The Navy stated it “misplaced confidence” within the colonel overseeing restore work on the most costly army mission in historical past
The US Navy has fired the commanding officer of Fleet Readiness Heart East in North Carolina as a consequence of a “lack of confidence in his capacity to command.” The power is answerable for overhauling the Navy’s variant of the next-generation F-35 fighter jet – which, though it’s already the most costly army mission in historical past, has been plagued with flaws and requires upgrades to see out its lifespan.
Marine Corps Col. Thomas Atkinson was relieved on Friday and changed by Capt. James Belmont, who was initially slated to imagine command in Might, an announcement from the Navy reads. No additional particulars got to clarify Atkinson’s firing.
Fleet Readiness Heart East has a workforce of greater than 4,000 sailors, Marines, and civilians, and is one in all six services the place Navy and Marine Corps plane are serviced and upgraded.
Nevertheless, it’s the solely facility within the US licensed to hold out essential airframe strengthening work on the F-35B, a variant of the F-35 fighter jet utilized by the Navy and Marine Corps. By mid-2021, the North Carolina facility had taken in 100 of those jets for modification, and after 15,000 hours of labor, the primary of those jets subjected to “laser shock peening” to strengthen its airframe was licensed for service in January.
Whereas the army stated that this process – which provides rigidity with out including additional weight – would “prolong the life expectancy” of the jet, the American Society of Metals stated it was needed to make sure that “the plane attain its full life restrict.” The Pentagon initially put the F-35’s lifespan at round 4 a long time, however later revised that estimate right down to 10 years for among the F-35’s earliest variants.
A Pentagon overview in the beginning of 2020 discovered greater than 800 software program flaws with the F-35, and defects that rendered its gun unusable. Although “most” of those points have been fastened by that summer season, a lot of points that might “injure or kill pilots or in any other case jeopardize the airplane’s safety” remained. At a present lifetime value of round $1.7 trillion, it’s the most costly army mission ever undertaken, and even with the jet getting into service, it already requires expensive modernization upgrades.
It’s unclear whether or not Atkinson’s removing is linked to Fleet Readiness Heart East’s work on the F-35.
You’ll be able to share this story on social media: