First Flight

The aircraft – dubbed AU-1 and AU-2 by Lockheed Martin – flew two days apart on September 29 and October 1 respectively. Both jets wear low visibility markings of No 2 Operational Conversion Unit (2OCU) based at RAAF Williamtown and carry their Commonwealth registrations, A35-001 and A35-002.

Aircraft AU-1 used the callsign ‘Lightning 31’ for its maiden flight which was conducted by veteran company test pilot Al Norman. It departed Fort Worth at 14:45 local time and landed at 16:30. AU-2 was flown by Lockheed Martin’s Bill Gigliotti on a 90-minute first flight.

The two aircraft are part of the sixth low rate initial production (LRIP 6) batch of F-35s, and have been built with technical refresh two (TR2) hardware and Block 3 initial (3i) software load. Including Australia’s two jets, LRIP 6 comprises a total of 23 conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35As including three for Italy, six short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs for the US Marine Corps, and seven aircraft carrier variant (CV) F-35Cs for the USNavy. The cost of each F-35A in LRIP 6 has been stated as US$103m (A$118m), but this does not include the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine which is contracted separately by the US government and is believed to cost around US$20m (A$23m).

The goal of the first flight is to conduct a number of key initial test and validation points on the aircraft within a benign flight envelope. The manufacturer typically flies each new jet two or three times for a total between four and six hours before it is handed over to the US parent service – in Australia’s case the US Air Force – for further validation testing. Following this, a series of acceptance test flights are conducted before the US parent service formally accepts delivery. The end customer will then conduct a further series of flights before it accepts the aircraft but, in Australia’s case because we do not yet have any qualified F-35 pilots, these final acceptance flights will likely be conducted by USAF pilots on the RAAF’s behalf.

The two RAAF jets are the first of 72 F-35As currently on order or approved for Australia. Project AIR 6000 Phase 2A/2B Stage 1 comprises 14 F-35As in total including AU-1 and AU-2, of which 12 more will be delivered in 2018 and 2019 from the more mature and cheaper LRIP lots 10 and 11. In the meantime, AU-1 and AU-2 will be delivered at the end of this year to the USAF F-35 ‘schoolhouse’ currently being established at Luke AFB in Arizona where they will form part of a pool of F-35As on which USAF, partner nation and customer nation pilots will train.

Approval to purchase a further 58 F-35As was given by the government in April, and these will be delivered from LRIP 11 and the planned follow-on multi-year procurement (MYP) contracts from 2019 to 2023, at which time the RAAF is expected to declare a full operational capability of three operational and one training squadron of Block 3 Final (3F)-configured jets.

The AIR 6000 project also has a Phase 2C for a notional 28 combat aircraft which will likely replace the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets of 1SQN and 6SQN in RAAF service, although a decision on this tranche has been pushed back to the 2024 timeframe for service entry around 2030. The government has done little to quash recent speculation that this tranche may be made up of F-35B STOVL fighters for employment on the RAN’s new Canberra class LHDs, although many analysts suggest this remains an unlikely scenario.

Australia’s first F-35 pilot will be SQNLDR Peter Jackson, an FCI currently serving with 2OCU. He is scheduled to commence training on the F-35 early in 2015 at Eglin AFB in Florida before moving across to Luke AFB around May where he will be joined by test pilot SQNLDR David Bell. Jackson and Bell will be the lead elements of Australia’s first F-35 instructor and test pilot cadre which will gradually build up over the next three years and which will conduct an Australian-specific operational evaluation of the F-35A in 2018.