Pentagon's Top Weapon Tester Urges Delay for F-35A Instructor Flight Training

If USAF won't wait Gilmore wants flight tests moved to Edwards AFB in California

As the USAF is pressing hard to get the six F-35A fighters that have been sitting at its main F-35 training base in Florida into the air, the Pentagon weapons tester J. Michael Gilmore is urging the USAF to hold off on flying the trainer versions of the F-35A for ten more months. The reason Gilmore is calling for the delay is to allow the testing program of the aircraft to gain more flight hours.

Gilmore sent a memo to the top Pentagon weapon buyer, Frank Kendall, to urge the extra ten months delay. According to Gilmore, historically aircraft need at least 2,000 to 5,000 flight hours before the number of aborted flights caused by emergencies is down to levels that mitigate as much risk as possible. That acceptable level of risk is 1,000 aborts per every 100,000 hours of flight.

As of now, the six F-35A aircraft that are sitting on the ground at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida have only 1,000 testing hours on the program. According to Gilmore, the F-35A version of the JSF has as of now 3,000 aborts per 100,000 flight hours. Gilmore also wrote in the memo, "The historical model predicted one air abort during the [July and August, 2011] maturity flights; four air aborts occurred." The F-35B version has even less development hours, though it is not progressing well.

However, if the USAF can’t wait the extra ten months to get the F-35A fighters into the air, Gilmore urges the flight program be moved to Edwards Air Force base in California. This is because the area around Edwards is sparsely populated and there is less risk to people on the ground in the event of an emergency.

The problem is the distance between the Elgin and Edwards. The F-35 simulators that the F-35A instructors need are located at Elgin and therefore pilots would have to commute from California to Florida and back during training. The ten-month delay would not only allow the flight program to gain more hours, but would also allow the simulators to be tweaked to allow better training.
____________
gold bracelet charms
R4 DS Kaart