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Show HILLTOP TIMES Hilltop TIMES 3 February 5, 2015 Flight restrictions on F-35 since June will be lifted BY MITCH SHAW Hilltop Times correspondent W ASHINGTON, D.C. — A new government report says the flight testing restrictions that have been in place on the F-35 ever since the Air Force version of the jet caught fire in late June, will be lifted this month. The Pentagon's office of the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation in late January released its annual report to Congress, which investigates weapons programs across all military services to identify common problems and other themes in operational testing of Department of Defense weapons systems. This year's report includes a lengthy section on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. According to the report, after an F-35A aircraft assigned to the training center at Eglin AFB, Florida, expe- Risks From 1 or we risk being too small to succeed," Welsh said. Welsh said that 24 years of combat operations has taken a toll on the Air Force, and the need for modernization is no longer rienced an engine failure on take-off, which caused it to burst into flames on June 23, the F-35 program office instituted a series of actions that affected flight operations for both the fielded production aircraft and the test aircraft. One of those actions — the institution of engine power restrictions during flight testing — remains in place today. After a fleet-wide suspension of flights that was ordered in light of the fire was lifted on July 8, the program office began permitting engine runs up to 30 percent power for engines that had completed special inspections with a piece of equipment called a borescope. Those operating limitations have since been incrementally revised to allow flight testing to continue, but although aircraft in what is known as the "flight sciences" series of each variant had been cleared to continue testing without engine restrictions, the rest of the test fleet continues to conduct flight testing with the restrictions in place. The program plans to remove all engine-imposed restrictions from the developmental test fleet by the end of February, after modifications to the engines of each aircraft are complete. The report says the engine failure created a "debt of flight sciences testing" on the F-35A that will need to be overcome in 2015 and early 2016 to maintain the current TOM REYNOLDS/Lockheed Martin release schedule for the The F-35 Integrated Test Force is shown completing a series of night flights, testing delivery of software that the ability to fly the jet safely in instrument meteorological conditions where the provides full war fighter pilot has no external visibility references. capability for the jet. The report also gives arrival at Hill Air Force the engine failure. Fricspecifics on what caused is failure of the rotor tion from the rubbing the June engine failure. during the take-off on Base, which will be home On Oct. 10, the procreated excessively high June 23," the report says. to the first three operagram confirmed that extemperatures within the Defense officials say tional F-35 squadrons and cessive rubbing between titanium rotor, creating the challenges won't will begin receiving what small cracks that evena seal and the titanium delay the stealth jet's opwill ultimately be a total erational timeline or its of 72 jets in September. interface of a rotor led to tually led to "catastroph- a debatable issue. "We currently have 12 fleets of aircraft that qualify for antique license plates in the state of Virginia," he said. "Air Forces that fall behind technology fail, and joint forces without the full breadth of the air, space and cyber capabilities that comprise mod- ern airpower will lose." Welsh credited improved combat squadron readiness over the past year to the Balanced Budget Act, which targeted individual and unit readiness, but said that future sequestration would immediately reverse this trend. "Squadrons would be grounded, readiness rates would plummet, Red and Green Flag exercises would have to be canceled, Weapons School classes would be limited, and our air crew members' frustration will rise, again," Welsh said. He explained sequestration has led to intentional underfunding of infrastructures that produce combat capability over time, including training ranges, test ranges, space launch facilities, simulation infrastructure and nuclear infrastructure. Welsh appealed to the members of the Senate Armed Services Commit- tee to join with the military to ensure current and future combat capability. "We do need your help to be ready for today's fight and still able to win in 2025 and beyond," he said. 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