TOP STORIES OF 2012: Eglin becomes ‘center of the universe’ for F-35 training



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Published: Sunday, December 30, 2012 at 06:42 PM.

This is No. 2 in our series of the top ten local stories of 2012.




See a slideshow of the F-35.



The base received its first Marine Corps variant, the F-35B, which was designed for short takeoff and vertical landing, early in 2012. The Marines then shipped off a crew to stand up the first F-35 operational unit in Yuma, Ariz., in November.



The program also grew dramatically at Eglin in 2012.






It also will receive its first F-35C, the Navy’s variant of the jet. Dutch students also are set to begin training in January.

The 33rd faced some unique challenges to achieve what it has with the F-35.

As production slowed and the program’s progress snagged, it fell on the wing to take on some of the operational testing in addition to development of a training center in order to keep the program moving forward.

The 33rd worked to improve the processes and procedures of the F-35 as a whole, while also getting its training program up and running, Toth said.

Bogdan said the wing has done an extraordinary job. Now, his office and Lockheed Martin, the contractor developing the new jets, have a lot of work to do to lighten some of the load, he said.

“We’ve asked them to do an awful lot in the past year where normally a program would have been a lot more mature,” Bogdan said. “We started building airplanes maybe long before we were ready to do that, and as a result we’ve asked the maintainers here and the operators and all the base support people here to do some extraordinary things to fly these airplanes.”

After a year-long negotiation, the Pentagon announced early this month a $3.8-billion deal with Lockheed to purchase 32 more F-35s. The Pentagon’s oversight office also is taking a look at the Joint Strike Fighter program, which could cost more than $1 trillion over several decades and make it the most expensive military weapons program in history.

Tomassetti said as the program has changed and delays in production occurred, the wing’s staff made adjustments and will continue to do so.

“The F-35 world will remain dynamic and we will adapt accordingly,” he said.

He said the wing is in a unique position to feed information back to program staff about what it takes in terms of resources and costs to operate the F-35 outside a test environment.

Toth said the biggest challenge for the 33rd over the next year will be turnover of almost all of the command staff that has been there since the first aircraft arrived and has seen the program through to what it is today.

He, Tomassetti, the maintenance group commander and the operations group commander all will leave for new positions by next summer, Toth said.

He said it will be a challenge, but could also bring some improvement to the wing.

“It brings the advantage of fresh eyes to see things a little different and to be able to keep the program on track,” he said.

In his two years at Eglin, Toth said he has been amazed to see the team of airmen, marines, sailors, contractors and civilians come together to focus on the single goal of running safe and effective flying operations.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the team and the way they’ve responded to the challenges that have been put before them,” he said. “Just to be a part of that makes me so proud.”



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