Page 41 - Lessons-Learned-at-Pax-River_Neat

Answer: We started working this about six months ago and worked various scenarios
for the flight including divert requirements if needed.

But the aircraft holds so much fuel that there is an additional safety factor built in. After
30 minutes after take off from the Azores I could reach the coast of Canada flying high.
If I needed to fly lower, I would need a refueling.

We also brought our tankers to Edwards last year to do refueling of the F-35 and
worked through various procedures and operating conditions.

Question: This plane is designed to drop bombs and fire missiles. What you can see
going forward with regard to training with regard to weapons?

Answer: It is a lot easier than you think. This is one of the first aircraft that you can take
off and after about two flights dropping bombs, and firing weapons. Your mission sys-
tems are so good that you can start operating weapons very early in your training and
operations.

We have to air-to-air pilots working with air-to-ground pilots and merging the cultures.

You are not focusing on your sensors; you are focusing on the end objective of your
mission.

The big difference with this aircraft is situational awareness. You see everything, and I
mean on the surface and on the ground and you command attack, defense and electron-
ic warfare functions within the aircraft. The HMI is processing this and allowing you to
be more strategic in your role.

You have different screens and different set ups that we are using as we fly the aircraft,
and over time we can help the pilots standardize ways to usual the two screens optimal-
ly.

During my flight, I mostly used the two screens in the following way:

Half a screen provided a long-range view to look further; the second half showed the
formation.

Second Line of Defense Lessons Learned at Pax River
! !4 0