The US 388th Fighter Wing set a speed record for bringing online a newly-delivered aircraft last week, flying a sortie less than five hours after accepting delivery of its 68th F-35 aircraft.

According to the US Air Force, F-35A aircraft tail number 5261 left Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth production facility a little after 8 a.m. on August the 1st and landed at Hill Air Force Base at 10 a.m, and by 3 p.m. had taken off on its first combat training mission.

“The F-35A program’s production and delivery plan was designed to allow rapid aircraft induction and quick use by the customers,” said Col. Michael Miles, 388th Maintenance Group commander.

“We’ve shown the enterprise it’s possible.”

In theory, it means that F-35 jets could be deployed directly from the factory into combat if a large-scale conflict ever drives that need, Miles said.

When a new F-35A comes off the line at the production facility, it undergoes several contract and government check flights before the US Air Force accepts final delivery.

The 388th and 419th FWs are the Air Force’s first combat-capable F-35 units.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

14 COMMENTS

  1. Flying turd making some pointless PR noise. How about recent news about 8% fully mission capable operational rates at Edwards air force base, or that many weapons are still not available, and all the other fixes on the to do list. Only JDAM, Paveway, Aim and AMRAM are certified on F35A.
    https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2019/08/f-35-test-fleet-struggling-with-low-readiness-rates/

    On a positive note, nice to see that Typhoon has recently finished Centurion ugrade with Meteor, Storm Shadow and Brimstone. Apparently testing is ongoing with Litening 5 targeting pod, and Pirate is to be upgraded with new infrared sensors. Engines will also be upgraded, however i would rather spend on other more important aspects, since money does not grow on trees and Typhoon has plenty of thrust already.
    https://www.c4isrnet.com/global/europe/2019/08/08/royal-air-force-typhoon-jets-to-receive-key-sensor-upgrade/

    Just need to add AESA radar, EW, and SEAD capability will make Typhoon one of the best aircraft on the market!

    • Out of curiosity, if there was a funding boost and we decided we wanted new fighter jets ASAP, how many Typhoons (or fast jets) could we actually produce say a month or year? I often think the same about naval shipbuilding. Could probably build much more and cheaper if we bought in the right way, or so I would imagine.

    • “Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer records the RAF as having a current active fleet of 116 Typhoons”…the few certainly do seem to be getting fewer, to paraphrase Richard Burton…

      did we receive our full allocation in the end? it’s difficult to keep track with the various revisions to the order book over the years, but I seem to remember a batch destined for the RAF were instead sold to a Middle Eastern country during the 2000s under Gordon Brown (either as Chancellor or PM), on the basis that the MoD would order a replacement batch of a later tranche down the line. Did we ever order the replacement batch? Or was it conveniently forgotten in one of the many periods of economic woe and associated defence cuts?

      • To my recollection there was talk of a further batch – Tranche 3B maybe,but so far it has not materialised,if there are more to come than great,if not the path to Tempest might not be so clear.With the investment going into F35b into the future its probably the case that the funds are just not there.

      • The last RAF Typhoon will be delivered this year. This makes a total of 160 delivered. Of the 160 some were the T2 two seater, which have been mothballed and I believe 20 were sold to Saudi Arabia, hence the low in-service number of RAF Typhoons. There has not been any new aircraft back filling the aircraft sold to Saudi Arabia.

        • The way I see it is this – the UK Government/MOD’s contractual obligation to the Typhoon programme was 232 Aircraft. With 72 sold to Saudi Arabia that leaves 160 – coincidence or irrelevant ?.

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