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"USS WASP, At Sea (NNS) -- Helicopters and AV-8B Harrier jets roared to life on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) June 24-27 as crew members went to work qualifying and passing the Afloat Training Group (ATG) Atlantic Aviation Certification (AVCERT) 1.4 Bravo....

...Day and night, AV-8B Harrier jets, MV-22B Ospreys, MH-60S Seahawk and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters launched and landed on deck working with flight deck personnel and practicing night vision operations using aided and unaided methods.

"During night time flight quarters the flight deck crew and pilots use night vision goggles to safely land on the ship, and since the ship has to dim its lights to avoid blinding the pilots, this is the aided method," said Aviation Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Jesse Seagrave. "The unaided method is landing aircraft without night vision goggles. Performing both methods gets the flight deck crew and pilots comfortable with landing aircraft in any situation."

Sailors below decks worked hard before and during AVCERT including air traffic controllers who went to team trainers in preparation for the assessment and were instrumental in landing aircraft safely.

"Our job for this mission was to control the Harriers to perform different landing approaches aboard Wasp," said Air Traffic Controller 1st Class Nathaniel Alspaugh. "To make sure we were prepared for AVCERT we went to Pensacola, Fl., and the training we received allowed us to simulate controlling aircraft and perform landing approaches on the flight deck during day and night flight quarters. The majority of the Sailors in my division are new and the fact that they were able to complete this evolution with no problems is truly an amazing accomplishment and I am proud of them."

Wasp passed AVCERT with flying colors and is one step closer to Joint Strike Fighter Developmental Testing Phase II schedule to occur later this summer."

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Richard Aboulafia, a defense analyst with the Teal Group, said delaying the F-35 from full production could cover about 30% of the reductions needed in the procurement budget under the mandatory spending reductions.

But analysts agreed short-term savings will come with long-term costs.

"You are going jeopardize the export market and that will keep costs high," said Mr. Aboulafia. "It is not a death spiral, but it is a pain spiral that could really damage the program."

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“Auto eject system Active on STOVL variant only
&
The seat incorporates an auto eject function for the F-35 STOVL aircraft to be used in the event of lift fan failure. The auto ejection system utilises a signal from the FCS to initiate ejection....”

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"The US16E Ejection Seat provides an unprecedented balanced optimisation between key performance parameters such as safe terrain clearance limits, physiological loading limits, pilot boarding mass and anthropometric accommodation ranges to fully meet the F-35 Escape System requirements. The US16E will be common to all F-35 aircraft variants.

The US16E is the only Qualified Ejection Seat that meets the US Government defined Neck Injury Criteria (NIC) across the pilot accommodation range.

The US16E design is common to all F-35 aircraft variants."

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“Auto eject system Active on STOVL variant only
&
The seat incorporates an auto eject function for the F-35 STOVL aircraft to be used in the event of lift fan failure. The auto ejection system utilises a signal from the FCS to initiate ejection....”

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LW - Just don't be looking down and over the side at your landing spot when something goes kaflooey, or you'll have a nasty crick in your neck.

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Gilmore also notes that the prognostic and health monitoring system, currently, is unable to provide timely detection of combat damage to the F-35B lift-fan system, which “might fail catastrophically before the pilot can react” during transition to vertical landing. Lockheed Martin comments that “in the remote chance of a failure, the pilot would auto-eject.”

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