Flight operations have resumed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., after problems with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s automated logistics systems forced a grounding a day earlier.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211, a squadron with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing equipped with the F-35B, the short-takeoff and vertical-landing (VTOL) variant of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter, resumed flight operations June 23.
Based at Yuma, VMFA-211 — nicknamed the Green Knights — is the Marine Corps’ first operational squadron of Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35s.
Marine Corps leadership suspended F-35B operations June 22 because of unspecified problems with the jet’s autonomic logistics information system, commonly called ALIS. ALIS provides aircraft health and maintenance information and is a major element of the life-cycle management plan for the aircraft.
The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed’s “action team” found the root cause of the problems and generated a software fix to resolve the issues identified with Yuma’s ALIS system, according to a joint statement from the JPO and Lockheed. The Marine Corps operates two versions of ALIS, which is networked across the entire F-35 program. It has both an ashore version and a deployable, expeditionary ALIS that is installed aboard amphibious ships that carry the F-35B.
“With this fix, VMAF-211 at MCAS Yuma resumed flight operations today,” the JPO said last Friday night. “The JPO with LM will continue to monitor and improve ALIS performance to ensure our warfighters have the required F-35 air systems to operate safely and effectively.”
Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, made the decision June 22 to temporarily suspend VMFA-211 flight operations pending fixes to a recent ALIS software upgrade within version 2.0.2 that “presented some anomalies.”
“The performance and safety of the aircraft itself was not compromised by this software update,” Weiss said in a statement. “Reliability of equipment and safety of our personnel are among the Marine Corps’ top priorities as we continue transitioning our legacy aircraft to the F-35 in the coming years.”
The news of Yuma’s F-35 grounding came a day after Luke Air Force Base in Arizona resumed flying its F-35As, resuming flight operations after a halt that began June 9 when five pilots experienced oxygen deprivation-like symptoms.
The Air Force said that since the cause of the hypoxia-like symptoms has not yet been determined, F-35 flights at Luke will be temporarily banned above 25,000 feet, where all the episodes occurred.
The Air Force said that maintenance and aircrew flight equipment procedures have been eliminated as possible causes of the problems at Luke, a training base with 55 F-35As.