Citat:F-35 refuels from Italian KC-767
F-35A performed its first aerial refueling with a foreign air force tanker when AF-4 took fuel from an Italian Air Force KC-767A at Edwards Air Force Base on Jul. 29.
Photo: F-35 Intergraded Test Force
Citat:An American JSF AF-4 from the 461 FLTS, Edwards AFB, CA, piloted by Maj. Charles “FLAK” Trickey performs the first contact and fuel transfer from a KC-767 foreign partner Italian Tanker.
Italian KC-767 tanker completes its first F-35 refuelling http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/italian-.....ng-415479/
Rockwell Collins delivers first Gen 3 helmet for F-35
Citat:The first Generation 3 (Gen 3 / III) helmet-mounted display system (HMDS) for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has been delivered to the Joint Program Office (JPO), manufacturer Rockwell Collins announced on 11 August.
Citat:he US Air Force’s first two combat-coded Lockheed Martin F-35s have come off the assembly line at Fort Worth in Texas, with the second aircraft completing its first flight last week.
Those aircraft, AF-77 and AF-78, are being prepped for delivery to Hill AFB in Utah where they will be operated by the 34th Fighter Squadron, the air force’s first operational F-35 group.
The former F-16 squadron known as the “Rude Rams” reactivated in July and aims to declare initial operational capability with at least 12 A-model F-35s in August 2016.
In a statement on its social media account, the squadron’s parent unit, the 388th Fighter Wing, said the second aircraft conducted its first production flight test at Fort Worth on 4 August.
Citat:Video of 62nd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base accepting its first two F-35 aircraft. There will be 18 total F-35s joining the squadron over the next year. The 62nd FS will include pilots and aircraft from partner nations Italy and Norway.
US Navy considers reduced annual F-35C buy Citat:The US Navy believes budget pressures and competing priorities could drive it to purchase fewer Lockheed Martin F-35Cs per year in the 2020s, and a worst-case scenario could see it procure as few as 12 aircraft per year, or one squadron.
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/us-navy-.....uy-415654/
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Citat:F-35 Lightning II Operations at Luke AFB, Arizona
The first twenty-five F-35s fill the 56th Fighter Wing's first training squadron, the 61st Fighter Squadron. Subsequent F-35s arriving in 2015 will populate the second training unit, the 62nd Fighter Squadron. Eventually, the 56th Wing at Luke AFB will have six F-35 training squadrons flying 144 F-35s.
http://bit.ly/1IY12px
Ovo su naredne marinske eskadrile koje prelaze na F-35
Citat:VMFA-121's recent operational status will be followed by Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211), an AV-8B squadron, which is scheduled to receive their first F-35Bs in 2016, and become fully operational within two years. In 2018, VMFA-122, an F/A-18 squadron in Beaufort, South Carolina, will begin conducting its transition to the F-35B. Another Hornet squadron, VMFA-115, will start transitioning to the F-35 in early 2020. VMA-311 is scheduled to follow suit later that year.
Citat:
The U.S. Marine Corps has trained and qualified more than 50 Marine F-35B pilots and certified about 500 maintenance personnel to assume autonomous, organic-level maintenance support for the F-35B.
Citat:The Marine Corps has a program of record to procure 353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs, for a total of 420 aircraft. As the future of Marine Corps tactical aviation, the F-35 will eventually replace three legacy platforms: the AV-8B Harrier, the F/A-18 Hornet, and the EA-6B Prowler. The transition is scheduled to be complete for active duty
Citat:DellaVedova said testing for the pylons and development of the rest of the 3F software upgrade package is ongoing. The Marines’ current 2B software allows them to carry two air-to-ground weapons and one air-to-air weapon internally: the 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), the 500-pound GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb and the AIM-120C Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).
The 3F software upgrade will bring the external weapons pylons, 4.1 or 4.2 will bring the all-weather Small Diameter Bomb, and in the future the Marine Corps will look to adapt foreign weapons used by partners in the international JSF project, Davis told USNI News last month.
