From around this post there was a 'PhillipG' question [
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ml#post7812431 ] about the F-35 simulator. Necessarily the long winded excerpt is needed with otherwise 'the bad bits' missing. So best read it all at source.
Lockheed Installs F-35 Sims at New Training Site 26 Nov 2013 Dave Majumdar
"Lockheed Martin is installing high-fidelity F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) full mission simulators (FMS) at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C., in anticipation of the service’s Joint Strike Fighter training squadron moving to the base next year....
...Right now, pilots are testing the software loads on the two FMS simulators to make sure they work to the required specifications.
“We’ve got a test load of software in there and we’ve had pilots actually flying the test load to make sure our installation is solid,” Luntz said. “Then we will be installing the Block 2A software into the full mission simulator.”
Block 2A is the latest hardware and software configuration for the F-35 aircraft. It includes better air-to-air and air-to-surface modes and initial Multi-Function Advanced Data Link (MADL) capability and some simulated weapons.
The Block 2A software in the FMS is a re-hosted version of the same code that is on the actual F-35, Luntz said. In addition to the operational flight program for the jet, the FMS is installed with the same computer models that govern the functionality of real F-35 hardware.
For example, the aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan uses a virtual model of a perfect engine to benchmark its performance—that same virtual model would be used in the simulator.
As the F-35 matures and further configuration blocks are completed, the FMS will be upgraded with the latest software. Luntz said that the current plan calls for the FMS to be upgraded with the Block 2B software prior to the USMC’s planned F-35B initial operational capability date in mid-2015.
“Our plan is to have that Block 2B full mission simulator software completed at the end of 2014, first quarter of 2015, so that we can support the training for the Marine Corps starting in April of 2015,” Luntz said.
Lockheed expects that the FMS is realistic enough that actual flying sorties in a real aircraft could be cut by 50 percent, he said....
...In the meantime, the software load in the simulators installed at the joint F-35 facility at Eglin AFB will be upgraded so that training can start with the jet’s upgraded Block 2A configuration on Dec. 2 of this year.
“We’ve got our courseware loaded and installed and ready to go for that at Eglin,” Luntz said. “The software for the full mission simulator will follow that very shortly.”
Lockheed Installs F-35 Sims at New Training Site | USNI News