Anna Forrester
Lockheed Martin has completed a second round of F-35C at-sea tests aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to check the maneuver, launch and nighttime operations of the F-35‘s carrier-based variant, Reuters reported Friday.
Andrea Shalal writes those tests included night flights in which pilots used helmets that Rockwell Collins and Elbit Systems redesigned for the U.S. Navy.
The Navy will use the results of the sea trials to guide the F-35C catapult launch settings standards and bring the program closer to operational use by 2018, the report said.
Shalal reports that F-35C developmental tests are approximately 80 percent complete and will move forward to a third round of at-sea tests by next summer.
The Navy announced the schedule of the current round of trials in August.
