Marines F-35B accident, that’s what happened
A Marine Corps F-35B was damaged by a shot from its own cannon. All the details
Accident involving a United States Marine Corps F-35B fighter.
The 25mm bullet exploded after leaving the externally mounted 25mm GAU-22 / A Gatling gun damaging the underside of the aircraft.
The crash – first reported by Military.com – was a major setback, but the plane landed safely and no one was injured.
Marine Corps spokesman Captain Andrew Wood said in a statement that "the incident did not cause any harm to personnel."
An investigation into the incident has now been opened.
DETAILS ABOUT THE ACCIDENT
On March 12, the fifth-generation fighter manufactured by Lockheed Martin was conducting a night close air support mission over a range at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona.
During an artillery drill, a 25mm Semi-Armor Piercing High Explosive Incendiary-Tracer (SAPHEI-T) shell fired from its cannon exploded, causing fragmentation damage although it has not yet been disclosed.
CLASS A ACCIDENT, THE MOST SERIOUS
As Military.com reported, the Naval Safety Center, which also deals with such matters for the Marines, classified the incident as Class A, the most serious classification.
DAMAGES OF AT LEAST 2.5 MILLION DOLLARS
The classification indicates damage of at least $ 2.5 million or the loss of an aircraft.
The estimated cost of living of the F-35 is currently around $ 1.7 trillion.
F-35B, THE DIFFERENCE WITH VERSION A
The F-35B is one of the three variants of the F-35. The F-35B, short take-off and vertical landing (Stovl) variant, can fight from landing strips on the ground and amphibious assault ships at sea. Like the F-35C, it features an externally mounted gun.
The F-35A is equipped with a GAU-22 / A 25mm Gatling type gun with four rotating barrels, internally carried.
Unlike the A version, the F35B mounts a special pod to be installed under the belly of the aircraft.
This design change was due to a weight problem caused by the need to make the B version capable of vertical take-offs and landings.
The first live fire test of the GAU-22A gun mounted externally on an F-35B was conducted in 2016, just a year after the aircraft had reached initial operational capability. As AresDifesa recalled, " recently F-35B with pod-guns were deployed in Somalia during the retreat of US troops."
THE PRESSURES ON THE PROGRAM
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive defense program in US military history. Over time there have been various setbacks and doubts about its continuation.
Just last March the United States Government Accountability Office released a new report increasing the pressure on the F-35 program .
According to the GAO report, the program's software development is lagging behind and development costs have increased by about $ 2 billion since 2019.
The completion of the modernization phase – which was initially supposed to end in 2026 – is now expected a year later, although the GAO noted that the program is based on "estimates made at the start of the Block 4 effort" and not on performance demonstrated by Lockheed Martin. Therefore, it is possible that "the expected completion date of 2027 is not achievable," Gao said.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/incidente-per-un-f-35b-dei-marines-ecco-che-cosa-e-successo/ on Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:46:21 +0000.