During a recent visit by a congressional delegation to Eglin AFB, Fla., Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel, said he heard “disturbing and concerning” updates from aircraft maintainers on the F-35 strike fighter’s Autonomic Logistics Information System. In addition to the “cumbersome” operation of going through the slow-loading pages of the software-driven diagnostic maintenance system, he and his colleagues learned ALIS has an 80-percent false-positive rate, explained Turner at the F-35 hearing of his panel on April 14. “I was taken aback,” said Turner. In response, Sean Stackley, the Navy’s acquisition executive, acknowledged that false positives with ALIS are a “very real concern.” Currently, ALIS is “not meeting the requirements on maintainability,” said Stackley. Planned upgrades must be put in the hands of maintainers as soon as possible, he said. ALIS currently has “red” score cards indicating its deficient performance, said Stackley; only a series of “incremental improvements” will get it to acceptable “green” levels, he said. (See also Fixed and Waiting to be Fixed.)
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. has flown a second YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft, stepping up the pace of testing for the new uncrewed fighter escort. The company also announced “Gambit 6,” a fresh variant in its CCA family meant for air-to-ground missions.
