F-35B Marine 2018

[spazsinbad]

'h-bomb' asked: "Question, what is the puff a some at about 1:48? Eh?"

That is complete engine failure in PIC 1 with fried crispy skin chicken on the lunch menu that they scrape off in PIC 2 then the aircraft rolls downhill as the engine falls to bits screaming 'I can't take it anymore'.

[popcorn]

A team of U.S. Marines 3D printed a part for the F-35 stealth fighter saving $70,000 in costs for a whole new landing gear door.

https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/u-s ... 00-138484/



"YOU CAN’T BUY THE PIECE SEPARATE FROM THE LANDING GEAR DOOR WHICH IS A COST OF $70,000. BY HAVING THE CAPABILITIES TO PRINT IN THE FIELD, WE WERE ABLE TO REPLICATE THE PART FOR A COST OF ROUGHLY 9 CENTS.”

[quicksilver]

Asked some friends about this. The article might lead one to believe they 3d-printed a ldg gear door; they did not. They printed a small bumper (my word for it) that attaches to the door. They wouldn't have scrapped the door either, but they did save the cost of R&R, shipment, repair and return to inventory.

[spazsinbad]

IN a similar vein:

388th Maintenance Group eying future time, cost savings with 3-D printing
17 Jul 2018 388th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

"Inside a simple-looking building just off of Hill's flight line, Airmen are tinkering with advanced technology to bring the future of cost-effective maintenance to America's most advanced fighter aircraft. The 388th Maintenance Group’s Air Force Repair and Enhancement Program shop recently acquired a 3-D printer with the hope of increasing availability and driving down costs for certain F-35 replacement parts...."

Photo: "Tech Sgt. Scott Mathews, assistant manager of the 388th Maintenance Group's Air Force Repair and Enhancement program, makes adjustments to a 3-D printer the unit is experimenting with to create pieces and parts faster and more cost-effectively. The program has the potential to not only drive down cost, but increase availability. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Todd Cromar)"

Source: http://www.jsf.mil/news/docs/20180719_3 ... inting.pdf (257Kb)

[spazsinbad]

High-End Exercise Valiant Shield 2018 Features Joint Strike Fighters, 15,000 Personnel
18 Sep 2018 Megan Eckstein

"The high-end biennial Valiant Shield exercise kicked off in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands on Sunday, with some of the Navy’s and Marine Corps’ most advanced platforms participating in the weeklong event. The exercise – a high-end, U.S.-only follow-up to the large-scale multi-national Rim of the Pacific exercise every other year – features more than a dozen ships, 160 aircraft and 15,000 personnel from all four military branches. This is the seventh iteration of the exercise, which began in 2006....

...To support that high-end warfighting training, the exercise will feature the Marines’ new F-35B Joint Strike Fighter for the first time ever...

...Participating forces will conduct missions that include maritime interdiction; defensive counter-air operations; personnel recovery; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; anti-submarine warfare; and command and control, U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman told USNI News....

...Not included in the exercise are any amphibious ships. Amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) had been hosting the F-35Bs from Marine Fighter Attack Squadrons (VMFA) 121 but is currently supporting disaster relief efforts following Typhoon Mangkhut,..."

Photo: "The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) leads a formation of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 5 ships as U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft and U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets pass overhead for a photo exercise during Valiant Shield 2018 on Sept. 17. US Navy photo." https://news.usni.org/wp-content/upload ... 5-0825.jpg

Source: https://news.usni.org/2018/09/18/high-e ... -personnel

[jessmo112]

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... ina-157446

The national interest finally got an article right.

Its stealth, long-range sensors and ability to internally carry Raytheon's AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile make it the world's most effective air supremacy fighter, after the F-22. The Joint Strike Missile (JSM), and Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) provide the F-35B with advanced long-range sea

[mixelflick]

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/f-35b-guarantees-allied-naval-dominance-over-china-157446

The national interest finally got an article right.

Its stealth, long-range sensors and ability to internally carry Raytheon's AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile make it the world's most effective air supremacy fighter, after the F-22. The Joint Strike Missile (JSM), and Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) provide the F-35B with advanced long-range sea

Wow! What do you think happened??

Isn't this somewhere in the book of Revelation, something to do with "end of days..."?

[spazsinbad]

New Marine Corps expeditionary matting passes the test
24 Jan 2022 NavAirSysCom

"Expeditionary Airfield (EAF) Landing Systems teams from the Aircraft Launch and Recovery (ALRE) Program Office (PMA-251) are testing solutions that will make Marines’ expeditionary landings easier and faster. ALRE’s EAF team spent two years searching for a reliable replacement for AM2 Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) matting, which has been in service since the 1960s. While AM2 remains a viable solution, it’s heavy, time-consuming to install, and challenging to deliver to austere environments.

Although the Marine Corps aimed to incorporate lightweight matting into service for years, research and work throughout 2020 and 2021 finally brought a promising commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution to the surface. Testing continues to prove the new lightweight matting’s reliability and promise as the Marines’ expeditionary matting of the future.

The most recent EAF testing in November at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, examined Prefabricated Surfaced Aluminum Flat Top Nested (PSA FTN), which is a new variant of lightweight matting. Test teams also looked at new staking systems to secure the matting system to the ground to support VTOL operations.

The benefits of the new lightweight matting offer substantial reductions in weight and ease of setup for U.S. Marines: this lightweight matting is also the first viable replacement test teams have found for the United States’ NATO partners, who per OSHA standards, cannot lift and place the existing 12-foot panels of AM2, which are about 150 lbs. The lightweight matting panels offer a one-man lift to service members from all NATO countries, while all the panels and installation equipment for an entire VTOL pad fit into a single, standardized ISO container....

...Clint Hunt, EAF Contract Service Support, said the reduction in groundwork and preparation before laying the mats will be transformative for EAF teams. “We no longer have to bring in graders, bulldozers, or drafting and survey teams; lightweight matting conforms to the ground,” said Hunt. “We can take away that whole aspect of heavy equipment and focus on moving towards the expeditionary goal of the Marine Corps.”

The new anchoring system can also be installed using exclusively commercial tools, which are included in the manufacturer’s box. This ensures the teams are not burdened with packing accessory kits. Previous anchoring systems involved 6-foot long, 4-inch-wide cruciform stakes, which Marines drove into the ground, attached to anchors, and tied to the matting; a multi-step process that required a jackhammer and front-end loader.

“Freeing ourselves of hydraulic tools in the desert is greatly beneficial; sand is not a favorable environment for hydraulics, and, with the addition of the heavy equipment, installation takes five times longer,” said Hunt. “The installation for lightweight matting required a simple electric hammer wrench and drilling the new screws into the ground; when teams are driving 80 plus stakes into the ground, the time adds up. Now we can install five or so at a time.”...

...[Matthew Schettino, test engineer for PMA-251] “Our use of a COTS product is introducing another benefit; many of the manufacturers are based on the feedback we provided from the first and second rounds of testing,” said Schettino. “They did the design, but the result is really a product of our previous feedback and testing.”

McCammon said the team’s next steps include finishing the VTOL Capabilities Development Document (CDD) and evaluating several other airfield surfacing solutions.

“If we hit all the wickets within the CDD, we will look to field this solution and give our Marines an opportunity to try them and give feedback,” said McCammon. “Further on down the road we will start working on short take-off and landing and finding new solutions for small runways with a VTOL pad.”

Source: https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/New-Ma ... 42022-1038