F-35 Undergoes Cold-Weather Testing in Alaska27 Nov 2017 Oriana Pawlyk"The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is undergoing some more extreme weather testing before additional jets fly across the pond for permanent stationing in Norway. The A model has and will continue to be tested on icy runways at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, in order to pass its drag chute certification — a requirement for Norway’s version of the jets, Lockheed Martin said in a release on Monday....
...“These tests are done with the aircraft in motion rolling over a prepared icy runway surface at a wide range of speeds,” Michael Friedman, a Lockheed F-35 spokesman, told Military.com on Monday....
...The second phase of the drag chute-ice testing — which will focus on how the chute performs during landing — is planned in early 2018, Friedman said.
“The icy runway tests being conducted now at Eielson AFB are to determine the handling characteristics, braking and deceleration performance on slippery landing surfaces with and without deployment of the drag chute,” he said. Officials at Lockheed did not clarify how much the latest extreme weather testing for the partner aircraft costs before press time.
Previous harsh weather testingWhile the drag-chute is an anomaly for the F-35 — with only Norway and the Netherlands expressing interest in the ability to stop on ice given geographical location — the stealth aircraft has been through extreme weather testing before....
...On the cold side, the refrigeration chamber within the lab can fall as low as -70 degrees.
Bell at the time said the F-35 program has been the one of the most expensive programs tested in the lab to date. There’s a very wide range of what testing costs, but prices estimate to roughly $25,000 a day, he said. It was roughly $7 million to test the B model from the Patuxent River Integrated Test Force, Maryland, over a six month period, Bell said.
The Lightning II was put through major weather — the lab can do everything but lightning strikes and tornadoes — such as wind, solar radiation, fog, humidity, rain intrusion/ingestion, freezing rain, icing cloud, icing build-up, vortex icing and snow, said Friedman. It handled temperatures ranging from 120 degrees Fahrenheit to -40 degrees. Additionally, because of its vertical lift capabilities the Marine Corp’s F-35 was the [more?] difficult to test, Bell said...."
Source: https://www.defensetech.org/2017/11/27/ ... ng-alaska/