Navy Deactivates VFA-101 Grim Reapers, Consolidates F-35Cs at NAS Lemoore [long article best read at URL]
23 May 2019 Megan Eckstein"EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The Navy deactivated one of its two F-35C Joint Strike Fighter training squadrons today and will consolidate all its fifth-generation fighter activities at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. The move creates efficiencies on the maintenance side and allows the Navy to focus on getting its first operational F-35C squadron on deployment and integrated with its fourth-generation counterparts in the carrier air wing....
...During the fall and winter, the two squadrons [VFA-101 & VFA-125] worked together multiple times as an integrated FRS team, and Cmdr. Adan Covarrubias, commanding officer of VFA-101 who will take command of VFA-125 next month, told USNI News after the deactivation ceremony that “it was probably the best thing we could have ever done.” “We integrated (VFA) 125 maintenance practices into what we were doing, and then vice versa, (VFA) 101 into 125. We kind of took the best of everything, figured out what worked for everybody, and then came up with the best process,” he said.
Covarrubias himself will lead the single, larger FRS squadron, and many of his maintainers and pilots from VFA-101 are coming out to Lemoore with him in an effort to keep as much F-35C knowledge in the community as possible....
...McCoy [Capt. Max McCoy, commodore of the Joint Strike Fighter Wing in Lemoore] said VFA 147 is exactly where it should be ahead of its planned 2021 deployment with Carrier Air Wing 2 aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). Maintenance personnel are building up their capabilities, but at this stage the squadron has only received two junior pilots out of flight school and is still awaiting more senior pilots who are transitioning to the F-35C from other aircraft types. So, efficient pilot production is the name of the game to keep VFA-147 on schedule – and deactivating VFA-101 and consolidating all FRS activities to VFA-125 in Lemoore will help the Navy do that.
“When you have more maintenance personnel and you have more aircraft, it gives you the capability to fly more sorties on a given fly-day on the schedule. You now have spare aircraft that can be turned into flyers if you need them. Because you have more maintenance personnel, you can work a longer maintenance shift, or you can work more days,” McCoy explained. “Having one large FRS gives us the flexibility to do more and to weather those moments where there’s unexpected or pop-up requirements. When you’re spread thin with people and airplanes, it just makes it more challenging and there is no buffer to cover down on executing the flight schedule.”
Additionally, for the long-term health of the F-35C force, “when we have all of our people and airplanes in one place, it allows us to balance sea-shore rotations with sailors and officers and pilots, because now it’s easier to flow folks from an operational tour to a shore tour, whether that’s working at the [Fleet Replacement Squadron] or at the wing.”...
...There’s still plenty of work to be done on concepts of operations, McCoy said, but “I have a very optimistic outlook in the sense that I think we’re going to really appreciate what F-35 brings to a carrier strike group – and I think that not only aviators but the other warfare commanders will fully appreciate those same capabilities.”...
...Rear Adm. Roy Kelley, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, spoke at the deactivation ceremony both as a naval aviation leader and as a former Grim Reapers pilot, back when the squadron flew the F-14 Tomcat. Kelley previously served as the director of the Joint Strike Fighter Fleet Integration Office and said he was pleased to see this day come after some earlier delays in fielding the F-35C.
“It was a rocky road. It wasn’t a path that was direct and easy; it was evident we were going to have some challenges. The Navy had an idea or a concept of what we wanted for the capability, and so the type of software we wanted for those capabilities meant we had to wait a little bit,” Kelley told USNI News after the ceremony, referring to the Block 3F software that the Marine Corps moved ahead without on its F-35B but the Navy waited for on the F-35C.
“That (delay) challenged us as we looked at our inventory of aircraft that we had, the fighter aircraft onboard an aircraft carrier. So we continue to buy Super Hornets, and a lot of people ask questions about, why are you doing that?” Kelley continued. “It’s because we want a mix. We want the capabilities that we have with the Super Hornets right now; we want fifth-generation capability in the future. We see those working together. The concept that we have is that the F-35 is truly going to be the quarterback for the carrier air wing, with the systems it has onboard, the fusion it’s capable of, of bringing information together. It’s significant. So having them being the eyes and ears and the directors as we move the carrier air wing forward is important.”
Asked if the capability the F-35C brings was worth the wait, Kelley replied, “yeah, it was, there’s no doubt about it.”..."
Source: https://news.usni.org/2019/05/23/navy-d ... as-lemoore