Air Power 2017

21 ST CENTURY CAPABILITIES

88 AIR POWER 2017 21st CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

Vice Admiral Mat Winter,

F-35 Program Executive

Officer, highlights the

contributions that the

UK and the RAF continue

to make to the design,

build and deployment of

the aircraft. Also, his UK

National Deputy, Group

Captain Willy Hackett,

provides some background

to UK’s involvement in

the F-35 story to date

“The United Kingdom has played an
integral role in the F-35 program since its
earliest days. Even before a final aircraft
concept was chosen, British engineers
and test pilots were fully integrated into
the program and making their mark
on what has become a revolutionary
capability. For more than 16 years, the
UK has provided unwavering support
for the F-35 Program, assigning their
best and brightest personnel to the
Joint Program Office. Today, we have a
UK General Officer leading our efforts to
deliver the F-35 Global Support Solution
along with top-rated UK pilots, engineers
and maintainers conducting integrated
test activities, fielding the aircraft’s

before and each partner has something

to bring to the party in the development

of tactics, training and procedures.

Throughout the partnership we

share a common aircraft, training regime,

global support solution, knowledge, and

documentation to maintain and operate

the aircraft in a standard way. We train as we

intend to fight – an F-35 coalition that has

been closely integrated and interoperable

from the very start. As coalition F-35 pilots

and engineers assemble at a deployed

operating base in the future, it is unlikely

to be the first time they have met; and if

it is, they will have all been trained to the

same standard way of doing business.

Autonomic Logistics Information

System, and working at reprogramming

laboratories to develop mission

support software – our UK partnership

is resolute and their commitment to

execution excellence is unmatched

allowing the F-35 Enterprise to deliver

this phenomenal fifth-generation strike

fighter capability to our warfighters.”

GROUP CAPTAIN WILLY HACKETT’S

F-35 UK UPDATE

The UK is deeply embedded within the

F-35 programme, both in an industrial

and military sense. The UK is the only

Level 1 partner in the programme for the

development of F-35, alongside the US. The

UK gained this enviable position by using

its knowledge from building highly capable

fourth-generation aircraft, experience

gleaned from research and development

aircraft, and the talent inherent in the UK’s

aviation industry and Ministry of Defence.

From the outset, the UK has understood

and influenced the design of the aircraft and

its systems to meet UK Defence needs, with

a particular eye on how to integrate the

capability with other RAF, Joint and Allied

capabilities. Interoperability testing has been

under way in test facilities in the UK for some

years; this will ensure effective integration

of the F-35 with Typhoon, Airseeker, AWACS

and Naval assets such as Crowsnest, the

Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and

Type 45 destroyers. The RAF provides full-

spectrum air and space power in support

of the UK’s national interests and its treaty

obligations, especially to NATO. The F-35

will be an integral part of this capability,

operating as a system within systems.

The UK has operated its own aircraft

in the USA since July 2012, training

and operating alongside USAF and US

Marine Corps (USMC) units, mainly at

Edwards Air Force Base, California, and

at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS)

Beaufort in South Carolina. Testing and

training so closely with the broader F-35

community allows each partner nation

to speak the same language. The RAF

has never been so closely integrated

F-35 PROGRAM OFFICE UPDATE

“For more than

16 years, the UK

has provided

unwavering

support”

Within the last 20 years, the experience

the RAF has gained in working with UK

industry in enhancing the efficiency of the

sustainment regimes of front-line aircraft

like the Typhoon has produced a paradigm

shift for both industry and the RAF. This

learning is being shared with the wider JSF

Programme Office and more particularly

the Hybrid Product Support Integrator

(HPSI), to help drive down through life

support costs for the entire F-35 fleet.

The RAF has been in constant high

operational demand in recent years,

giving the F-35 team a great insight into

contemporary operations. This highly

talented workforce has been stationed

at many Joint Strike Fighter units within

the USA. This allows the RAF to share

its experiences and help operationalise

the F-35, to ensure they are ready to

declare UK Initial Operating Capability

(IOC) with the famous 617 Dambusters

Squadron toward the end of 2018.