WASHINGTON — The F-35 program has had a rough couple weeks, including a ground fire during training and a supply issue that led the US Air Force to suspend flight operations for 15 F-35As. But the service’s top general said he is not worried that the recent problems could impact the future of the program.
“I would have concerns if I didn’t feel like we had the right folks or the right plan,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Tuesday after a panel at the Association of the US Army conference. “But I think because I think we have both of those in place, I’m very confident that we’re going to be getting this fixed.”
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On Sept. 16, the Air Force announced that it had paused flight operations for 15 F-35As that were found to have faulty coolant line insulation, which had started — in some cases — to begin peeling. The service was worried that debris in the fuel tank could lead to a change in pressure, causing structural damage. A total of 42 other jets in various stages of production were found to have the same problem.
About a week later The F-35 joint program office rolled out a retrofit plan for those jets, which involves cutting into the wings and removing the insulation from around the coolant lines and inside the fuel tank. Goldfein said that he had a direct window into potential fixes and is “comfortable” with the repair strategy.
“They come to me with solutions and I look at exactly what they’re looking at and options that are available,” he said. “I think we have a good sense of what likely was going on with that insulation. They’re going through the fix right now.
“They’ve actually gone through and fixed several. They’ve given me the schedule. I’ve looked at it. I’m comfortable with it. We should be complete by December.”
Meanwhile, the service is still investigating a Sept. 23 incident where an F-35A burst into flames before takeoff during an exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. According to the service, “the pilot had to egress the aircraft during engine start due to a fire from the aft section of the aircraft,” and the fire was extinguished. Although the jet was damaged, the pilot emerged safely and no other aircraft were grounded as a result of the event.
Goldfein said it was still too early to determine the root cause of the fire.
“What we normally do after all of these things is we put an investigation team on it right away,” he said. “They leave no stone unturned. Then we get to the bottom of exactly what happened, and then once we have that, then we put all the fixes in place and we’re in that process right now.”
