The day after the Defense Department lifted its grounding of the F-35, it announced the jet wouldn’t make its long-awaited international debut this week.
The Pentagon decided against sending Marine Corps and United Kingdom F-35B aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean to participate in the U.K.’s Farnborough Air Show this week, DoD spokesman Mark Wright said Tuesday in a statement. This decision, Wright said, was reached after consultation with operational commanders and airworthiness authorities, despite the decision by airworthiness authorities to clear the aircraft to return to flight. DoD originally hoped to show off the F-35 at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), also in England, the weekend of July 11.
DoD spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement the F-35 was approved Monday to return to “limited flight” that includes an engine inspection regimen and restricted flights that will remain in effect until the root cause of a June 23 engine fire on the runway at Eglin AFB, Fla., is identified and corrected. DoD did not respond for clarification of the flight restrictions. DoD grounded its fleet of F-35s July 3 after an Air Force F-35A conventional variant caught fire before takeoff June 23.
A preliminary investigation revealed an “extensive rub” of a third-stage fan blade in the F135 as a key factor in the runway fire. The Air Force’s fleet had no-fly orders for 22 days, including Tuesday. Marine Corps and Navy versions of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) went out of service, but returned to flight on June 26 before a formal Pentagon-wide grounding was announced.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall told a House panel last week early evidence suggests a single-engine issue. The impacted F-35 was AF-27. Wright said when considering deploying aircraft operationally, DoD takes into account many factors, including operational risk, weather and ground time.
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) is the airworthiness authority for the Navy and Marine Corps, according to service spokeswoman Lt. Jacqueline Pau. Air Force Lifecycle Management Center (AFLMC) is the airworthiness authority for the Air Force, service spokeswoman Capt. Erika Yepsen said.
The F135 engine is developed by Pratt & Whitney of United Technologies Corp. [UTX]. The F-35 is developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT] with subcontractors BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC].