Agree the fix needs to be tested successfully, however as indicated in this and other reports from Burbage, more tweaking may be required to what is after all a complex system (arrestor wire behaviour) interacting with another complex system (hook behaviour).
Testing new hook should be soonish according to:
Is F-35 program flying high or sputtering? Posted Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012
Is F-35 program flying high or sputtering? | Business | Dallas Business, Texas Business,...
"...One of the more glaring problems spotlighted in recent weeks by news media and critics is that the tailhook on the F-35C, the version intended for the Navy to operate off aircraft carriers, failed repeatedly to snag the arresting wire in mock carrier landings last summer.
The Pentagon report that revealed the tailhook problem left no doubt that officials considered it potentially a very serious problem. Fixing it, the report said, might require major changes to the aircraft design, adding more delays and still more costs to the already soaring bills for the F-35.
Burbage, a former Navy pilot who made his share of carrier landings, understands the significance of the problem as well as anyone. There won't be many carrier landings if the tailhook doesn't catch and stop the plane when it lands.
It's a challenging issue, a more complex engineering problem than with past Navy planes because of the "stealth" design of the F-35C. Tailhooks ordinarily extend from the back of Navy planes at all times. The F-35C tailhook must be shorter and retract into the body of the aircraft so it doesn't ruin the plane's low visibility to radar signals.
Burbage says he's confident that Lockheed and the Navy can solve the problem without major and costly delays.
"We put our A team on it," Burbage said, with Lockheed engineers working closely with the Navy's top engineering and carrier aviation experts. "We did detailed engineering analysis. There are some physics problems related to the way the [arresting] wire reacts when the plane rolls over it."
By the end of the month, Burbage said, he expects the tailhook to be redesigned and new parts ordered from suppliers. By midsummer the new version should be flying at the Navy's Lakehurst, N.J., base, where carrier operations are tested on the ground. [Remember also this 'carrier' at NAS Lakehurst does not move much.
]
"We'll go back and check it and see if we have to tweak it again," Burbage said, adding that he's confident that the F-35C will be ready and
cleared for initial carrier testing schedule for 2013.
"I believe that's where we are. We need to prove it to people...."