F-35B declared operational with USMC

Wardogg said:
Again, I can't speak for the Air Force. I'm sorry. In the title, I thought we were talking about Marine Corps aircraft. When the gentleman made the comment about the Herks I thought he was speaking of Marine Herks.



No, It's not a fact. 1. Faster: Maybe compared to an E model with a -7 engine, ok yeah probably. You guys were limited to what 930TIT with a -7? Yeah it's going to go faster than that. Add on refueling pods and all of our RWAR gear and the Corps' Js have the same drag component as our Ts. 2. Carries more: Really? Last I check Lockheed never upped the Max T/O weight. Unless you guys are operating on AF only rules you aren't taking off above 175,000 lbs. 3. Bigger Range: give me a number. Loaded with pax. stuck at 25,000 feet because you dont have supplemental O2 how much further can you go than a legacy T model. 4 Smaller Crew: Lets see, old standard crew operational mission-2 pilots 1 FE, 1 Nav, 1 Load, 1 FM. New crew same mission requirements - 2 pilots(95% of the time there is a third on board for training or relief) 3 crew masters(which is just the FE FM Load all rolled into one guy). So if we don't count the thrid pilot who is always there(at a greater cost I might add) then you've saved yourself 1 crewmember. Congratulations.

Those, my friend, are the facts.
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Sounds like the Marines operate very differently from USAF -J's. Our J's cruise at 330-340 (vs 280 with the -7 or 300-310 with the -15), carry two extra pallet positions (only have stretches), fly 3-6000ft higher (not limited to 25k, we carry supplemental oxygen for pax), and fly combat ops with a crew of 4 vs 6.
 
Yes it does sound like operational differences. One note though. We had stretches as well...but it didn't up our max take off weight. Two pallet positions don't really mean anything if you can't carry more weight.

We were running -16s even on the old Fs. I am not sure of all the differences. Valve housing was one. I believe hollow turbine blade may have been another. At any rate, the cruise speeds sound similiar. Is a 20kt gain worth the money? Can you take off from MCAS Cherry Pt NC and make it much past Lajes? No. You just get there a bit earlier. There was absolutely no tactical gain by buying the J. Not for the Corps anyway.
 
scoobs said:
Marines make less?
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No, although technically speaking, if you are flying off a boat, you make less on a combat deployment than the guys flying from in country. Pro-rated HFP/IDP (basically negligible amount), and you pay ~ $350/mo for food and room/board. Pretty slight pay difference, as you still get tax free pay while operating in theater, which is the big monetary bonus. Deployment minutia aside, all services have the same pay scale according to paygrade, and BAH and various other entitlements are DoD wide for those who rate them, and not service specific.

I'm guessing he was referring to the difference in retention "incentive" pays amongst the services, rather than base pay and salary. As an example, even just USN specific, right now my bonus to accept O-4/department head is significantly greater than a guy at the exact same time in service who flies helos or P-3's.......like a difference in the 5 digits range.
 
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When any of the other services are simply not given a bonus, then there will be room for them to bitch.


The only people in the Army drawing an incentive pay bonus is the 160th. This despite the fact that we're are 70% manning across all career tracks in the 64 community. The attitude from big Army is go ahead and leave, I can always find another guy to do your job.
 
Lawman said:
When any of the other services are simply not given a bonus, then there will be room for them to bitch.


The only people in the Army drawing an incentive pay bonus is the 160th. This despite the fact that we're are 70% manning across all career tracks in the 64 community. The attitude from big Army is go ahead and leave, I can always find another guy to do your job.
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That's going to become an issue somewhere down the line. I'm sure there is plenty of war experience to be had for new pilots in Afghanistan to get them up to the level of those guys leaving that have done multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. :rolleyes:
 
H46Bubba said:
That's going to become an issue somewhere down the line. I'm sure there is plenty of war experience to be had for new pilots in Afghanistan to get them up to the level of those guys leaving that have done multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. :rolleyes:
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Problem is we are a service run by people who's training pipelines take months rather than years.

And for a while they were right you could always find somebody that wanted your job. As the jobs get crappier and the civilian market expands though that wont be true anymore.

I'm currently in a job MTOE for two ranks above me. We can't get a guy to just appear out of nowhere so I'm working a job I really shouldn't have even been eligible for until 4-5 years from now. And if I left tomorrow there is another 2 year gap between the next most senior tier of guys who could generate a person to replace me. So the Army will just so what it did in 2006 time frame and start promoting guys BZ so at least on paper the rank pyramid looks balanced despite the loss of experience like you pointed out.
 
F-35s Slated to Arrive at Hill Air Force Base in September, Barring Hiccups

"Sept. 11 is the Air Force’s target date for the arrival [of the first 2 of 72 jets], but less than a month away, that date still isn’t a definite.

”It could be after that date or even before,” said Ryan Breitkruetz, F-35 Senior Site Manager at Hill. ”It’s a very fluid moving target. Something as simple as the weather could impact the delivery.“

When they do arrive, the two new jets will be operated by Hill’s recently un-retired 34th Fighter Squadron. The squadron was shut down in 2010 as part of an Air Force cost savings measure that included retiring more than 130 F16s, but it’s being brought back to support the F-35."

Before the F-16, the 34th Fighter Squadron flew F-4s, F-105, and P-47s.
 
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