Right: Wg Cdr John Butcher and his
colleagues were wearing the Gen
III helmet-mounted display as they
arrived at Marham. Jamie Hunterhave now come here to RAF
Marham to work with the Royal Air
Force and Royal Navy. Industry will
take on a different role, to support
the aircraft rather than just design
and build them.” He concluded:
“The days of air forces picking
up an aircraft and us waving
them goodbye are well gone!”
A ‘whole force’ approach
to the F-35 will see industry
representatives from BAE Systems,
Rolls-Royce, Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman, MBDA,
Cobham and others working from
Marham’s Lightning Force UK
centre of operations, which was
opened by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II on February 2. Under
the name Project Anvil, RAF
Marham is being transformed with
new state-of-the-art buildings and
facilities, as Air Cdre Bradshaw
explained: “The Maintenance and
Final Finish facility will be ready
in the summer, while the 617
Squadron area will be completed
by August and the Integrated
Training Centre [ITC] should
follow in the autumn. The 207
Squadron facilities will be the
last to be delivered, as personnel
won’t work from there until next
summer.” The new north/south
runway, which the F-35Bs landed
on, was opened in early June.
The ITC will house four full-
mission simulators, plus a
deployable variant. Four ab initio
pilots finished their lead-in fighter
training on Hawk T2s at RAF
Valley, Wales last year and are
now halfway through their F-35
course, which they will complete
before going to Marham. More
ab initio pilots will start on the
Lightning next year – probably at
Marham once No 207 Squadron is
established as the OCU next July.
Until then, the USMC’s VMFAT-501
will continue to train UK personnel.
Air Cdre Bradshaw said: “We
think we know how we are going
to create our training setup –
based on our experience with the
USMC, but we have the ability
to learn as we go and match our
training organisation with the
requirement. There will be some
‘test and adjustments’ as we go.”
According to the deputy
Lightning Force commander, BAE
Systems will provide support in
the Maintenance and Final Finish,
including the low-observability
work. “It’s a capability the
UK hasn’t had before, so the
development and growth of the
suitably qualified personnel willLeft: The Lightning flew its first sortie from RAF Marham on June 28, with Wg Cdr Butcher at the controls (see
United Kingdom, p8-9). Crown Copyright Below: The jets took on fuel nine times from three Voyager tankers during
their eight-and-a-half hour flight from MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina. Three tankers were involved: Voyager KC2
ZZ331 and KC3 ZZ335 flying from Gander, Newfoundland, and KC2 ZZ330 out of Charleston Air Force Base, South
Carolina. Crown Copyrightcome in time. We have been
looking over the shoulder of
some of our US colleagues for a
while with industry support, but
we will eventually develop that
capability and sovereign support.”
For depth maintenance, Cdr Clink
said the aircraft could be sent
back to the US or Cameri in Italy,
where there is a Final Assembly
and Check-Out (FACO) facility.
However, BAE Systems’ Chris
Boardman still hopes to carry
out maintenance work at MOD
Sealand, Wales, where there will be
a significant hub for maintenance,
repair, overhaul and upgrade
(MRO&U) of F-35 avionics and
components. “There is a FACO in
Italy, but it is down to the nations
to decide where the major overhaul
work will be
done. TheJPO [Joint Program Office] might
have nominated three airframe
depots – one for each region – but
you can’t force nations to send
their aircraft there and anyway,
how much conventional overhaul
will be needed? The technologies
make it more reliable, so there
is a question on the volume of
work, and the depots [like MOD
Sealand] could make a case for
taking on overhaul activity.”
On August 18, No 617
Squadron is scheduled to begin
the countdown to IOC when it
receives its next five jets. Until
then, squadron personnel will
take leave and, of course, there’s
the small matter of the RAF’s
100th anniversary celebrations,
which are planned to include
three F-35Bs as part of a
huge flypast over London.http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #365 AUGUST 2018 // 39
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