Air Force declares F-35 ready for duty—sort of

WThe US Air Force today announced that its first operational squadron of F-35A Lightning II figters is ready for combat duty. The announcement was made just a day into the five-month period that the Air Force had been given to reach operational levels with the 34^th Fighter Squadron, based at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

The "initial capability" declaration comes after two Air Force F-35As joined two Marine Corps F-35s at July's Royal International Air Tattoo at the United Kingdom's Fairford Royal Air Force base and after an accelerated pace of operational tests for the 34^th over the past few months. The first F-35A aircraft were delivered to the 34^th in September of last year. They've been modified several times after delivery, including getting software updates to the avionics that have eliminated some of the "instability" problems previously experienced (including radar system crashes that required reboots while in flight). Since the most recent software upgrades, the squadron has flown 88 individual aircraft sorties without a software problem, according to an Air Combat Command statement.

The system, the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), combines diagnostics and repair functions with part inventory and verifies that the correct parts have been installed properly. In earlier versions of the software, a bug in ALIS prevented aircraft from flying even when properly maintained. ALIS 2.0.2, the latest version, won't be available to the Air Force until October at the earliest.

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Source: Technology Lab – Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2aHbi8o