July 21--Last week's partial lifting of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's July 3 grounding allowed the first Marine F-35B Lightening II version of the aircraft arrive in Beaufort, S.C., on Thursday.
An engine fire in an Air Force F-35 version June 23 at Eglin AFB, where all versions are tested, resulted in about a 10-day grounding of all three versions of the fifth generation fighter plane, but the Marine Corps F-35B has not experienced similar problems.
No instances of mechanical problems mirroring the Eglin AFB training plane fire attributed to "excessive rubbing of engine blades," have surfaced at Fleet Readiness Center East at Cherry Point, said Col. Blayne H. Spratlin, commanding officer of the designated airframe and engine maintenance and repair work facility for F-35s.
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told reporters on Monday that no similar problems had been found on any of the other 98 engines in service. He stressed, as did former Lockheed Martin deputy project manager retired Lt. Gen. Harry Blot, that the program is still in development, which is when technical problems are meant to be found and fixed.
FRC East is currently performing modifications on Marine Corps F-35Bs, and Spratlin said, "On the two aircraft currently here (both "B" variants"), there have been no concerns. Pratt & Whitney still came and borescoped the two engines and found nothing irregular that concerned them."
Pratt & Whitney is the engine manufacturer.
"Our portion of the F-35 is performing structural modifications, and that is not affected at all," Spratlin said, in response to questions following the grounding. "It is really too early for us to tell if the grounding will affect us in the long term. Perhaps the schedule could be impacted as to when aircraft come in for modification and then depart after being modified, but we do not believe it will affect the amount of our workload. Our focus here is simply to modify the aircraft we have as efficiently and effectively as possible, and return them to the warfighter."
Marine Corps F-35Bs are replacing the Marine Corps' aging legacy tactical fleet including the F/A-18A-D Hornet, AV-8B Harrier and the EA-6B Prowler.
The 2nd Marine Airwing at Cherry Point Air Station expects to begin receiving the first of six F-35B squadrons in 2022, but support from the top commander of Fleet Readiness Centers is supporting FRC East to build the lift fans for F-35Bs at a not-yet-funded $43.6 million facility there.
That facility would test the vertical lift engine and components. It was hoped for in 2012, but delayed by Navy funding cuts. A new 2018 target date for funding is being pushed by North Carolina congressmen.
The sophisticated aircraft's development has been jointly sponsored by the U.S. and partner nations including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and Republic of Korea. It is the world's most expensive weapons project, now at about $400 billion.
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