Update, 4/15: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta set new limits on F-22 flights, ordering that they stay within safe distance of a landing strips due to ongoing concerns about oxygen deficiency.

Last week, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired an interview with two of the pilots who are refusing to fly the jets. They will receive whistleblower protection, and not be reprimanded for speaking out.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7407680n

The pricey F-22 Raptor jet has just gotten back up in the air, but the safety problem that grounded it doesn’t seem to be resolved.

Last year, the F-22 was grounded for four months because pilots were experiencing dizziness and other symptoms of hypoxia, which is caused by a lack of oxygen. The Air Force looked into possible malfunctions in the plane’s oxygen-generation system, but in September, the planes were cleared for service after technicians were unable to pinpoint a source of the problem.

May 14, however, the Air Force’s Air Combat Command confirmed that some pilots — they would specify only “a very small” number — have requested not to fly the F-22.

General Mike Hostage, who heads the Air Combat Command, said in a news briefing yesterday that the Air Force is taking cautionary measures but would continue to fly the planes. “We don’t have a conclusive answer yet, and that’s why we continue to fly with the mitigating procedures, because I can’t learn about the problem if I don’t fly the airplane,” he said.

Since the planes started flying again in September, there have been more than 12,000 sorties and 11 reported instances of “hypoxia-like symptoms.” An Air Combat Command Center spokesman told ProPublica today that a team of two-dozen Air Force and outside specialists is monitoring the planes and pilots for both mechanical and medical problems regarding the hypoxia symptoms, but that no “root cause” has been determined.

Before the grounding, there had been at least 12 separate reports of hypoxia-like symptoms, and planes had been limited to flying at lower altitudes. In late 2010, an F-22 pilot died in a crash after he apparently lost control of the plane when the oxygen system malfunctioned. The Air Force’s official report on the incident acknowledged the oxygen system failure but blamed the pilot’s response for the crash.

As ProPublica has detailed, the roughly $70 billion F-22 program has long experienced structural deficiencies and cost overruns. The U.S. halted orders of the jets in 2009, as then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates argued the F-22′s specific capability was not widely applicable in the nation’s “spectrum of conflict.”

The planes have yet to be deployed in combat, though last week a number of them were reportedly sent to the United Arab Emirates.

by Cora Currier, ProPublica, May 15, 2012, 6:43 p.m.

Image Courtesy of By U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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The pricey F-22 Raptor jet has just gotten back up in the air, but the safety problem that grounded it doesn’t seem to be resolved.

Last year, the F-22 was grounded for four months because pilots were experiencing dizziness and other symptoms of hypoxia, which is caused by a lack of oxygen. The Air Force looked into possible malfunctions in the plane’s oxygen-generation system, but in September, the planes were cleared for service after technicians were unable to pinpoint a source of the problem.

Monday, however, the Air Force’s Air Combat Command confirmed that some pilots — they would specify only “a very small” number — have requested not to fly the F-22.

General Mike Hostage, who heads the Air Combat Command, said in a news briefing yesterday that the Air Force is taking cautionary measures but would continue to fly the planes. “We don’t have a conclusive answer yet, and that’s why we continue to fly with the mitigating procedures, because I can’t learn about the problem if I don’t fly the airplane,” he said.

Since the planes started flying again in September, there have been more than 12,000 sorties and 11 reported instances of “hypoxia-like symptoms.” An Air Combat Command Center spokesman told ProPublica today that a team of two-dozen Air Force and outside specialists is monitoring the planes and pilots for both mechanical and medical problems regarding the hypoxia symptoms, but that no “root cause” has been determined.

Before the grounding, there had been at least 12 separate reports of hypoxia-like symptoms, and planes had been limited to flying at lower altitudes. In late 2010, an F-22 pilot died in a crash after he apparently lost control of the plane when the oxygen system malfunctioned. The Air Force’s official report on the incident acknowledged the oxygen system failure but blamed the pilot’s response for the crash.

As ProPublica has detailed, the roughly $70 billion F-22 program has long experiencedstructural deficiencies and cost overruns. The U.S. halted orders of the jets in 2009, as then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates argued the F-22′s specific capability was not widely applicable in the nation’s “spectrum of conflict.”

The planes have yet to be deployed in combat, though last week a number of them were reportedly sent to the United Arab Emirates.

 by Cora Currier, ProPublica, May 1, 2012, 4:31 p.m.

Image Courtesy of By U. S. Air Force Photo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The article Air Force Pilots Balk at Flying the World’s Most Expensive Fighter Jet appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Hawker Beechcraft learned during the initial status conference at the Court of Federal Claims that the U.S. Air Force awarded the Light Air Support contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation and its Brazilian manufacturer, Embraer.

During the hearing, the government revealed that the unannounced award apparently was made on December 22, 2011, shortly after the Government Accountability Office declined to review Hawker Beechcraft’s protest against its exclusion from the LAS competition.  Per federal regulations, federal agencies are generally required to make a public award announcement by 5:00 P.M. ET on the day of the award.

“This is yet another example of the Air Force’s lack of transparency throughout this competition,” said Bill Boisture, Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO.  ”With this development, it now seems even clearer that the Air Force intended to award the contract to Embraer from early in this process.”

During the hearing on December 28, Hawker Beechcraft requested that the court grant a temporary restraining order to preclude the Air Force from moving forward in the contract process.  The court agreed to establish an accelerated schedule for briefings on the temporary restraining order and the legal merits of the case.  A ruling on Hawker Beechcraft’s request for a temporary restraining order is expected as early as January 11.

The company still has no concrete reasons for the exclusion of the Beechcraft AT-6, having been denied explanation by the U.S. Air Force on two occasions.  The LAS contract, on track to benefit a non-U.S. company, is valued at nearly $1 billion of U.S. taxpayer money.

The AT-6 is a world-class, light attack aircraft that has been evaluated and proven capable through a multi-year, Congressionally-funded program led by the Air National Guard. Hawker Beechcraft and its industrial partners worked closely with the Air Force for two years to develop parameters for the LAS competition and invested more than $100 million preparing to meet the Air Force’s specific requirements for a light attack aircraft.  The benefits of the AT-6 include the following:

• The AT-6 is designed and manufactured in the U.S. to be used by the U.S and its allies.
• Keeping this contract in the U.S. will help preserve 1,400 domestic jobs at 181 companies in 39 states.
• The AT-6 draws its heritage from the airframe of the number one training aircraft in the world, the Beechcraft T-6. The company has built more than 725 T-6 aircraft, which are used to train every fixed-wing military pilot in the United States and are successfully operated by six allied air forces around the world. The graduation to the AT-6 light attack airplane would be a natural progression.
• The AT-6 is the sum of the Air Force’s proven T-6, A-10C mission system and MC-12W sensor suite.
• The weapons and avionics systems included on the AT-6 are familiar to NATO allies and have been proven effective on many continents and in other NATO aircraft.

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