45
seven F-35As and 181 personnel to
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, from June
6 to 17. The deployment pitched the
F-35A against a set of IOC requirements
including basic CAS, aerial interdiction,
and limited SEAD/DEAD. The Lightning
IIs flew both alongside and against F-16s
and F-15Es in a variety of scenarios
against what the air force described as “a
representative heavy air defence system”.
“This was really the capstone event in
our preparations to reach IOC and it was
a resounding success”, said Col David
Lyons, 388th FW commander at that time.
While at Mountain Home for the
‘graduation’ deployment test, Hill’s pilots
and maintainers achieved a 100% sortie-
generation rate with 88 of 88 scheduled
flights and a 94% hit rate with 15 of 16
bombs on target. Maintainers achieved an
enviable mission-capable rate (MCR) of 92%.
The F-35s overall scored hits with 39
of 40 GBU-12 and GBU-31 inert guided
bombs – the sole miss was reportedly due
to a hardware problem with the bomb.
ALIS – the aircraft’s complex information
technology infrastructure – and the mission
systems software reportedly performed very
well, according to Capt Richard Palz, the
34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit’s officer in
charge. A small team of Lockheed Martin
contractors provided ALIS and logistics
support just as they would during real-
world deployments and their spare parts and
logistics support was excellent, Lyons said.
“It is doing spectacular,” said
Carlisle of the F-35A in July 2016.ABOVE: A fabulous shot of two Luke F-35As ying over the Grand Canyon. Jim Haseltine
BELOW: An F-35A arrives at Kadena, Okinawa, Japan, on November 2, having own from Joint
Base Hickam, Hawaii. USAF/SrA Omari Bernard
BOTTOM: A pair of F-35As from the USAF’s rst operational unit, the 34th FS ‘Rams’ over their
base at Hill AFB, Utah. Jim Haseltine