F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PROGRAM GET READY FOR DELIVERY OF PLANES AT EGLIN

Well folks, some have had their eyes on the Army 7th Special Forces Group coming, you might want to start getting ready for some 2,000 sailors, Marines, and airman, expected to support the training wing. On top of that, you can expect about 13 NATO countries bringing their support staffs for their new F-35 pilots for training. Do you see the picture here? Not only will you have permanent positions here, you will see a flood of new pilots here on a temporary basis. Which means, transient lodging and rentals will be in high demand. Look closely to the below article, CONSTRUCTION COMPLETED BY JANUARY 2011.


F-35 joint training wing gets ready for deliveries
August 24, 2010

The first Joint Strike Fighter to enter the U.S. military’s first F-35 joint service training wing is scheduled to arrive in November at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
By 2014, the 33rd Fighter Wing is expected to reach full strength with more than 2,000 sailors, Marines and airmen and a minimum of 59 F-35s.
The U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps will each have a training squadron under the 33rd. Fifteen F-35Cs will be assigned to the Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 101 “Grim Reapers,” which stands up in 2013; 24 F-35As will fall under the Air Force’s 58th Fighter Squadron “Mighty Gorillas,” which stood up in October; and the Marines will have 20 F-35B assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 “Warlords,” which stood up April 2.

“We’re laying a template for how the free world will fly fighters for the next 35 to 50 years,” Col. David Hlatky, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, said during a media briefing at Eglin.
Navy Capt. Mike Saunders, deputy commander of the 33rd Operations Group, said the wing set high goals for its training regimen.
“Our hope is that this will be the model for training,” Saunders said.
In July, instructors performed a dry run to “work out the kinks,” said Marine Col. Arthur Tomassetti, the 33rd’s vice commander. The first student pilots will come from other planes and might not recognize the electronic classrooms designed for the 33rd. Rather than a seabag full of textbooks, students will take home a laptop, he said.
“Whether they are pilot students or maintenance students, they are going to start in electronic classrooms,” Tomassetti said, standing in a classroom with joysticks and 42-inch flat screens at each desk.
A basic JSF simulator is at the 33rd. Retired Air Force Maj. Greg Wilder, now a contracted instructor, said the wing has room to install 10 full-mission simulators, but plans to buy six to eight. Each Mission Rehearsal Trainer, built by Lockheed Martin with partners that include Rockwell Collins, will cost about $12.5 million and feature 24 projectors with touch screens and flight controls.
Each pilot will have to fly at least five complete missions inside a Mission Rehearsal Trainer before piloting a JSF, said Maj. Eric Smith, an A-10 and F-16 pilot assigned to the 58th Mighty Gorillas.
The technological advancements built into the F-35 will make it easier to train new students, especially compared with the AV-8B Harrier, said Tomassetti, who started his career flying Harriers.
Construction has started on what 33rd Fighter Wing leaders describe as “the campus,” which includes a dormitory, dining facility and Academic Training Center that will be big enough to fit six football fields.
Construction is scheduled to end in January, Hlatky said.
As the 33rd grows, so will the relationships between the pilots and maintainers from different services and different JSF partner countries. The first foreign students will be British pilots scheduled to arrive in 2011, Tomassetti said.
When student pilots start arriving straight from pilot school, he said the joint training will introduce them early to the Defense Department’s “joint approach.”