Page 26 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

The Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Arrives into the Combat Force

The plane talks to the maintainers; the computer brick is pulled from the plane after a flight and the mission as
well as maintenance data is plugged into the IT management systems.

This is now; this is today.

The maintainers plugged in their information as they do the maintenance rather than entering paper trails into
an IT system at a later date. There is a complete digital history of the aircraft, who maintained it, what they
did and when they do it.

This is now; this is today.

One can go to the ALIS system and see that aircraft and its condition from a maintenance situation and when
it goes to depot, the complete accurate digital history is part of what the depot can then work with, and their
work in turn, will go into the digital system as well for the line maintainers to have direct access to.

This is now; this is today.

What is a work in progress is taking that information and building squadron and fleet records which can
provide a global picture of the fleet. But without the foundation, which has already been built and is
operational today, a global picture and system would not even be imaginable.

This will take time, because the data needs to be built, and flow into the system, with the system itself being
adjusted to the operational realities, which will become available over time. It takes a decade for a new
combat aircraft and its combat team to gain enough operational experiences to really know what that
aircraft can do under global combat conditions. The F-35 will be no different.

But what will be different is that the F-35 is global from birth, and global information generated from the
beginning. And as the global fleet deploys information for areas as far from one another as Australia to
Norway will input real world operational data into a global maintenance system. And the data generated
will provide significant inputs as well to the manufacturing process and the redesign of parts as those parts
are tested in operations. This is a digitally based combat learning cycle within which maintenance is built in as
an integral part.

It sounds simple; but it has never been done before.

When visiting the maintainers at Edwards, it is clear that these young people know they are part of something
new and something exciting. As Lt. Col. Chari put it with regard to the effort:

“Really now is like NASA must have been like in 1969; it is a once in a generation thing to get IOC on a new
generation aircraft, and the excitement around here is palpable. You are going to talk about this experience
for the rest of your life, being present at the creation and evolution of F-35 combat capability.”

This is true not just for the pilots but clearly for the maintainers as well; and it is an air combat system
operated by an air combat team.

Our host for the tour was Mary Parker, Deputy for Logistics for the Developmental Test Team. We discussed
maintenance and operational support practices and systems with Staff Sgt. Cody Patters, Crew Chief, R.J
Veron, AF-3s Aircraft Supervisor, Staff Sgt. Rachel Simmons, Avionics Technician, Mr. Jesus Rivera, Avionics
Technician, TSgt Jeremy Jackson, Mr. Rusty Phillips, Weapons Expeditor, Senior Airman Jessica Meehan,
Weapons Technician, Staff Sgt. Jason Noyes, Low Observable Technician, TSgt Andrew Williams, Egress
Technician, and Mr. Greg Guevara, Mechanic/Technician.

Second Line of Defense

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