On Tuesday, the F-35B jump-jet variant will put on another show for the press, this time testing capabilities aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp as the joint strike fighter prepares to be fielded in July.
It’s been a turbulent ride for the multi-service F-35 program, whose managers are fairly sick of the headlines over its years of delays and cost overruns.
For the past several years, each of the services has stressed that the performance and future for the aircraft have brightened considerably. And the Marines, who are accustomed to being the first to the fight, will be the first out the door with the performing airframe to prove if the optimism is warranted.
Over two weeks, the Marines will run the jet through a series of operational tests to see if it’s really ready for initial operating capability. The six F-35Bs that landed on the Wasp last week will be tested on day-and-night operations, weapons loading, logistics integration and the short takeoff and vertical landings that are specific to the Marine variant.
Marine Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, said the service does not require operational testing in order to declare initial operating capability, or IOC, one of the most important milestones in weapons development. “But we are going to that,” he said. “I have no intention of declaring IOC unless the airplane is ready to be initial operating capable.”
Unlike the fielding of the V-22 Osprey, which the Marines deployed to Iraq right after it declared IOC, Davis said he would prefer to keep the F-35 out of the fight against the Islamic State.
“I had my druthers, I’d rather not deploy right away,” Davis said. “I’d like to build some momentum in the program and build the instructor base. But the airplane can deploy straight away if we need it to.”
The Air Force’s conventional runway variant, the F-35A, will be the next in line to declare initial operating capability in 2016. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, head of integration for all of the systems needed to declare the service’s variant up and running next year, saw the F-22 Raptor through its similar initial launch.
As he stood up the first F-22 squadron, “we worked through a lot of similar types of issues and challenges,” Harrigian said. “Given the complexity of the F-35, it’s important to remind ourselves why we need the jet.”
The Air Force version faces political hurdles, particularly when it comes to the people who maintain the aircraft. The program has repeatedly tried to migrate the maintainers from the A-10 fleet, but have been blocked two years in a row by Congress, which disagrees with the decision to retire the A-10 in order to free up the maintainers for the F-35.
Harrigian said the program is still working on a “Plan B” to figure out how to bring over maintainers, some of whom it may take from A-10s it still seeks to put into mothball status. However, even that plan could be rejected in this years’ National Defense Authorization Act.
“What gets signed in the NDAA — that will drive where we can go for those folks,” Harrigian said. On having enough maintainers on hand for 2016, Harrigian said “we’re basically tracking this person-by-person to make sure we are ready for IOC.”
By the time all three variants are fielded — the carrier variant for the Navy is expected in 2018 — the program will be gathering speed. Sixty-three F-35s have been delivered. By the time the Air Force declares IOC in 2016, there will be 199 aircraft total, and 651 total in 2020. Seven international partners will field F-35 squadrons — Turkey, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia and Norway — and foreign military sales planned for interested customers such as Japan.
