The leaders of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces have requested additional assessment information on the U.S. Navy’s T-45C Goshawk trainer jets as the Navy investigates problem with the aircraft.
Following the Navy grounding its fleet of T-45Cs in mid-April due to physiological episodes in cockpits caused by contamination of the aircraft’s onboard oxygen generation system (OBOGS), the service tapped U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift to lead a review team on the issue. The results are due within 30 days of April 24 (Defense Daily, April 24).
Subcommittee chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio), ranking member Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.), and member Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on May 8 sent a letter to Adm. John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations, saying they require more information on how the Navy is assessing the situation.
Specifically, they are asking for additional information on how the Navy is assessing the OBOGS used in the T-45 as well as more information about the engineering testing and analysis being conducted by the Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
Tsongas previous expressed concerns about the T-45 problem, saying the grounding of the fleet demonstrated the severity of a troubling problem (Defense Daily, April 17).
The letter came after the subcommittee was briefed on the issue by Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, commander of Naval Air Forces, and Vice Admiral Paul Grosklags, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command.The members wrote that they recognize the Navy’s commitment to determine the root cause of these issues but that no one specific cause has yet been identified.
“We ask that you provide the Subcommittee with the current schedule or timeline for all test and evaluations of equipment associated with T-45 aircraft to include the specific equipment being tested, the location of where testing is being conducted, the frequency of those tests, and how the results of these tests are informing the Navy’s way forward,” the letter said.