Jörgen Nilsson Photography
by Pat Host
The fiscal year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which became law on 1 January 2021, allows the US Air Force (USAF) to utilise, modify, and operate six Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) conventional variant test assets.
This is subject to written approval by the Secretary of Defence, currently Christopher Miller. The six F-35A test assets are aircraft AT-1 through to AT-6, which are currently held by the federal government in long-term storage at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California.
A US Air Force airman prepares to refuel a F-35A on 11 September 2020. US lawmakers are allowing the USAF to acquire F-35A test aircraft, pending permission from the Secretary of Defence. (US Air Force)
The USAF and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) did not return requests for comment prior to publication.
An expert believes this legislation benefits the USAF because it may be able to modify and use these aircraft in situations where using new, operational F-35As would be cost-prohibitive. A retired USAF pilot, who was given anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to reporters, told Janes on 4 January that these situations include exercises and maintenance training.
They also include using the aircraft to experiment with new technologies or to train new test pilots. Using test aircraft in these situations would be much cheaper than using “full-up” F-35As, the retired pilot said.
These original test aircraft are in long-term storage because they are the oldest version of the F-35 and do not resemble the current A-model versions. These test assets have older avionics and test instrumentation, for example, and thus have very limited utility in their current configuration.
F-35 Lightning II: Details
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