Top: ‘Wake 12’
holds formation
on a VMGR-352
KC-130J in
October.
Above: The three
US services
have sought
to establish
a baseline
for tactics
throughout
the F-35
communities.in all weather conditions and in surface
conditions up to sea state ve using
an encrypted, jam-proof datalink. The
system should enable the F-35B to
auto-land on the amphibious assault
ship, although that ambition is still some
way o . Eventually the aircraft will do
a completely automated landing. The
jet will communicate via JPALS with the
ship to get speed and set a GPS o set to
the location it needs to hover abeam the
landing spot.For now, eet pilots are manually
ying the aircraft but they can still plug
the ship’s speed into the autopilot.
Vaughn says: ‘About a mile behind the
ship you’re set up in Mode 4 [STOVL
mode] and starting to decelerate. The
LSO [landing signals o cer] lets you
know the ship’s speed, so you can
program that into the autopilot and the
jet will auto-decelerate. You rarely nail
it and start your ‘decel’ at exactly the
right time, so you have to make somethe huge screen in the cockpit that the
imagery is viewed on.Going to sea
In late October, VMFA-211 participated
in Exercise ‘Dawn Blitz’, embarking
aboard the USS Essex (LHD 2) as part of
a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB).
The squadron had already embarked
on the Essex in August to assist in the
recerti cation of the ship’s ight deck
with new upgrades to accommodate
the F-35. ‘That was our rst night CQ
in the squadron — in fact it was really
the rst night CQ evolution in the eet,’
describes Vaughn. ‘Our night work
around the boat is all unaided right now
because of the limitations of the night
vision camera in the helmet. We’ve still
got some way to go with that. For me
it’s similar to ying a Hornet onto a big-
deck carrier. That’s all unaided and you
only use the night vision goggles when
you’re up and away from the ship.’
When it comes to the actual ying
around the boat, the F-35B is still some
way o realizing the fully automated
landing characteristics that are planned.
The Joint Precision Approach and
Landing System (JPALS) will ultimately
enable the ship and the aircraft to talk
to one another, guiding the aircraft to
carriers and amphibious assault shipsUNIT REPORT | VMFA211
http://www.combataircraft.net January 201846
40-51 VMFA-211 C.indd 46 23/11/2017 11:52