BREAKING: F-35 Cleared for Flight

By Aaron Mehta in F-35, Intercepts

F-35A test aircraft AF-4 flies a high angle of attack (AOA) mission Nov. 3. The F-35 is designed to fly to a 50 degree angle of attack, which was achieved on the fourth AOA test mission. The aircraft has an emergency spin chute installed to help return the aircraft to controlled flight in the case that AOA test push the aircraft out of flight control limits.

Some late night news here on Intercepts, as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been cleared to resume flight operations, six days after the entire fleet was grounded due to a crack discovered in an engine.

The joint statement from the Joint Program Office and contractor Pratt & Whitney:

Following engineering analysis of the turbine blade which developed a crack, F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume.

This decision concludes a cautionary flight suspension that began on Feb. 21 after a 0.6 inch crack was found on a 3rd stage turbine blade of a test aircraft at the Edwards Air Force Base F-35 Integrated Test Facility during a routine inspection. Comprehensive tests on the blade were conducted at the Pratt & Whitney facility in Middletown, Connecticut. The engine in question is part of the F-35 test aircraft fleet, and had been operated at extreme
parameters in its mission to expand the F-35 flight envelope. Prolonged exposure to high levels of heat and other operational stressors on this specific engine were determined to be the cause of the crack.

No additional cracks or signs of similar engine stress were found during inspections of the remaining F135 inventory.

No engine redesign is required as a result of this event. Within the current DoD inventory, 17 F-35s are employed in test and development at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and Edwards Air Force Base; the remaining aircraft are assigned to Eglin Air Force Base and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, and comprise the initial F-35 training fleet.

Obviously this is good news for a program that has struggled out of the gate in 2013, and capped off a day that saw a new deal awarded to contractor Lockheed Martin for a future purchase of the fifth generation fighter.

Click on the “more” link for some more news about the program. More

As Sequestration Deadline Nears, Another General Gives a Dire Warning

By John T. Bennett in Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, International, Operations, Policy Tags: , , ,

Defense Intelligence Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at the 2012 GEOINT conference in Orlando, Fla. (NGA Photo)

The Friday deadline for triggering cuts to planned Pentagon spending is getting closer. And the predictions from America’s top generals about what might happen if the sequestration cuts go into effect March 27 keep getting more dire.

The chairman and Joint Chiefs and Staff and the chiefs of the four armed services spent hours the last few weeks telling mostly sympathetic lawmakers how they would cancel most training, furlough nearly 100,000 civilian employees, put off or cancel most maintenance on things like naval ships and Air Force planes, and shed more troops than under previously planned post-war end strength adjustment plans.

So bleak were the warnings that this week even some Republican lawmakers expressed doubt about whether the generals are indeed being straight about the true effects of sequestration. But, make no mistake, the generals aren’t changing their gloom-and-doom public relations strategy. More

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

By Marcus Weisgerber in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, Intercepts, Photo of the Day, Policy Tags:

Chuck Hagel, left, is sworn into office as the 24th defense secretary by Michael Rhodes, the Defense Department's director of administration and management, as Hagel's wife, Lilibet, holds a Bible at the Pentagon, Feb. 27,(DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley)

Chuck Hagel officially became the 24th defense secretary during a private ceremony at the Pentagon Wednesday morning.

The former Nebraska senator has a busy first day ahead of him. After meeting with senior staff, he will address military and civilian officials at the Pentagon.  More

Sen. Rand Paul’s Very Un-Tea Party Moment

By John T. Bennett in Capitol Hill, DoD, Intercepts, Policy Tags: , , , ,

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Tenn., speaks speaks to reporters recently on Capitol Hill. Surprisingly, Paul voted to confirm Chuck Hagel for defense secretary. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll)

Scan the websites of the leading Tea Party political organizations and one will soon see among the group’s top issues is preventing the federal government from becoming too large and powerful. As a rule, Tea Party members are suspicious of too much power being centralized in any one place within government.

With that in mind, it was surprising late Tuesday afternoon when scanning the Senate roll call vote on former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination to become U.S. defense secretary. Voting “yay” were four GOP senators. One was Hagel’s home-state Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska. That’s local politics at play, so it makes sense that Johanns would help send a Nebraskan to the E-Ring. Also voting for Hagel were two former Senate colleagues, Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Richard Shelby of Alabama. And, of course, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — wait, what?!

It turns out that was no typo. Paul, who earlier Tuesday had voted to keep alive debate on Hagel’s controversial nomination, had indeed voted to confirm him.

What gives, senator? More

Taiwan’s Red Bird Express Service, Rain or Shine

By Wendell Minnick in Intercepts Tags: , , , , ,

A Taiwan military official told Defense News that a decision to disguise army vehicles as a commercial delivery service, covert cover for road-mobile Hsiung Feng 2E land-attack cruise missile batteries, is “idiotic” and “embarrassing.”

The photograph shows a command post vehicle for the Hsiung Feng 2E painted with the Chinese words “Red Bird” express service. Whether “red” is a reference to Communist China, the obvious target of the missile, is unclear.

Photographs of the new vehicles at a Taiwan army base were posted on the website Hojiyi on January 20.

Today in Military History: Feb. 26, 1949, first around-the-world flight

By Blair Tomlinson in Air Force, Intercepts, Today in Military History Tags: , ,

Boeing B-50A "Lucky Lady II" of the 43rd Bomb Group, Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. (U.S. Air Force photo)

On February, 26, 1949, Air Force Capt. James Gallagher begins the first nonstop around-the-world flight in the Lucky Lady II,  a B-50A-5-BO (S/N 46-010) assigned to the 43rd Bomb Group. The flight which lasted from Feb. 26 to March 2, 1949, took 94 hours, 1 minute to complete. The venture began and ended at Carswell AFB, Texas.

AFA Orlando: Cleaning out the notebook

By Aaron Mehta in Air Force, F-35, Industry, Intercepts

A look at the exhibition floor at last week's AFA (Aaron Mehta)

Last week, your intrepid reporter trucked down to Orlando, Fla. to attend the Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium. The event itself was good fun, and provided some great coverage, such as:

But to add some color, I thought I’d throw a few pictures up here. Above is a panorama with my iPhone of the show floor.

Keeping in mind that the phone’s camera is hardly professional grade and that panoramas are tricky to get right, I think it gives you a sense of just how empty the show floor felt this year.

According to an AFA spokeswoman, there were roughly the same number of attendees, but around 40 percent fewer exhibitors. A large chunk of those attending were in uniform, which mean they spent most of the day taking in speeches rather than roaming the hall. Hence, empty-looking exhibition room.

We have a small collection of photos after the jump. Come and join us. More

Essay: Did Everyone Misread the Sequestration Narrative?

By John T. Bennett in Acquisition, Budget, Capitol Hill, DoD, Industry, International, Operations, Policy Tags: , , ,

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., delivers remarks during a news conference with fellow House GOP leaders at the Republican Party Headquarters on Feb. 13 in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This is it. The clock is again ticking down toward Washington’s latest, as so many are calling it, “self-inflicted crisis,” also known as sequestration.

But what if it is nothing of the sort? What if the conventional wisdom about sequestration created a flawed narrative? More

1 2 3 4 5 6

↑ Back to top

Site Map  |  Back to Top 

Gannett

All content © 2013, Gannett Government Media Corporation