Complaints from Congress are about large numbers of F-35s out of commission Awaiting Parts (AWP we used to call it). One troublesome part is called the “F135 Power Module”. I am not quire sure just what this part does, it sounds like it does something for the F35 engine driven generators. Average time to repair an F135 power module was 207 days back in October last year. Design goal for Mean Time to Repair was only 122 days. Back when I was a flight line maintenance officer in USAF we could repair anything we took off the aircraft, in our on-base shops, inside of 1 or 2 days. 122 days or worse, 207 days, is ridiculous. “We” (my people) was Avionics, radios, radars, IFF, TACAN, compass, anything electronic except gyros. The engine shop (not my people) could overhaul an engine in 4 or 5 days. F-35 program has 20 aircraft grounded for lack of engines.
They are changing out the maintenance support software from Autonomous Logistics Information System (ALIS) to a cloud based system Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN). Apparently both systems run on hardware on board the F35. Dunno why they did this, you only do maintenance on the ground, the pilots don’t do maintenance while airborne. Why add weigh by carrying stuff you don’t need to carry? Needless to say, the changeover is slowing all sorts of things down.
Anyhow the US is committed to the F35 as our fighter for the future.
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