The Royal Australian Air Force has taken delivery of its tenth Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter, with the aircraft arriving at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona last week.
The milestone aircraft, serial A35-010, is the second to be delivered direct to the RAAF’s 3SQN, which is operating alongside US Air Force F-35A training units at Luke. The RAAF’s other eight aircraft have to date operated under the USAF’s and Lockheed Martin’s training and maintenance systems, whereas aircraft nine and 10 were delivered under the RAAF’s own airworthiness authority and Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) maintenance system.
“Our tenth JSF was delivered to RAAF’s 3SQN at Luke AFB last week following a range of acceptance testing activities authorising delivery,” Defence Minister Christopher Pyne said on Monday.
“Until now, all aircraft deliveries went to the F-35 International Pilot Training Centre, which required RAAF maintainers to perform ALIS-related tasks using the American system. Operating on Australian ALIS is an important achievement before the JSFs arrive in Australia in December this year.”
Two RAAF F-35As are due to ferry to Australia in early to mid-December, after which they will conduct an Australian-specific verification and validation (V&V) period in preparation for 3SQN returning to Australia in 2019.
A further eight F-35As are due to be delivered to the RAAF in 2019, while another 15 “should be under contract by early 2019 for delivery in 2020”, according to Defence.
To date, eight RAAF pilots are qualified on the F-35A and are instructing at Luke, while 27 maintainers have completed training on the type.
Initial operational capability (IOC) is planned for December 2020.
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