The Marine Corps is less than two months from declaring the F-35B ready for combat, but the long awaited fifth-generation aircraft will not be rushed into battle as quickly as the service usually deploys new weapons, according to a top Marine aviator.
“The F-35, I would say, if I had my druthers, I would not deploy right away because I would like to build some momentum in the program and build the instructor base,” Lt. Gen Jon Davis, deputy commandant for aviation, told reporters during a May 19 breakfast in Washington, D.C.
Marines are known for embracing new weapons and platforms and spiriting them to combat zones where they can be tested and Marines can learn their utility through operation assessment. For instance, the Marine Corps declared V-22 Osprey initial operational capability (IOC) in 2007 and almost immediately deployed it to Iraq, which was a controversial decision given the Osprey’s lackluster operational readiness rate and questionable safety record.
Davis said because of the thousands of test flight hours already flown on the F-35 and the deliberateness with which the service is approaching IOC has put the F-35 in better stead on the eve of its official entry to service.
“The airplane can deploy straight away if we need it to. And it could have a very great capability out there against ISIS targets.”
Rather than press for sending the aircraft into combat, Davis said the focus is on equipping and deploying Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121) to Iwakuni, Japan in January 2017.
“If in the interim we need them for something else, we can use those airplanes,” he said.
Off the U.S. East Coast the same day, a half dozen F-35Bs landed aboard the USS Wasp (LHD-1) amphibious assault ship where they will undergo two weeks of operational testing (OT) in anticipation of declaring IOC on July 1. Elements of VMFA-121, which will be the first operational F-35 squadron, are performing the OT-1 testing aboard the Wasp.
During OT-1, the Marine Corps will finalize plans for integrating the short-takeoff, vertical-landing F-35B onto its big-deck amphibs, which have already undergone extensive retrofits to their flight decks to accept the extreme heat caused by the aircraft’s downwash in hover mode.
Specific objectives include day and night flight trials, interoperability with ship systems and legacy aircraft, launch and recovery software testing and weapons loading. The shipboard version of the automatic logistics information system (ALIS) will also be tested during the trials.
There two versions of ALIS–the ashore system that will be installed at each F-35 base and a deployable version developed specifically for the Marine Corps to install on its assault ships. Davis said the first “little ALIS” aboard the Wasp is performing well, though it is not at full capability.
“The one thing it doesn’t do right now that it will do by December is the engine module is not plugged in yet,” he said. ALIS is a digital diagnostic system that is supposed to speed turnaround time between sorties. The Marines have a workaround using a separate laptop computer to perform diagnostics on the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine.
Little ALIS will not be fully operational for IOC, but with the workaround, the system is allowing turnaround times of two hours “from gear down to gear up,” Davis said.
The Marine Corps is making a host of other concessions to declare IOC in July. Its current jets have a rudimentary version of the aircraft’s promised software package, which will limit its ability to carry certain weapons and other functions. For instance, F-35Bs with software increment 2B cannot stream full-motion video to the cockpit from their distributed aperture systems (DAS).
The aircraft will not be able to carry and drop the small diameter bomb (SDB) II, which is used in close air support missions and will lack the external weapon pylons that would allow the service to use is as a “bomb truck,” Davis said. At IOC, the F-35 will be able to carry advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM), but will not be able to carry the external 20mm gun pod that later versions will have the option of employing.
“In [20]17 we get all the pylons,” Davis said of the F-35Bs that will come in the 3F configuration, which features the most advanced mission systems software and pilot helmet. With external stores, an F-35B will be able to carry 3,000 to 4,000 pounds more than a fully loaded F-18, he said.