Page 3 - Renorming of Airpower: The F-35 Enters the Combat Fleet

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

INTRODUCTION

This report provides an update of the roll out of the F-35 as of March 31, 2016.

The report is based on interviews with pilots, maintainers, testers and industrialists involved with the program.
The F-35 is not a future program; it is here now. The Marines already have their initial aircraft, the USAF is
about to declare their first squadron ready for combat and the US Navy will follow next year. Several
partners in the program are flying and maintaining their initial aircraft at places like Luke AFB or Beaufort
Marine Corps station. And those same allies, have built or are building infrastructure in their countries for the
roll out of the F-35 in their countries, as well as to support those of allies which will operate when appropriate
off of their national airbases.

According to the F-35 Joint Program Officer, there are currently more than 250 F-35 pilots and 2,400
aircraft maintainers from six nations already trained and more than 110 jets are jointly under construction at
the Fort Worth and Cameri production facilities. F-35s are flying at eight operating locations: Edwards Air
Force Base, California, Eglin AFB, Florida, Hill AFB, Utah, Luke AFB, Arizona, Marine Corps Air Station
Beaufort, South Carolina, MCAS Yuma, Arizona, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, and Nellis AFB,
Nevada. Jets are also flown at two F-35 depot locations at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, and the
Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill AFB, Utah. And we learned at Edwards AFB in meetings with maintainers,
that more than 150 F-35s are already feeding data into the F-35 digital data base, as part of shaping the
way ahead for the maintenance of the fleet.

We have far more material than we can present in a short report, but Second Line of Defense has many
interviews, articles and trip reports from visiting those who are putting the F-35 into the air combat fleet and
will shape its future. This is about what is now and what is upon the horizon with the aircraft, as an enabler of
21st century combat operations.

The F-35 is a “flying combat system” rather than a classic tactical fighter. It is capable of fighting across the
range of military operations and can do so rapidly in a multi-tasking mode. That is, the impact of using F-
35s is that one can deploy a force with a lighter logistical footprint, with greater coalition combat capabilities
and operate across the ROMO (Range of Military Operations).

As a fleet, the F-35 is an integrated fleet able to share data over great distances via the its wave based
communications systems. And it comes as Western forces are augmenting their ability to network forces and to
prepare for the next generation of weapons, and learning how to off board weapons, that is one platform
identifying targets and guiding a weapon launched from another platform to the target.

The F-35 is the first software upgradeable tactical jet ever built; and the evolution of the software will be
determined by the operational experiences of the air combat force.

But the F-35 is not a replacement aircraft; and it will operate with selective legacy aircraft in shaping
concepts of operations innovations; but legacy assets will be modernized with regard to the shift in fifth
generation warfighting fostered by the introduction of the F-35 global fleet.

Although not a replacement aircraft, there are significant improvements in the design of the aircraft which
make it more affordable and viable going forward, including the intersecting R and D into the fusion cockpit
as well as the fact that the F-35 is the first 8,000 combat hour operational tactical aircraft ever built.

The F-35 is also the first generation of shaping a globally sustainable tactical aircraft whereby global
sourcing and support will be available. This means that one nation’s F-35s can be maintained at the point of

Page 2