US Air Force Grounds F-35s It Just Declared Ready for War
A U.S. Air Force pilot conducts preflight checks inside an F-35A Lightning II before a training mission April 4 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., April 4, 2013.
By Marcus Weisgerber Read bio
September 16, 2016
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brett Clashman
Crumbling avionics lines are the latest setback for the jet, which had been riding a wave of progress.
On Aug. 2, the Air Force said 10 F-35s at Hill Air Force Base in Utah were ready for war. Forty-four days later, those planes have been grounded in the latest embarrassing setback for the most expensive project in Pentagon history.
The problem: “peeling and crumbling insulation in avionics cooling lines inside the fuel tanks,” Air Force officials said in a statement on Friday afternoon. “Engineers with the F-35 Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin and Hill Air Force Base maintenance Airmen have conducted inspections of eight aircraft and are currently developing procedures to resolve or mitigate the issue prior to release of affected production aircraft to the field and the return of affected operational aircraft to flight operations.”
The grounding order affects 57 aircraft, some of which belong to Norway, officials said. Fifteen of them are operational jets, the 42 others are in various states of production.
http://www.defenseone.com/business/2016/09/f-35-grounded-again/131615/?oref=d-river
