Air Force certifies F-35As produced in FY-18 will have full operational capability

The Air Force last week certified to Congress that F-35As delivered in fiscal year 2018 will have full combat capability — to include Block 3F software and weapons carriage.

The service confirmed in a Sept. 9 statement that Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James had certified the program will meet its current plan to deliver fully combat-ready aircraft in FY-18 — a validation required by the FY-16 National Defense Authorization Act.

“The Secretary of the Air Force considered program status, planning and program risks and was informed by the F-35 Joint Program Office’s plan to complete F-35 development as reviewed by Air Force functional experts, Air Combat Command, and an independent review team,” according to the statement.

The FY-16 provision limited procurement to no more than $4.3 billion until the certification was completed.

The Air Force declared initial operational capability for the F-35A in August, following a similar declaration from the Marine Corps last summer. The F-35 joint program office is currently in extended negotiations for low-rate initial production lots 9 and 10.

http://insidedefense.com/insider/air-force-certifies-f-35as-produced-fy-18-will-have-full-operational-capability

It’s not really an impressive feat for the F-35. What is impressive is that the ground station used MADL as the datalink and not Link-16.

This use of ground terminals for MADL is the reason why the MADL spec has 25 terminals in the local network, 6 groups of 4 fighters and one outside terminal (on the ground, at sea, 5th to 4th, BACN, etc) that can relay data to the rest of the network via link-16, Satcomm, etc.

Whoever have larger radar.

That would be the F-35

The similarity of the configuration & swivelling nozzle is not accidental. LM & Yak had a co-operation agreement for a few years in the early 1990s.

It doesn’t make the F-35B a copy of the Yak-141, of course, but . . .

The F-35B’s layout was set in stone long before they had a very short lived “co-operation” which was just LM paying Yak to goto an airshow and letting LM look at the work that Yak had done. P&W already had a working (at full AB) 3BSN back in the ’60s and Convair (later part of LM) had the exact same layout that Yak used (2 lift engines and 1 cruise engine with a 3BSN) when it designed the “Convair Model 200” in 1972.

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/article.html?item_id=137

So….
Convair came up with the idea
Yak got it to fly
LM got it to work

Given that the T-50 (a lot) & J-31 (just a bit) are larger than an F-35, they would have to actually have a better level of stealth technology than the F-35 in order to have better RCS values. Considering that these planes are their country’s & company’s first foray into the dark art of stealth tech, that is highly doubtful.

In the post you quoted there is not any reference to a PR office, just to pilots

That is part of the problem.

The memo in question is clearly addressed to the PA (Public Affairs) offices and NOT to the pilots maintainers, etc.

SAF/PA {Undersecretary of the Air Force/Public Affairs} will:
a. Create and execute overall Air Force-wide communication plan by October 2015.
b. Provide MAJCOMs and bases with Public Affairs Guidance
c. Engage with national level news media and opinion leaders in the national capital region
d. Provide guidance and assistance concerning national-level media attention at other locations.

MAJCOM/PA {Major Command/Public Affairs} should answer queries within the scope of this guidance and identify/coordinate with proper sources to respond to questions outside of it. MAJCOM PA should work with their wings to identify and execute stories. SAF/PA should be informed of national and international stories by MAJCOMs prior to execution.
Wing/PAs offices should support the objectives of this guidance by sharing F-35 information, anecdotes and success stories as they occur, both locally and up the chain through their MAJCOM up to SAF/PA.

Wing PA offices will write internal stories for posting to their websites, engage their community leaders and support local, national and international media engagements in coordination with their MAJCOM and SAF/PA. Wings will also identify pilots and maintainers who are proficient at telling the F-35 story and are willing to lend their name and image to the effort. Names of identified Airmen will be provided to their MAJCOM and in turn to SAF/PA.

Note that the pilots are not brought into the fold until the wing level, and only then when they are proficient (ie know their stuff), are good communicators, and more importantly are willing to do it. It’s voluntary, not an order. These are the pilots/maintainers that are given as willing sources when a unit is called to give an interview.

Your normal pilot or maintainer is not part of this process. It certainly does not cover the airmen in other wings when they talk about getting spanked by the F-35 in exercises.

…silly DoD had no reason to lower KPP to get F-35 qualified, right ?.

Still not comprehending the difference between a KPP and a non-KPP threshold I see :stupid:

at least 31 pilots obey orders

These were off-the-record interviews that were done pilot-to-pilot and did not cover the generic Q&A items that were covered in the “guidance” memo.

Tell me, if you won’t believe this kind of source (experienced frontline pilots with 4th and 5th gen exp), who will you trust when it comes to good things to say about the F-35?

If you actually read the PDF, it’s guidance to the local PA offices, not the pilots, maintainers, etc of the F-35.