Page 3 - Lessons-Learned-at-Pax-River_Neat

Overview

Developmental testing is a fact of life for operational fleets. As one test engineer com-
mented during our visit to Pax River, “we continue to do developmental testing on the
Super Hornet here at Pax.” And with more than 50,000 flight hours on the F-35 fleet and
an operational squadron with the Marines, to be joined by the USAF this year and the
Navy next year, the F-35 fleet has already taken off.

There are currently more than 250 F-35 pilots and 2,400 aircraft maintainers from six na-
tions already trained and more than 110 jets are jointly under construction at the Fort
Worth and Cameri production facilities.

The F-35 has become tactically operational in the USMC while the aircraft is undergoing
developmental testing by the Pax River and Edwards AFB with an F-35 Integrated Test
Force (ITF) for the USAF and USN . What is not widely understood is that the ITF is
managing the ongoing developmental testing for the life of the program.

With the scope, complexity and concurrent global reach of the F-35 program, a new ap-
proach to testing was set in motion.

As Andrew Mack, the F-35 ITF chief test engineer put it:

When the F-35B Block 2B became cleared for IOC, (VMFA-121) there were many stories about
what it cannot do; that really is not the point.

The plane will evolve its capabilities over time based on spiral development.

The point is that is a very capable combat jet at the block it has achieved already.

And the impact is immediate. ---stealth from the sea is brand new for the Marine Corps and
Navy.

In other words, the program is one of “spiral development” in which combat F-35 Type/
Model/Series (T/M/S) airplanes emerge throughout the process to operate as effective

combat assets, even while the developmental testing for all three types of F-35s contin-

ue.

Second Line of Defense Lessons Learned at Pax River
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