F-35s at MCAS Yuma cleared for flight
Software flaw resolved after jets grounded Thursday
Less than 48 hours after flight operations were “temporarily suspended,” the 14 F-35B Lightning IIs based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma have been cleared to fly once again.
Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, announced his decision to resume flight operations on Friday after a software patch was installed to fix a problem with a key support system for the aircraft.
“The performance and safety of the aircraft itself was not compromised by this software update,” said Major Gen. Wise. “Reliability of equipment and safety of our personnel are among the Marine Corps’ top priorities as we continue transitioning our legacy aircraft to the F-35 in the coming years.”
Major Gen. Wise made the decision to temporarily suspend VMFA-211 flight operations on Thursday after “anomalies” were discovered following a June 22 software upgrade made to the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System or (ALIS).
The ALIS is the off-board computer program designed to monitor the jump jet’s systems, operations and maintenance needs. The system is the IT backbone of the F-35.
The specific anomalies were related to maintenance codes not being reflected properly in the system and system engineers from the Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed Martin (LM) were sent to MCAS Yuma to fix the problem.
In a statement released Friday, JPO said system engineers were able to identify the root cause of the problem and generated a software fix to resolve the issues.
“The JPO with LM will continue to monitor and improve ALIS performance to ensure our warfighters have the required F-35 air systems to operate safely and effectively,” the statement read.
The F-35Bs that were grounded were from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211, which is known as the Wake Island Avengers. It was also the first AV-8B Harrier squadron in the U.S. Marine Corps to be converted to an F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter squadron, which happened in June of 2016.
The Marine Corps F-35B, which is capable of vertical landing, was the first of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter variants to be declared combat-ready in 2015, and has since been deployed overseas.