- A variant of the F-35 fighter can now fly into lightning after years of restrictions.
- The DoD attributed the change to advances in aircraft safety and operation in the event of a lightning strike.
- Lightning has long been a major – and ironic – problem for the F-35, nicknamed Lightning II.
After years of restrictions intended to avert catastrophe, the most widely used version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, nicknamed Lightning II, is finally allowed to fly into lightning, with which it ironically had serious problems.
The progress comes after numerous changes to the F-35A’s lightning protection system, which had several problems that forced the Department of Defense to ban the plane from flying near poor weather conditions.
“The official lifting of the lightning protection restriction on F-35As was announced on March 19,” Russell Goemaere, spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office, told Business Insider. News of this change was first reported by Breaking Defense on Monday.
The restriction, which prohibited the F-35A, the conventional takeoff and landing variant, from flying within 25 miles of lightning since June 2020, was lifted after a major repair to the aircraft’s onboard inert gas generation system. the plane, or OBIGGS. Goemaere said the patch included a “more robust” OBIGGS hardware design, as well as software updates.
The OBIGGS is designed to replace combustible gases in the jet’s fuel tank, such as oxygen, with a material, in this case nitrogen-enriched air, that will not ignite or explode not. The protection systems are intended to prevent lightning from frying aircraft systems, starting an onboard fire or, in the worst case, a catastrophic explosion.
“Testing of these efforts has been a combination of laboratory and flight testing,” Goemaere added, noting that “the patch restores operational capability, while providing additional safety to pilots and aircraft.” He declined to give further details on the number of aircraft modified or being modified “due to operational safety concerns.”
An F-35 aircraft mechanic from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 542 and an F-35B instructor pilot from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron (VMFAT) 501 perform pre-flight checks on an F-35B Lightning II aircraft at the Navy Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, April 20, 2023. U.S. Marine Corps/Staff Sgt. Théodore Bergan
Although issues with the F-35’s fuel tank inerting system have been problematic in recent years, the DoD has been grappling with these issues since at least 2009, as noted in an operational test report and d evaluation a few years later.
The 2012 report stated that “testing of the fuel tank inerting system in 2009 identified deficiencies in maintaining the lower oxygen levels required in the fuel tank to prevent fuel tank explosions.”
“The system,” according to the report, “is not capable of maintaining fuel tank inerting during certain critical portions of a simulated mission profile. The program is redesigning the onboard gas generation system inert gas (OBIGGS) to provide the required levels of protection against threats and against lightning-induced fuel tank explosions.
Later reports indicated that the F-35, an incredibly expensive program that had to overcome a number of problems, had made progress on this issue after a redesign. Flight restrictions were lifted in 2014.
But then, in 2020, more problems were discovered. The aim was that restrictions could be lifted in 2022, but other shortcomings were noted at that time.
The other two variants of this aircraft, the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant and the F-35C carrier-based fighter, haven’t had exactly the same lightning problems, but there have been problems with the planes.
Speaking about the latest fix to the advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter, Goemaere said credit goes to “engineers in government and industry who applied technical rigor, conducted analysis and drove data-driven decision-making to overcome the challenges identified in 2022.” “.
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