美五角大楼武器测试者要求推迟F-35训练计划

美五角大楼首席武器测试师强烈建议推迟F-35训练计划十个月，以便增加测试飞行时数（目前F-35已有大约1000飞行小时）降低出现故障概率至1,000 aborts per every 100,000 flight hours。
原文如下
Pentagon Tester: F-35 is Too Risky to Start Flight Training

So, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester, J. Michael Gilmore is urging the Air Force to delay the start of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilot training by up to ten months in order for the program to accrue more flight hours and therefore reduce the risk of dangerous in-flight emergencies. His memo comes just as the Air Force had been hoping to get clearance to start flying the six F-35A training jets that are at the JSF schoolhouse at Eglin Air Force Base, Fl.

Gilmore argued, in an Oct. 21 memo to Frank Kendall in his acting role as the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, that starting training flights with the plane would pilots and civilians at risk because it doesn’t have enough flight hours behind it.  Historically, jets need 2,000 to 5,000 flight-hours before the number of flight “aborts” due to emergencies gets down to acceptable levels — 1,000 aborts per every 100,000 flight hours.

Now, you can say that the jet is unlike any ever flown or tested before so one can’t accurately predict how many incidents the plane will have — this argument was frequently made in response to projections claiming that the F-35’s operating costs will greatly exceed those of legacy jets like the Navy’s F/A-18s.

However, the F-35A currently has about 1,000 flight hours under its belt and as of August (when it had about 800 hours), its abort rate was 3,000  per 100,000 flight hours, according to Gilmore’s note. Furthermore, “the historical model predicted one air abort during the [July and August, 2011] maturity flights; four air aborts occurred,” states the memo.

Gilmore’s memo basically says that the lack of flight time combined with the fact that pilots aren’t yet good enough at processing the plane’s warnings of poetntial problems could be a disaster in the making. He recommends that the service wait ten months before beginning training. This delay would give the Pentagon time to gain another 1,000 hours or so of flight testing and implement a number of relatively minor safety modifications to the jet  (read about them in the report after the jump).

If the military can’t bear to wait ten months, Gilmore suggests that the service move the six F-35A training jets from Eglin to Edwards AFB in California and start flight training there. He argues that since the California base is the main F-35A test site,  it can offer way more support from F-35-maker Lockheed Martin. Oh yeah, and Edwards is “in a sparsely populated area”; meaning the six jets’ “flight operation could begin to demonstrate lower abort rates and less [problem discovery], with substantially less risk to the pilots (and civilians) involved.”

美五角大楼首席武器测试师强烈建议推迟F-35训练计划十个月，以便增加测试飞行时数（目前F-35已有大约1000飞行小时）降低出现故障概率至1,000 aborts per every 100,000 flight hours。
原文如下
Pentagon Tester: F-35 is Too Risky to Start Flight Training

So, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester, J. Michael Gilmore is urging the Air Force to delay the start of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilot training by up to ten months in order for the program to accrue more flight hours and therefore reduce the risk of dangerous in-flight emergencies. His memo comes just as the Air Force had been hoping to get clearance to start flying the six F-35A training jets that are at the JSF schoolhouse at Eglin Air Force Base, Fl.

Gilmore argued, in an Oct. 21 memo to Frank Kendall in his acting role as the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, that starting training flights with the plane would pilots and civilians at risk because it doesn’t have enough flight hours behind it.  Historically, jets need 2,000 to 5,000 flight-hours before the number of flight “aborts” due to emergencies gets down to acceptable levels — 1,000 aborts per every 100,000 flight hours.

Now, you can say that the jet is unlike any ever flown or tested before so one can’t accurately predict how many incidents the plane will have — this argument was frequently made in response to projections claiming that the F-35’s operating costs will greatly exceed those of legacy jets like the Navy’s F/A-18s.

However, the F-35A currently has about 1,000 flight hours under its belt and as of August (when it had about 800 hours), its abort rate was 3,000  per 100,000 flight hours, according to Gilmore’s note. Furthermore, “the historical model predicted one air abort during the [July and August, 2011] maturity flights; four air aborts occurred,” states the memo.

Gilmore’s memo basically says that the lack of flight time combined with the fact that pilots aren’t yet good enough at processing the plane’s warnings of poetntial problems could be a disaster in the making. He recommends that the service wait ten months before beginning training. This delay would give the Pentagon time to gain another 1,000 hours or so of flight testing and implement a number of relatively minor safety modifications to the jet  (read about them in the report after the jump).

If the military can’t bear to wait ten months, Gilmore suggests that the service move the six F-35A training jets from Eglin to Edwards AFB in California and start flight training there. He argues that since the California base is the main F-35A test site,  it can offer way more support from F-35-maker Lockheed Martin. Oh yeah, and Edwards is “in a sparsely populated area”; meaning the six jets’ “flight operation could begin to demonstrate lower abort rates and less [problem discovery], with substantially less risk to the pilots (and civilians) involved.”