F-35 ready for prime time?

[LatitudeDancer]

So the F-35 has been recently declared 'ready for war'. But I saw some land a few days ago and they still had the fire trucks toe up to the runway boundary lines for whatever reason when they were doing so. Kind of gave a mixed message.

I gave up after trying to follow the early issues of the aircraft and was just curious if people who are following it/'in the know' have opinions one way or the other.

To me it seems like it has all been going on so long it's time to poop or get off the pot and quit babying the thing.

 

[Lawman]

Talk of the Marines deploying it as next spring.

It's ready for a fight. Now if anything the aircrews and logistical systems have to catch up to it. It won't be leading the charge against the Russian horde tomorrow, and the greater whole of the Air Campaign Planning staff wouldn't know exactly how to use it yet anyway (that'll come with time and Redflag rotations), but it's totally ready to go out there and get moving.

If anything a combat deployment early will help steer a lot of learning that would have been longer delayed sitting at home so the sooner they push on it to find flaws and fixes the better.

 

[MikeD]

The USMC declared the F-35B operational and ready for war earlier in the past year, they should have at least 3 squadrons by now, with 2 or 3 more in transition.

Todays announcement for the F-35A of the USAF, with the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill being declared IOC, one of 3 squadrons in the 388th Fighter Wing that will be eventually equipped up there; even though the A model has been flying at Luke and Eglin for the past year or so in training/testing. Recent tests and evaluations have apparently shown it to have matured to a pretty good machine, both with the A model as well as the B, so it will be interesting to see how it goes, especially with the upcoming software packages.

The F-35C for the USN is, I believe, still in development/testing phases.

 

[Bear]

Software driving Mission Readiness.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...inute-long-cartoon-just-to-explain-f-35s-alis

A squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters is grounded due to problems with the software in its central cloud-based computer brain, known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). But then again, you know something is pretty complex when the manufacturer needs a three minute animated video presentation just to explain the most basic elements of how the system is supposed to work – and doesn’t mention any potential vulnerabilities to cyber attacks.

On June 22, 2017, the Marine Corps announced that it had halted Marine Fighter Attack Squadron Two One One’s (VMFA-211) flight operations at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona because of unspecified “anomalies” in the ALIS software. The unit had recently installed an upgrade within the latest software build – effectively a patch to a patch – called Version 2.0.2. Afterwards, the system began spitting out bogus maintenance codes, potentially confusing ground crews and erroneously sidelining aircraft unnecessarily.

“There is nothing wrong with the performance or safety of the aircraft itself,” U.S. Marine Corps Major Kurt Stahl, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing’s director of public affairs, insisted in a statement, according to Defense News.

“But it is imperative that we ensure the ground-based ALIS system is working properly before flight operations continue.”

 

[Roger Roger]

Afterwards, the system began spitting out bogus maintenance codes, potentially confusing ground crews and erroneously sidelining aircraft unnecessarily.

“

Sounds like your average pilot to me.

 

[Flyinthrew]

Software driving Mission Readiness.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...inute-long-cartoon-just-to-explain-f-35s-alis

A squadron of U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Joint Strike Fighters is grounded due to problems with the software in its central cloud-based computer brain, known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). But then again, you know something is pretty complex when the manufacturer needs a three minute animated video presentation just to explain the most basic elements of how the system is supposed to work – and doesn’t mention any potential vulnerabilities to cyber attacks.

On June 22, 2017, the Marine Corps announced that it had halted Marine Fighter Attack Squadron Two One One’s (VMFA-211) flight operations at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona because of unspecified “anomalies” in the ALIS software. The unit had recently installed an upgrade within the latest software build – effectively a patch to a patch – called Version 2.0.2. Afterwards, the system began spitting out bogus maintenance codes, potentially confusing ground crews and erroneously sidelining aircraft unnecessarily.

“There is nothing wrong with the performance or safety of the aircraft itself,” U.S. Marine Corps Major Kurt Stahl, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing’s director of public affairs, insisted in a statement, according to Defense News.

“But it is imperative that we ensure the ground-based ALIS system is working properly before flight operations continue.”

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I haven't seen a software upgrade yet on my legacy platform that hasn't found a fairly ridiculous bug. The test pilots and engineers can put something through its paces really well, but fly it for a week in a gun squadron and they're going to find something stupid and unexpected happening.

 

[ppragman]

I haven't seen a software upgrade yet on my legacy platform that hasn't found a fairly ridiculous bug. The test pilots and engineers can put something through its paces really well, but fly it for a week in a gun squadron and they're going to find something stupid and unexpected happening.

An oldie but a goodie:

https://www.wired.com/1998/07/sunk-by-windows-nt/

 

[NovemberEcho]

So are they still grounded again?

 

[Bear]

grounded

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/marines-f35-flights-suspend-yuma/index.html
If your choose to accept a CNN story that "The Marine Corps said 14 of its F-35B fighters are back up and running just a day after software issues grounded the planes at an Arizona air field."

"The issues associated with the (Autonomic Logistics Information System) software update have been mitigated," the Marine Corps said in a statement to CNN.