I'm alert but not ALAMYed. Are these the type of F-35B FOD that went down the intake? My two examples above appear to be F-35B specific at sea. Perhaps ashore there are different FOD covers? USMC on dry land: img-20170306-020147-794_orig.jpg (540×531) (weebly.com)

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2cd6a4e96c.jpg

SUM MOR F-35A gorilla in HANGAR & in the wild: https://www.turdef.com/Photo/Origina...b113860a4f.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....0942bb2dd1.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....58e9609851.jpg

F35 thread Mk 2
 

SpazSinbad
Unclear if different types of engine blanks are used ashore/at sea, most probably the fabric blanks at sea (it would appear they are ‘foldable’ and space is a at a premium) also in very adverse weather they would flex but not detach if fitted correctly; it would appear from the image that they are secured by 1980’s vintage pip pins, possibly with a Royal Warrant

It would appear that the F35 engine compressor is situated some way back from the intakes via a bifurcated duct, I am unsure if there is a direct line of sight for aircrew/engineers to make a quick inspection for FOD without opening an inspection hatch.

If indeed the FAA/RN Aircraft ZN152 was fitted with these type of blanks it poses the question on how could one detach without leaving some tell-tale signs of distress on the aircraft skin, or was it removed left in the intake to collect later and forgotten about as people sometimes do!

I do remember a F4 Phantom being ranged on HMS Ark Royal post engine change, the cumbersome and heavy toolbox needed moving from the hangar to the deck so it was positioned in the engine exhaust for a ‘ride’ unfortunately during an unusual engine start there was a poofff and the toolbox was lost to the Mid Atlantic

We should know more when the FULL report is made available to the pubics. Meanwhile a retired very knowledgeable F135 engine mechanic has said this: "The F-35 has a bifurcated inlet duct, so low power operation with one side blocked apparently provided enough airflow for the engine. Other considerations are that the B has the lift fan drive shaft running down the center of the inlet duct after the sides join, and the cover probably turned sideways as it got sucked down the inlet duct and got wedged against the inlet guide vanes of the F135. But big issues with the partial fan blockage and / or FOD damage at high power / high airflow."

Building up the Lightning Force – when will the UK get its F-35 jets? 14 Sep 2022 Navy Lookout
...“First casualty
The MoD has published its interim report into the first F-35 loss suffered by the UK. ZM152 crashed into the sea on take-off from HMS Queen Elizabeth in November 2021. It confirms the cause was an engine blank (a cover used to prevent ingress of water and debris) that engineers failed to remove before flight. For the passage through Suez Canal the previous day, all F-35Bs on the flight deck had protective Red Gear fitted which included engine intake blanks. A local accounting procedure was in place, but this was not used for the mass fitting and removal of Red Gear during the Suez transit. Unable to take in enough air, the engine could not attain enough power for take off but it was too late to abort. The pilot ejected safely, landing on the flight deck without even getting wet. The aircraft was recovered from the sea bed in good time and has subsequently been returned to the UK. The airframe has been written off, but some parts can probably be salvaged for re-use. [sure] :}

The loss of a jet costing around £90M due to such basic human error is hard to comprehend and many keyboard warriors are blaming the pilot for failure to conduct a thorough enough visual inspection himself before taking off. It has been suggested that the blank had possibly been dislodged and pushed deeper into the intake where it would have been hard to see. More about the precise circumstances and how procedures will be revised will doubtless be available when the full report is published in future. Although a mistake by RAF 617 Squadron, it should be remembered that an RN pilot commanded the unit at the time which numbers RN personnel among its engineers. Accidents are an inherent part of fast jet aviation and carrier operations carry additional risk. The USN also lost an F-35 to a landing mishap on USS Carl Vinson in January and an F/A-18 blown off the deck of USS Harry S Truman in July 2022....” https://www.navylookout.com/building...its-f-35-jets/

Pretty expensive result for such a basic mistake by the Engineers. The question re the Pilot is if during his walk around preflight could or should he have seen the cover. Also begged is whether there were lengthy warning ribbons attached to the blank that would have facilitated Engineers and/or Pilot seeing it.

Airplanes can be replaced...even at extremely high cost....but human lives are irreplaceable.

Hopefully an frank evaluation of safety procedures looking for other waiting uh oh's will be done.

A long piece of `pussers cord ,joining blanks would have been sensible......

I think that what is gripping a lot of contributors is how bloody silly an event it was ................. no lining up of holes in cheese, no malpractice, no dodgy components, no bad weather, no darkness, no enemy.

Negligence on the day, negligence in SOPs. Thank God the pilot survived but such accidents can be designed out down to a 1 in a million chance.

Switzerland orders 35 x F-35A

I guess that they can afford that.

Easily.
They are one place in front of Turkey in global GDP ranking. And that with 1/8 the population.

Pilot Ejects OK : F-35 crashes at Hill Air Force Base (ksltv.com)

"Smoke from the F-35 crash at the Hill Air Force base."
https://ksltv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FAFB-Crash-101922.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....96c914b649.jpg

Pilot walking: F-35 crashes at Hill Air Force Base - Deseret News

Crashed to the side of the North end of the runway

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fe8914c53e.png

Margarita Robles quietly finalises the purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the US 22 Oct 2022 Juan Pons

https://atalayar.com/en/content/marg...ighter-jets-us

"The Secretary of State for Defence also maintains secrecy and avoids citing the F-35 as an option to the Air Force's F-18 and the Navy's Harrier....

...The total number of aircraft in Spanish demand is kept under lock and key.
The aim is to obtain an initial batch of at least twenty F-35A aircraft for the Air Force and another dozen in F-35B vertical take-off configuration to renew the L-61 Juan Carlos I aircraft carrier's air projection potential. Once the contract is signed, the Spanish requests will enter the production line of the immense F-35 factory that Lockheed Martin has in Fort Worth, Texas, where thousands of orders are accumulating, making it practically impossible for the first units to arrive in Spain before 2030...."

Another "fleets within fleets" issue ahead for the UK (and others) if the new AESA AN/APG-85 cannot be retrofitted to earlier lots than Lot 4.

F-35 Will Get New Radar Under Massive Upgrade Initiative | The Drive

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the US is barring IAF pilots who hold foreign (I assume non-Israeli (excluding US?)) passports from flying the F-35i.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-726853

If this is true, I wonder if this is going to/has spread to other countries operating the F-35.

The lacking distance of relevant elements in Israel to Russia/Putin might be a specific issue here. So I guess it will depend on the circumstances. Turkey has been (IMHO rightfully) completely banned from F-35 due to their S-400 deal with Russia. On top of that most Air Forces anyway don't allow non- domestic passport holders into their Fighter Aircraft.

Are there no Commonwealth national / Dual national / Irish national FJ pilots in the RAF or RN these days? There is also potentially the question of exchange pilots.

I assumed this affected dual-citizens who weren't dual US / Israeli.

Israel allows dual citizenship except for:

• dual citizenship with 'enemy countries'
• members of the Knesset
• holders of 'sensitive security positions'
• naturalized non-Jewish citizens
  

If it can’t be fitted to ‘early aircraft ’ ( a laughable term , as they’re pretty new anyway) , what are the consequences?
Given it was / is touted as the most whupass piece of kit since the invention of the fighter , will NOT upgrading these aircraft be a massive loss to its unequaled capabilities?
Would the buyers of these now ancient early lot aircraft been warned that they’re taking delivery of something that the manufacturers will be ensuring is second class only a few years later , and if so , would they have been prepared to wait for later models?
Sorry if it was there & I missed it , but what’s the upgrade cost per aircraft?
How many aircraft in the UK fleet are hit by this & what will we do with them?
Thanks...

Forbes reports Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) will be retrofitted to Lot-10 on and TR-3 will allow upgrade to Block-4.
....
The retrofits require about 14 days of downtime and will be performed by Lockheed field teams during scheduled maintenance.

The UK had 15 of the current 29 aircraft delivered up to lot 9. So 14 of the currently delivered fleet plus those on order would appear to be eligible. (The lost one was the 18th for the UK)

Thanks SLX’.
50% of the aircraft we’ve got up to now can’t be upgraded.
A projected fleet of 74 but only 59 of them will be to full spec’.
I assume the 3 in the ‘States will be replaced by the latest version & that those 3 older aircraft will come to the UK, so that’s 56 with the latest toys.
I am an interested UK taxpayer.
OUCH....

"so that’s 56 with the latest toys"

That assumes we complete the buy - as time drags on the risks of continued deferral seem to increase

That's obviously not really ideal for the users especially of smaller fleeets. But it is kind of normal with the current crop of highly IT-packed fighters. Typhoon had this same issue with Tranche 1.
Sometimes the installed Hardware sets limits to Electronic devices which can't be easily overcome. Especially in a fighter that will be produced over decades this will not be the last such incompatibility.
The alternative would be to compromise the magnitude of the continued development steps. I think they are doing the right thing.

The F-35 first flew in 2006 - the technology moves on at an ever faster pace.

I suppose one answer is to buy them in large lots - then of course they all are easier to maintain but then they ALL become obsolescent to some degree every time there is an upgrade.

what is a killer is to have say 35 aircraft with 6 different fits............. they're effectively all one-offs

F-35 Conducts First Flight with TR-3 11 Jan 2023
ttps://www.dvidshub.net/news/436507/f-35-conducts-first-flight-with-tr-3

Interesting video:

F-35 landing question.....
 

Up until a few weeks ago I've only seen the RAF B version land either vertically or rolling landing so doesn't apply.

But was passing Lakenheath recently and saw some USAF F-35A's in circuit so decided to stop and watch them. Was surprised that on the flare they still seem to be applying power even just after touchdown. So my questions are: Is this necessary as all other aircraft tend to throttle back at this stage? Or is it something generally taught on the F-35A,B or C Syllabus with the C Carrier version in mind in case they miss the cables?

No, they won't be applying power after touchdown - you may be hearing the delayed sound of engine spool up from a second or two before touchdown. In fact, using APC (autothrottle equivalent) will automatically chop power to "idle" as soon as weight on wheels is sensed. It's certainly nothing to do with C models or cables.

Recent SRVL funnies, 'Sharkey' wants to bash SRVLs again and pretend to be humourous. I'll let youse judge.

https://hermajestystopgun.com/srvl-t...ngue-in-cheek/

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/here...een-elizabeth/

Too Heavy to Hover? The Brits found a solution! F-35B Lightning II SRVL (MSFS)

14 Mar 2023 Pentagon rethinks F-35 engine program, will upgrade F135 Stephen Losey
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...-upgrade-f135/
&
Air Force will not develop new F-35 engine, keeping Pratt as sole contractor 13 Mar 2023
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/03/...le-contractor/

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...-upgrade-f135/

Pentagon rethinks F-35 engine program, will upgrade F135

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is abandoning its efforts to develop a next-generation adaptive engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

Instead, Kendall said during a March 10 briefing on the fiscal 2024 budget, the military will stick with, and upgrade, the F-35’s current engine, in a major win for F135 maker Pratt & Whitney.

The decision means the military will not move forward with its Adaptive Engine Transition Program, an effort to fund research, development, prototyping and testing of a new kind of engine with enhanced thrust, power and cooling ability, The adaptive engine uses three streams of air to cool the engine and the jet, and has an adaptive cycle that allows it to adjust to the configuration that provides the most thrust and efficiency for a given situation.

Both General Electric Aviation and Pratt & Whitney had designed new engines as part of AETP, but only GE had pitched its engine — the XA100 — as a replacement for the F-35.

Military officials said Friday they determined Pratt & Whitney’s proposal to modernize the already existing F135s in a program called the Engine Core Upgrade was the most cost-efficient option that would work for all F-35s…..

Kendall also noted the military had serious doubts about GE’s ability to make its adaptive engine work in the F-35B, the Marine Corps variant.

“The Air Force, with the A variant, was the only service that was really seriously interested in AETP, for which it was a really good fit,” Kendall said. “There was some discussion about whether it could be made to go in the [Navy and Marine Corps’ carrier-based] C variant. But the Marine Corps variant was going to be very, very difficult, if not impossible.”…..

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...rade-now-vital

F-35 Engine Running Too Hot Due To ‘Under-Speccing,’ Upgrade Now Vital

The F-35’s engine is having to work harder to cool and power the aircraft’s systems, leading to a logistical mess.

The U.S. military sees planned engine upgrades for all the variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as critical because the Pratt & Whitney F135 engines that power all of the aircraft have been "under spec since the beginning," according to the top officer in charge of the program.

This means the engines have to routinely operate at higher-than-expected temperatures, which has led to costly increased maintenance and logistics requirements and hurt the F-35's overall readiness rates.

Senior U.S. military officials stressed the F135 engine's limitations while defending a plan to pursue an Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) effort before members of a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee yesterday….

Summary - Aircraft with TR3 hardware will start rolling off the production line next month, but the associated TR3 software build is late and isn’t expected to be validated and accepted until at least next April.

So deliveries will stop and LM will store all new build TR3 aircraft as they roll off the line until the software is approved.

TR3 is necessary for the long awaited Block 4 weapons upgrade.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...software-woes/

Pentagon to halt upgraded F-35 deliveries in July amid software woes

This was announced in March hearing. You need to do your summary again. Look at the details and not journalist thoughts. It has 50 to build, before TR3. They aren't being built in a month. I also saw that they also have the option to install TR2 and swap later

"Lockheed Martin said in an email to Defense News that it is too early to say how many fighters might be affected, and the company did not say how many F-35s with TR-3 hardware it expects to build this year. The company originally planned to deliver between 147 and 153 total fighters in 2023.

Lockheed on Monday said that it has so far delivered more than 45 F-35s this year, with about 50 more TR-2 F-35s now under construction."

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...zech-republic/

US State Dept. clears $5.6 billion sale of F-35s for Czech Republic

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department approved a possible sale to the Czech Republic of F-35 aircraft, munitions and related equipment worth up to $5.62 billion, according to a June 29 announcement.

The sale, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, would include 24 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters…..

The potential sale to the Czech Republic would also include 25 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines, 70 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and various other bombs, electronic warfare and radio capabilities, among other equipment…..

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of this possible sale, the release said, adding that the actual dollar value could be lower “depending on final requirements, budget authority, and signed sales agreement(s), if and when concluded.”

If the sale goes through, the Czech Republic will join nine Foreign Military Sales customers to the F-35 program.

Different mod states on your fleet of aircraft is nothing new. The RAF Jaguar comes to mind, the OCU which was run on a shoestring budget once the newness had worn off trained students who got to learn a whole different cockpit when they arrived on a Sqn.

They knew about it, didn’t put in the pilots’ notes - then blame the pilot for not taking the right separation?

Oh, and it looks like changing the software is low priority as the circumstances are unlikely to reoccur. But the, with the backlog it wouldn’t probably be addressed for for another 10 years anyway….

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/y...crash-in-utah/

Software glitch during turbulence caused Air Force F-35 crash in Utah

An F-35A Lightning II fighter crashed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, last October when turbulent air confused its avionics, rendering the jet uncontrollable, an Air Force investigation has found….

The accident unfolded just after 6 p.m. local time on Oct. 19, 2022, as a quartet of F-35As returned to Hill from an “uneventful” training sortie, the report said. The jet that crashed, assigned to Hill’s 421st Fighter Squadron, was approaching the base as the third aircraft in the four-ship formation.

As they prepared to land, the pilot felt a “slight rumbling” of turbulence from the wake of the aircraft in front of him, the report said. The bumpy air caused the F-35′s flight controls to register incorrect flight data, and the jet stopped responding to the pilot’s attempts at manual control.

The pilot tried to abort the landing and try again, but the jet responded by sharply banking to the left. Further attempts to right the aircraft failed, and the pilot safely ejected north of the base. His F-35 crashed near a runway at Hill.

The entire incident lasted less than 10 seconds, the report showed.

The aircraft “looked like a totally normal F-35 before obviously going out of control,” an F-35 test pilot who watched the accident from the ground told investigators. “I did see really large flight control surface movements — [stabilizers], trailing edge flaps, rudders all seem to be moving pretty rapidly.”

Investigators found that the pilot involved in the crash hadn’t followed turbulence procedures in effect that day. That requires airmen to fly farther apart, with at least 9,000 feet between landings.

However, the report noted that the F-35′s flight manual tells pilots to space out their landings by 3,000 feet, and doesn’t specify how far apart they should be in case of turbulence.

Simulations confirmed that the issue stemmed from the jet’s misinterpretation of the flight data, not the physical effects of turbulence itself.

“The F-35 enterprise has over 600,000 flight hours and this is the first known occurrence where wake turbulence had this impact on the air data system,” the report noted.

The Air Force said the likelihood of a similar accident happening again is minimal.

“As with any aircraft accident, we will incorporate the findings from this report as appropriate to improve processes and enhance flight safety across the Air Force,” an Air Combat Command spokesperson said….