Nellis finally gets its fourth F-35 fighter jet

With little fanfare and after much anticipation, the fourth F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter jet arrived at Nellis Air Force Base on Wednesday, more than a month after it set out from Lockheed Martin’s production plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

It had been forced to make a precautionary landing at Lubbock International Airport when a cockpit warning light came on.

One of the military’s most experienced F-35 pilots, Marine Lt. Col. Roger Hardy, piloted the $67 million stealth jet on the delivery flight Wednesday, landing safely at 1:18 p.m.

“There were no problems reported with the aircraft flying to and landing at Nellis Air Force Base,” said Airman 1st Class Monet Villacorte, a spokeswoman for the 99th Air Base Wing.

Hardy was the first student to graduate from the F-35 pilot transition course last year at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. He is assigned to the Defense Contract Management Agency and is tasked with ensuring new F-35s meet specifications and are safely delivered from the production plant.

The F-35 that arrived Wednesday made the precautionary landing March 11 at the Lubbock airport while flying from Lockheed’s production plant with a second F-35. They both landed at the Lubbock airport, but the second one continued its flight to Nellis to join two others that had been delivered.

During an arrival ceremony at Nellis on March 19, Lockheed F-35 Program spokesman Michael Rein described the problem as “a wire connector issue in the flight control system.”

The F-35 was stranded in Lubbock while technicians spent weeks troubleshooting the problem in the complex, triple-redundant flight control system before tracing it to an issue with the communication system. The problem was fixed, and the plane was flown back to the plant for more testing.

“They did a check-out ride and a pilot was available, so the jet was flown to Nellis and will be joining the fleet for operational testing,” Rein said late Wednesday.

The Nellis F-35s are assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, a tenant squadron at the base from the 53rd Wing.

Nellis is expected to have 36 Lightning IIs for testing and training by 2020. Rein said no more are scheduled for delivery to the base this year.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.