The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Small problem, big effect: US military no longer allows F-35 fighter jets to fly

2022-08-02T07:47:41.546Z


Small problem, big effect: US military no longer allows F-35 fighter jets to fly Created: 2022-08-02 09:42 By: Markus Hofstetter The Bundeswehr is to receive the US F-35. But the list of defects in the stealth jet is getting longer and longer. Bethesda - The American F-35 fighter plane often makes the headlines. But that is not always in the interests of the manufacturer Lockheed Martin. This


Small problem, big effect: US military no longer allows F-35 fighter jets to fly

Created: 2022-08-02 09:42

By: Markus Hofstetter

The Bundeswehr is to receive the US F-35.

But the list of defects in the stealth jet is getting longer and longer.

Bethesda - The American F-35 fighter plane often makes the headlines.

But that is not always in the interests of the manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

This also includes reports of problems with the jets.

Even Greenpeace warned of a variety of deficiencies in the plane.

Errors, including in the engine, meant that the F-35 had an average availability of 54 percent in 2020, and 61 percent in 2021.

Still, that's a low figure given that the normal availability of a modern fighter jet is 80 percent.

F-35 jet must remain on the ground: ejection seats cannot deploy properly

Now the miracle flyer has another problem.

The US portal

AirForceTimes

and other media report that the F-35 was found to have an error in the ejection seats, which apparently do not trigger properly in an emergency.

As a result, most of the US military's fighter jets are currently grounded, albeit temporarily.

A US Air Force F-35A Lightning II (archive photo) © Bjoern Trotsky/imago

According to seat manufacturer Martin-Baker, the error in the ejection seats was discovered in April during a routine inspection of a US Air Force (USAF) F-35.

Because this error was initially considered an isolated incident, no immediate action was taken.

Only during the course of the investigation did it emerge that the problem was due to a production error.

F-35 jet has to stay on the ground: lack of magnesium powder prevents ignition of the ejection seat

The cause of the defect is that a cartridge is missing magnesium powder, which is needed to ignite the ejection seat and open the parachute.

In addition, the part should have been loose.

Martin-Baker has therefore already changed the production process so that the error no longer occurs.

After identifying the cause of the failure, the US Air Force ordered the ejection seat cartridges on F-35 jets operating within the United States to be inspected in 90 days.

These are most of the approximately 300 jets owned by the US Air Force.

It is not known how stealth jets flown by the USAF in Europe or Japan are handled.

F-35 jet has to stay on the ground: After a successful inspection, US Air Force machines can go back into action

The inspections in the US started

on July 19, according to

AirForceTimes .

To speed up the process, the affected aircraft were grounded ten days later.

After a successful inspection, the machine can immediately return to service.

The F-35 is expected to return to normal operational readiness later this week (beginning August 1).

also read

Putin's 'lie' exposed: This is how Russia's economy really is

“Ridiculous” and “pathetic”: Experts make devastating verdicts on Russia's army

The US Air Force has also temporarily grounded around 300 other T-38 Talon and T-6 Texan II fighter jets because they use the same Martin-Baker ejection seat cartridges.

However, these are mainly training aircraft.

China and Taiwan: That's what the conflict is about

View photo gallery

F-35 jet must remain on the ground: US Navy and US Marine Corps also do not let machines fly

The US Navy and the US Marine Corps are also no longer allowing their F-35B and F-35C jets to fly during the ongoing investigations.

Both branches of the armed forces have a different approach than the Luftwaffe.

You want to inspect every single aircraft before it goes into service, instead of all at once within a short period of time.

Lockheed-Martin wants to produce a total of up to 3,000 F-35 machines.

Over 800 models have been delivered to date, more than half of which are flown by the US military.

It was recently decided that the German Air Force will also receive F-35 jets.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-02

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.