The US Department of Defense (DoD) has ordered mandatory inspections of all three variants of F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter (JSF) before the jets resume flying operations.
The order comes after a US Marine Corps' F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant suffered an in-flight emergency due to an engine oil problem last week at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, US, prompting Pentagon to temporarily ground the entire fleet.
F-35 programme office spokesman Joe DellaVedova was quoted by Reuters as saying that the inspections had been ordered on 13 June, and a large number of planes had completed inspections and had been cleared to resume flights today.
The inspections were primarily focused on the oil flow management valve fitting on all F135 powerplants that provides oil flow to the engine bearing compartments, DellaVedova added.
Commenting on the F-35B incident, DellaVedova said issues have now been found with a total of three valves, while noting that the engine oil leak source appeared to be a supply line to engine bearings and a fitting that separated from the body of the valve in question.
No issues have been discovered in F-35s flown at the other bases in California, Florida, Arizona and Maryland, DellaVedova said.
While back here at home.
Government backbencher Dennis Jensen has condemned the Prime Minister’s $12.4 billion plan to buy 58 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets as a “great national scandal” and “worse than a disgrace”.
In an extraordinary broadside in Parliament on Monday night, Dr Jensen warned that Australia’s national security was being corrupted by an “industrial-military complex” interested in promoting the global arms trade.
Fairfax revealed on Monday that Australia was now the seventh-largest importer of large-scale military materiel in the world, and also the biggest customer of the world’s largest weapons producer, the United States. Australia buys 10 per cent of all American weapons exports.
Australian purchases of major arms – such as warships, fighter planes, and tanks – increased by 83 per cent from 2004-08 to 2009-13.
Many of those decisions based on poor analysis.
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