnership with the F-35 Joint Program Office or have an agreed path forward to resolution,” Lockheed said in a statement to Aerospace DAILY.

 

Planned design changes should allow the early F-35Bs to meet the service life requirement of 8,000 flight hours, a program source says.

 

Lockheed also discontinued durability testing on a static test article for the F-35C last September instead of beginning a third life cycle assessment, the DOT&E said. The F-35A completed three full life cycles of durability testing, by contrast.

 

Behler’s office also remains skeptical about the F-35 program’s decision to reorganize parts of the Block 4 modernization plan. Instead of rolling out large increments every two years, the Continuous Capability Development and Delivery plan adopted a year ago calls for releasing smaller software updates adding new features every six months.

 

The six-month release cycle for the aircraft’s mission systems is not matched with the upgrade schedule for the F-35’s support systems, such as the Autonomic Logistics Information System, mission data and training simulators, Behler’s report states.

 

The DOT&E is also critical about the readiness of the F-35’s Block 3F software a month after the program entered a critical testing phase. Software updates and fixes rolled out by Lockheed reduced the number of Category 1 deficiencies to 13 in December from more than 100 last May. The program later added two more Category 1 deficiencies to the list after the F-35 entered the initial operational test and evaluation phase on Dec. 5, the report states.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Japanese F-35 Lightning II Stealth Aircraft Reported Missing Over The Pacific Ocean

 

About David Cenciotti 3699 Articles

 

2-3 minutes

 

 

File photo of a Japanese AIr Self Defense Force F-35 (Image credit: Lockheed Martin).

 

According to several Japanese media outlets, an F-35A Lightning II belonging to the Japan Air Self Defense Force is currently reported as missing during a mission over the Pacific Ocean.

 

The F-35 launched from Misawa Air Base, in Aomori Prefecture, in the norther part of the country. Misawa is the home of the 302 Hikotai (Squadron), the unit previously operating the F-4EJ “Kai”, that has officially moved to Misawa air base to operate the JASDF F-35A 5th generation aircraft after retiring its last Phatom on Mar. 26, 2019.

 

According to the JASDF, the aircraft had taken off from about 7 minutes, as part of a 4-ship formation, when it disappered on Apr. 9, at 7:27PM LT on the Pacific Ocean about 135 km east of Misawa.

 

Japan Maritime Self Defense Force search and rescue vessels have been dispatched to the area where the aircraft disappeared.

 

If confirmed, the Japanese loss would be the second involving the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters. The first one occurred on September 28, 2018 when a U.S. Marine F-35B Lightning II crashed near Beaufort, South Carolina. The pilot ejected safely. As a consequence of that mishap, almost all the F-35s were shortly grounded on Thursday, October 12, 2018 for safety inspections of their fuel flow systems.

 

Japan’s program of record is 147 aircraft says the official Lockheed Martin website. “In December 2018, the Japan Ministry of Defense announced its decision to increase its procurement of F-35s from 42 to 147. They stated the aircraft will be a mix of 105 F-35As and 42 F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft.”

 

13 F-35A are currently based at Misawa AB, based on Japanese media reports.

 

We will update the story as new details emerge.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Japan has several flat-tops, currently operating helicopters. I presume the B models might be based on the ships. 

 

 

[fly_tornado]

this was an A model that went missing

 

 

[spacesailor]

Wreckage found but not the pilot.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[derekliston]

Don’t know a lot about F35s except they are bloody expensive for something which in time of war is essentially a consumable!

 

 

[Downunder]

Wasn't there a display somewhere where they wouldn't bring it out because it was raining? 

 

 

[fly_tornado]

the early ones were found to get unstable if around lightning

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

The F-35 Lightning II is afraid of electrical storms?

 

 

[M61A1]

the early ones were found to get unstable if around lightning

Actually they said it was to do with the fuel system, apparently the newer ones have lightning protection built in and older ones will be retrofitted. Don't know why they wouldn't have been designed with it.

 

In any case, why would anyone fly in an electrical storm unless they really had to?

 

 

[mnewbery]

Wasn't there a display somewhere where they wouldn't bring it out because it was raining? 

Yes but not because of Lightning. The low radar observable paint/coating doesn't do well in rain and needs to be touched up IMO. AFAIK the coating is common or very similar between the F-22 and F-35. One imagines it doesn't like being blasted by rain at 300m/s

 

 

[Marty_d]

The F-35 Lightning II is afraid of electrical storms?

Oh, the irony.

 

In any case, why would anyone fly in an electrical storm unless they really had to?

 

Because a polite request to the enemy to please wait for sunnier weather may not always work?

 

 

[Downunder]

In any case, why would anyone fly in an electrical storm unless they really had to?

The first initative comes from the attacker. They will decide the enemy's weaknesses and act accordingly and probably NOT in the best interests of the defender.

 

Why do defence policy makers always think THEY are the ones who are going to decide how they are going to be attacked.

 

One basic way to overcome a very high tech, high maintenance, very low volume aircraft is through overwhelming numbers.

 

 

[M61A1]

Because a polite request to the enemy to please wait for sunnier weather may not always work?

And that would mean you really had to ......right?

 

I don't know if you are aware, but for some time  now, our defence force has been really risk averse. So, training flights and demo flights in poor weather would be a no-go. Especially demo flights as the added maintenance burden due to erosion and such is quite high. The same was the case with our F111s.