Definitely "not working"...
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/07/31/f-35-so-stealthy-produced-training-challenges-pilot-says/87760454/
The F-35 is so stealthy, it produced training challenges, pilot says
Phillip Swarts, Air Force Times 5:04 a.m. EDT July 31, 2016
The F-35 Lightning II is so stealthy, pilots are facing an unusual challenge. They're having difficulty participating in some types of training exercises, a squadron commander told reporters Wednesday.
During a recent exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, F-35 squadrons wanted to practice evading surface-to-air threats. There was just one problem: No one on the ground could track the plane.
“If they never saw us, they couldn’t target us,” said Lt. Col. George Watkins, the commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
The F-35s resorted to flipping on their transponders, used for FAA identification, so that simulated anti-air weapons could track the planes, Watkins said.
“We basically told them where we were at and said, ‘Hey, try to shoot at us,’ ” he said, adding that without the transponders on, “most likely we would not have suffered a single loss from any SAM threats while we were training at Mountain Home.”
“When we go to train, it’s really an unfair fight for the guys who are simulating the adversaries,” Watkins continued. “We’ve been amazed by what we can do when we go up against fourth-gen adversaries in our training environment, in the air and on the ground.”
Watkins said he can take four F-35s and “be everywhere and nowhere at the same time because we can cover so much ground with our sensors, so much ground and so much airspace. And the F-15s or F-16s, or whoever is simulating an adversary or red air threat, they have no idea where we’re at and they can’t see us and they can’t target us.”
“That’s a pretty awesome feeling when you’re going out to train for combat,” Watkins concluded, "to know that your pilots are in an unfair fight.”
The pilots and crews at Hill have been putting the new fifth-generation fighter through its paces, in preparation for top Air Force brass declaring the plane operationally ready — a move expected within days.
The Air Force’s variant of the F-35 will make its first appearance at the famous Red Flag training exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, in January 2017, Watkins told Air Force Times. Marine Corps F-35Bs have already reached initial operating capability and participated in the exercise this year.
Lt. Col. Steven Anderson, the 388th Maintenance Group deputy commander, said all the boxes have been checked for Hill F-35s to reach IOC, and that the base will be ready to send six-ship packages of the aircraft wherever they’re needed in the world.
“For most of us, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bed down a new weapon set and make it employable and bring this capability for the defense of our nation,” Anderson said. “Everyone from the youngest airmen on up through our wing commanders is totally invested in this program. We are all excited and very motivated for what we’ve accomplished over the last year and what we’re going to accomplish in the future.”
Hill now has 21 pilots ready to fly, with another three going through final certification training, Anderson said. Some 222 maintainers are also ready, with another 150 in training. The base has 15 F-35s now, with a 16th scheduled to be delivered in late August. Eventually, the base is looking to set up three full squadrons with a total of 72 aircraft by 2019.
Anderson said the base isn’t expecting any problems with getting enough maintainers or pilots to operate the planes.
“We don’t see any shortfalls in our maintenance and pilots right now,” he said. “We can project up to 18 months out to see where our pilots and maintainers are coming from, and we will have enough to stand up this unit. IOC, for us, it’s just getting us out of the starting gate.”
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/defense/air-space/2016/05/11/air-force-pilots-maintainers-f-35-pros-and-cons/84232332/
Air Force Pilots, Maintainers on F-35 Pros and Cons
Lara Seligman, Defense News 8:36 p.m. EDT May 11, 2016
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — As the Air Force races to declare its F-35 jets operational before the end of the year, observers are still warning about schedule delays, a faulty logistics system, and software glitches.
But here at Edwards, the pilots, maintainers and technicians of the F-35 integrated test force say they are happy with the plane — in fact, in many ways the joint strike fighter is a huge improvement over legacy systems.
‘The Burger King jet’
Lt. Col. Raja Chari said the biggest difference between the F-35 and flying legacy platforms is that the pilot, freed from basic “stick and rudder” tasks by the JSF’s automation, is able to focus on mission planning.
“Each plane is its own command and control platform,” said Chari, who began his career flying F-15s and is now director of the F-35 ITF and commander of the 461st flight test squadron. “You don’t have to do as much stick and rudder, just getting to and from, because there are so many automated modes to use on the F-35 ... [It] is almost as easy as breathing.”
Maj. Raven LeClair, assistant director of operations for the 461st flight test squadron, told Defense News May 4 he likes the F-35’s touch screen display, which each pilot can customize to his or her liking.
The “glass,” as pilots call it, looks like two iPads sitting next to each other. Pilots can divide the screens any way they want in order to easily see different systems, Chari said.
Pilots can easily change the display anytime just by scrolling through these “portals” using the “hands-on throttle and stick,” or HOTAS, he added.
“It’s the Burger King jet,” Chari said. “You can have it however you want, your way.”
Combined with the Gen III helmet, the user-friendly display gives pilots a comprehensive picture of the entire battlefield, Chari emphasized.
“In this plane it’s 360 degrees and a much larger range of stuff that you are looking at so that you are not just thinking about what your particular jets doing, but now you are looking at other elements in a notional strike package,” Chari said. “So whether that’s looking at ground targets or emitters or air targets, you are building a much bigger picture than the traditional planes.”
Pilots are also happy with the jet’s high angle of attack, or AOA, capability, as well as its ability to perform high alpha maneuvers, Chari said. As airmen gain more experience flying the JSF, they are learning some “tricks of the trade” for handling a close-in fight, he added. He declined to be more specific because the information is classified.
Chari is looking forward to the integration of the AIM 9X missile, which will come as part of the final 3F software package. The combination of the F-35 airframe, the AIM 9X and the Gen III helmet is “a dogfighting game-changer,” he said.
Maintainers weigh in on ALIS
Officials say ongoing challenges with the F-35’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, is the single biggest obstacle to declaring the Air Force jets operational on time. An internal diagnostic system that tracks each part of each plane worldwide, ALIS has been the subject of frequent criticism over the years, including the recent claim that if a single server goes dark it could cripple the entire F-35 fleet.
But maintainers here say that claim is ludicrous. Even if the power goes out, the team can still use ALIS, said RJ Vernon, supervisor for AF-3. All of the jet’s information is stored in a device called a portable maintenance aid, or PMA, which the team can load to the main ALIS data base once the power comes back on.
“We’ve had that happen multiple times, and we can still use ALIS,” Vernon told Defense News. If the power is out for long enough, the team may have to track maintenance and manage daily operations manually, as legacy systems do. But the chances of that happening are very slim, he added.
For day-to-day operations, the airmen and Lockheed Martin contractors here generally agree ALIS has made their lives easier.
“It tells you everything you need to know instantly,” Vernon said. “ALIS reduces our troubleshooting drastically, it makes my job very easy.”
AF-3 crew chief Staff Sgt. Cody Patters, who previously worked on A-10s and F-16s, agreed, saying the F-35 is significantly easier to take care of than legacy systems. The only thing he does not like is the lag time as he waits for the computer to load a new task.
The system is also very user-friendly, Patters said.
“We could teach you in 15 minutes,” he told Defense News.
Technicians say F-35 is easier to maintain
Unlike many legacy planes, the F-35 is built with access panels to allow technicians to more easily make adjustments. This makes changing out parts “a whole lot faster,” said Tech. Sgt. Chard Wooldridge, an avionics technician.
“For example, instead of taking off the entire nose assembly, it’s just a compartment,” Wooldridge said.
Plus, the computer catches problems the human eye might miss, Wooldridge said.
The computer is especially critical for fixing surface damage to the jet’s stealth coating. Technicians first trace the damage on the plane, then use the computer to zoom in on that specific part of the aircraft, said Staff Sgt. Jason Noyes, a low-observables technician.
The jet’s weapons are also easier to maintain than those on legacy platforms, said Master Sgt. Jason Buffell, the weapons section lead. The F-35’s weapons delivery is “pneumatic,” which means it fires projectiles by means of air pressure, instead of explosive. This saves man hours because the team doesn’t have to spend time cleaning the weapons banks every day, Buffell said.
Patters put it simply: “Our jobs are drastically easier because of the way the jet takes care of itself.”
