First Navy JSF to be finished this summerBy Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday May 7, 2009 12:14:43 EDT
The first F-35C, the Navy carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, is expected to roll off the production line this summer, a Navy official said.
The first aircraft will conduct a test flight in December near its Lockheed Martin production facility in Fort Worth, Texas, said Capt. Wade Knudson, the Navy’s F-35 program manager.
Knudson laid out the timeline for the aircraft Tuesday morning at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition outside Washington.
The urgent need for the aircraft was underscored in April when Defense Secretary Robert Gates signaled that the Navy would scale back its purchase of F/A-18 Super Hornets and focus attention on the development of the F-35 Lightning II.
The timeline for development of the F-35C — with an initial operational capacity targeted for 2015 — has not changed since Gates’ remarks, Knudson said.
The first carrier-based stealth aircraft, the F-35 will eventually replace the F/A-18 Hornet.
Navy officials have been warning of a so-called strike “fighter gap,†when the legacy Hornets will wear out faster then the F-35s can be produced to replace them.
Estimates of the fighter gap range as high as 200 aircraft — or about 20 percent of the fighter fleet — starting in 2016 and extending for several years.
The F-35 will potentially reduce the size of flight deck crews by digitizing some maintenance tasks.
The system is designed to monitor the planes software and hardware for potential problems and wirelessly transmit that information to the flight deck before the plane lands, giving the crew additional time to prepare for any needed repairs, Knudson said.
Each aircraft is designed to conduct three sorties a day, Knudson said.
The Navy’s version of the F-35 will be the third and final model to become operational, after the Air Force and Marine Corps versions.
Source
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/05/navy_jsf_050509w/
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