Thanks 'FA18' - here are some excerpts relevant to 'night flite' and 'light strike' - left out were the hooky references because
AFAIK they are in this thread already, anyways they are in the PDF cited below....
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE | WRITTEN TESTIMONY FOR THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TACTICAL AIR AND LAND FORCES UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WITNESS STATEMENT OF: Lt General Christopher C. Bogdan Program Executive Officer F-35, March 26, 2014
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS...C-20140326.pdf (305Kbs)
"...Program Accomplishments in the Last Year
The F-35 program team achieved a number of accomplishments in 2013, including delivery of 35 aircraft; rolling-out of the 100th jet from the production facility in Fort Worth; completion of the Block 3 Critical Design Review; announcing the decision to cease development of an alternate Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS); and resolving lingering technical design shortfalls to include the F-35C Arresting Hook, Night / Instrument (IMC), Fuel Dump, and Lightning Protection....
...We have also seen significant progress in our ability to fly at night and Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). The Navy granted clearance and conducted the first night flights on the F-35B (VMFA-121) in December 2013. Subsequently, in January 2014, the Navy granted night/IMC clearance for the F-35C. The Air Force also granted night/IMC clearance for the F-35A in January 2014, although initially weather restricted to a ceiling greater than 600 feet and visibility greater than two nautical miles. In March 2014, the Air Force lifted the restrictions following additional simulator evaluations, allowing the F-35 aircraft to fly to weather minimums posted by the airfields.
All LRIP lot 6 and later aircraft will be delivered with night / IMC capability. LRIP lot 5 aircraft require an improved landing/taxi light prior to operating in night/IMC. LRIP lot 4 aircraft require a planned aircraft software update as well as improved wingtip and landing/taxi lights. All possible software updates have been accomplished, and the lighting upgrades are in progress. LRIP lot 3 and earlier aircraft require the Block 2B 9 upgrade planned to begin in late 2014 to gain night/IMC capability.
We currently have 11 F-35As, 6 F-35Bs, and 1 F-35C fleet aircraft configured and certified for night/IMC. The remaining LRIP lots 4 and 5 fleet aircraft are either in process or awaiting the wingtip and landing/taxi light modifications for night/IMC. The program has also made progress on lightning protection. In 2009, fuel system simulator testing revealed deficiencies in the On Board Inert Gas Generation System’s (OBIGGS) ability to maintain the necessary tank inerting to protect the aircraft from lightning strikes. The program completely redesigned the OBIGGS and performed a F-35B ground test that verified inerting distribution in the tanks. Ground and flight tests are planned for second quarter 2014 where we expect to evaluate fuel system performance and prevention of nuisance alerts. A unique opportunity occurred with the availability of the Netherlands F-35A aircraft; our team took advantage of the aircraft to test for lightning electrical transient stress to aircraft subsystems in the Fall of 2013. The aircraft was subjected to 865 simulated low level “lightning strikes,” and we are happy to report that the aircraft received no damage, all subsystems worked appropriately, and the aircraft’s reaction to the lightning strikes closely matched engineering models. Aircraft that have OBIGGS inerting and subsystems that can function with lightning electrical transients are expected to allow the removal of the lightning flight restrictions by the beginning of 2015...."