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Navy pilot Nick helps Japanese into the Lightning era

A firefighter watches as an F-35B takes off from the Kaga
Royal Navy F-35 pilot Lieutenant Commander Nick Baker has been helping our Japanese allies enter the Lightning era.

The Brit is a test pilot with US Patuxent River Integrated Test Force – a mix of industry experts, aviation scientists, and some of the best/most experienced Lightning pilots, all dedicated to the development and integration of the stealth fighter into service with navies around the globe.

Japan already operates the F-35A – the conventional, land-based variant of the fifth-generation stealth/strike fighter.

Tokyo has also invested in 42 of the short take-off/vertical landing variant of the Lightning – the Model B, identical to that operated from our Queen Elizabeth-class carriers.

Not only does each F-35 variant possess different flight characteristics, so too the way the wind/air moves over and around any flight deck: what works for HMS Prince of Wales, for example, isn’t applicable to the ships Japanese aviators will be operating from.

Izumo-class ‘multi-purpose destroyers’, led by JS Kaga, have been modified for Lightning operations: 27,000 tonnes, over 800ft flight deck, single rather than twin island superstructure, there’s no ski ramp and the Japanese intend to operate their F-35s from the rear of the deck (spots 4 and 5, for those well versed in carrier ops)… whereas on the Queen Elizabeth-class, forward is reserved for the jets, the rear of the deck for helicopters.

 

All of these factors impact on the dynamics of launching and recovering an F-35B, so Lt Cdr Baker and fellow pilots from Pax Rivers conducted a string of tests – with reams of data collected both on the ship and aircraft.

“The trials need to assure Japan with recommendations on how they can fully operate the aircraft in the future,” Lt Cdr Baker explained.

“But the trials also included some unusual deck manoeuvres, such as landing facing aft, or across the deck [with the F-35’s nose facing the superstructure, and vertical take-offs.”

Reams of data on each serial were gathered and will be analysed with the results presented to the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force.

As for Kaga, she’ll see Britons flying F-35s again this summer as the ship joins the UK Carrier Strike Group when it conducts exercises in the Pacific during one leg of its 2025 deployment.

 

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