Despite
delays to the project in last week’s budget, Lockheed Martin stands ready to
stand up the Australian training contingent for the F-35 JSF. (photo : simhq)
Lockheed
Martin stands ready to stand up the Australian training contingent for the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter despite delays to the project in last week’s budget, the
company has said.
Speaking to
a media tour of the company’s Global Training and Logistics business unit in
Orlando, Florida Lockheed Martin’s F-35 International Training Program’s
manager Eric Christner said the pilot and maintainer training site at Eglin Air
Force Base was being stood up in line with the needs of the services taking
F-35 aircraft.
“It’s really
a [New Air Combat Capability office] decision how they want to go forward.
Initially, pilots will be trained in the US, either at Eglin [Air Force Base],
or the Pilot Training Centre which will be set up at a second site. Maintainers
will be trained at Eglin,” Mr Christner said.
“There
really hasn’t been much feedback yet as to how the plans will be effected.”
Lockheed
Martin has recently delivered an Australian sustainment plan for the F-35
program and a response was due from government in the coming months. Developed
in conjunction with the RAAF, Mr Christner said the plan outlined the standing
up of training facilities in Williamtown and Tindall, including schedule and
contracting arrangements.
Mr Christner
said the company was unsure of how the budgetary delays would impact on the
sustainment plan, but expected a request for update from government after the
plan’s delivery.
Mr Christner
said the 13 services requiring training for the F-35 – including US services
and partner nations – represented a significant challenge for the development
of a training solution.
“If you look
at our core syllabus, about 70 per cent of the syllabus is common to those 13
services. Of the remaining 30 per cent, 15 per cent is minor differences in
nomenclature – different services doing the same task but with different
wording to describe them. The remaining 15 per cent are due to the three
variants of the aircraft,” Mr Christner said.
“We’re very
happy with the amount of commonality we were able to derive from this design.
Those common systems make the training package more cost effective in
development and provide for affordability during the life-cycle.”
The F-35
Integrated Training System makes use of synthetic and advanced simulation
systems as well as the platforms themselves. The system also includes
operational and deployed training components allowing for on-demand training
and mission rehearsal.
In the
development of the system, Lockheed Martin worked with partner nations to
develop a baseline for pilot and maintainer students prior to undertaking
training for the F-35. While the baseline would require recommendations for
existing in-country training systems, Mr Christner said that most partner
nations had higher existing standards than the United States.
“Many
partner nations take university graduates for training in maintainer and pilot
roles, while the United States takes people with a high school education. While
the assessment included recommendations for some services, in most cases this
wasn’t required and focused on a common understanding of student
prerequisites.”
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