First simulated deployment for the U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs.
Citat:Taken on Feb. 8, 2016 the following pictures feature six F-35A Lightning IIs belonging to the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) from Edwards Air Force Base, California, arriving at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, for the fifth generation aircraft’s first simulated deployment test, that is expected to last about a month.
Three key initial operational capability mission sets will be tested by the 31st TES : suppression of enemy air defenses, close air support and air interdiction.
This test is conducted to assess the deployment capability of an F-35A squadron and its outcome will set the benchmark capability for the Air Force to declare F-35A IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled for this fall.
Noteworthy Mountain Home AFB has been selected to host the simulated deployment because it can provide a secure environment with ranges to employ fourth-generation aircraft as well: in fact during their stay in Idaho the six F-35As will integrate with F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the 366th Fighter Wing from Mountain Home Air Force Base and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs belonging to the 124th Fighter Wing from Gowen Field, Idaho.
Citat:The US Marine Corps is planning to deploy the first F-35B unit to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan within a year. “We are operating the airplane, training in the airplane, making us ready to deploy to the Pacific,” Lieutenant General Jon M. Davis, deputy commandant for aviation Said. The US Air Force is planning to deploy its first units to RAF Lakenheath In the UK by 2020.
The Marine Aviation unit scheduled to transition to Japan is VFMA-121 “Green Knights,” currently operating from Yuma AZ. An initial deployment of pilots alongside 10 aircraft will be relocated to Japan starting January 2017, with another six scheduled for July of that year. The unit with 10 F-35B fighter jets has been declared ‘operationally capable’ since August 2015, becoming the first F-35 unit to be ready for combat. By the time the Green Knights move to Japan the Corps is expected to have three F-35 squadrons available in the USA.
Marine F-35 squadrons will routinely deploy to Japan on six month rotations as part of the service’s unit deployment program.
In addition to land basing overseas the F-35B will also be ready for future deployments aboard the US Navy’s fleet of amphibious carriers.
The F-35 is expected to make its international public debut in July at the International Air Tatoo and Farmborough Airshows in the UK, where the aircraft will be shown in flight and on static display for the first time, out of thr USA.
Citat:The basic “flyaway” cost of a conventional Air Force F-35 model, which includes its engines, will drop to about $85 million by 2019 in current dollars at that time to about $100 million anticipated for the latest contract, Bogdan said.
“Affordability is still a big problem,” said Richard Aboulafia, a military aircraft analyst with the Teal Group.
The F-16, also built by Lockheed, costs about $50 million, and the competing Swedish-made Saab Gripen NG goes for $55 million( teska glupost), Aboulafia said. The current flyaway cost of the F/A-18E/F from Boeing Co. is about $77.8 million, according to fiscal 2017 Navy budget documents.
The F-35’s current flyaway cost is in “roughly the same class as the Typhoon Eurofighter -- around $90 million -- and Boeing F-15,” Aboulafia said.
Citat:Replacement equipment to be installed in the Israeli air force's (IAF) Lockheed Martin F-35I "Adir" fighters could include an indigenous targeting and reconnaissance system. Currently, an evaluation is focusing on the potential installation of Rafael's Litening or Reccelite designs, in place of the F-35's baseline electro-optical targeting system.
"The operational requirements of the IAF are unique, and the local, combat-proven systems have a very big advantage," notes one Israeli source. The service's needs will result in its conventional take-off and landing F-35Is receiving a number of Israeli-developed systems, with some to be installed in the USA and others in Israel.
Pocinje testiranje da dobije IOC
Citat:
Another base spokeswoman says the aircraft are testing the Lockheed Martin-built fighter type’s ability to pick-up and deploy to an unfamiliar forward location.
Citat:The test F-35s will fly four sorties per day and drop “20 to 30 inert weapons” at the local range complex across multiple training scenarios, the air force says. They will coordinate mock attacks with strafing runs from the A-10 and extra Strike Eagle weapon drops.
“Mountain Home is great because the ranges and airspace here allow us to drop weapons and fly sorties at rates we can't back home,” says Maj Colin Marshall, chief of standardisation and evaluation with the 31st Test and Evaluation Squad. “It's fun to find a target by talking to ground controllers, drop a bomb on that target, and then watch an A-10 roll in and strafe it, all while an F-15E orbits supersonic above and prepares for the next attack.”
Citat:It starts with a “cross-ramp” practice run at Hill, where F-35A squadron will simulate deploying to another area of the base before certifying an actual deployment to Idaho.
“We’ll come back from that and continue our spin up to full proficiency with a surge in July where we’ll fly extra sorties in a surge week, so in the month of July we have enough sorties programmed to get everyone up to combat-mission status by 1 August,” he tells Flightglobal.
The squadron is due to receive the latest F-35 Block 3i software this month and will also begin dropping inert rounds at the local Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) once that software is installed.
Holandjani idu kuci
Dutch F-35 to come home for very first time Citat:A Dutch F-35A Lightning II will touch down on home soil for the first time for environmental compatibility trials this spring according to a Royal Netherlands Air Force release. The F-35 will conduct several low-altitude circuits, take-offs, and landings at both Leeuwarden Air Base and Volkel Air Base, where the aircraft will eventually be based. The RNLAF plans to replace its legacy F-16A/B fleet with a minimum of 37 F-35s, split between the two bases. An F-16 will accompany the F-35 during the trials in May or June, to provide comparison data on the level of noise generated by the two aircraft, and its possible impact on nearby communities, according to the release.
The first Dutch F-35 unit, Number 323 Squadron, is currently undertaking operational test and evaluation at Edwards AFB, Calif. Airfield trials will begin in earnest next year ahead of the aircraft permanent relocation to the Netherlands in 2019, according to the RNLAF.
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