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The US Air Force's 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona today cancelled "local flying operations" for F-35A fighters after five incidents in which pilots "experienced hypoxia-like symptoms," an Air Force spokesperson said in a statement. Hypoxia is a deficiency in oxygen reaching the body through the circulatory system.
"In order to synchronize operations and maintenance efforts toward safe flying operations we have cancelled local F-35A flying," said 56th Fighter Wing commander Brigadier General Brook Leonard. "The Air Force takes these physiological incidents seriously, and our focus is on the safety and well-being of our pilots. We are taking the necessary steps to find the root cause of these incidents."
The cancellation of F-35A operations is currently restricted to Luke Air Force Base, the primary pilot training base for the F-35A. The Air Force also trains F-35A pilots at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The 56th Fighter Wing's squadrons at Luke train pilots from the US Air Force as well as from other nations buying the F-35A, including Norway, Italy, and Australia. All the pilots training at Luke will be briefed on the incidents and on the procedures the pilots affected used to successfully restore oxygen and land the aircraft safely, a 56th Fighter Wing spokesperson said. The 56th's Air Operations Group will also hold a forum with pilots to discuss their concerns.
Source: ArsTechnica
According to Wikipedia:
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters. The fifth-generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack and air defense missions. It has three main models: the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, and the F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) variant. On 31 July 2015, the United States Marines declared ready for deployment the first squadron of F-35B fighters after intensive testing. On 2 August 2016, the U.S. Air Force declared its first squadron of F-35A fighters combat-ready.
The F-35 development program has been plagued with cost overruns and delays. Current estimated costs per unit vary from $95m for the F35-A to $120m for the F35-B and F35-C.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday June 12 2017, @10:38PM (2 children)
A couple of problems here:
1) The F-35 is cheaper per flight-hour than the V-22 (according to your link), as well as the B-2, so it's not only cheap compared to the F-22. Of course, it really isn't meant for the same kinds of missions as those.
2) This article doesn't show the flight-hour costs of the F-15, F-16, or F-18. The F-35 is supposed to eventually replace those planes too, not just the A-10.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 13 2017, @02:47AM (1 child)
I'm not so sure about all those claims for cost per hour. Let's consider automobiles for a minute. A new car generally runs pretty cheaply, because it needs little to no maintenance. Assuming you pay cash, you have a big payment upfront, then you drive for two to four years, quite cheaply. When you get tired of your car, you sell it, and the aging vehicle becomes another person's headache. That car looks great to you, because it ran well, it ran cheaply. The new owner, however, has bought an aging vehicle, which is going to require more and more maintenance as time goes on. The car looks less great to him, because it is more costly to operate. He drives it for a couple years, and sells it - and that new owner can look forward to increased maintenance costs.
Back to the aircraft. Are they comparing the costs per hour for NEW F-15's, or for the aged relics already in service? Aircraft with already stressed frames, and dozens of repairs, some of which may be merely "adequate"? Aircraft with obsolete and/or worn out electronic components, maybe?
Had the military ordered NEW F-16, A-10, and F-18 craft be built, the equation would probably look a lot different.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday June 13 2017, @04:50AM
That's a good question, but aircraft, even brand-new ones, require a significant amount of maintenance, and aren't really engineered like cars are to be mostly maintenance-free. After all, when an aircraft has a mechanical failure, that frequently means a crash. So they have to get various things done at certain hour-intervals, and then a full overhaul at some fixed point. With cars, they just seal everything up so that regular lubrication isn't needed (I mean the bearings/suspension here), and then you just replace it whenever it goes bad, which these days is typically beyond 100k miles, and you drive it until something breaks in the engine.