The F-35 Lightning Can’t Handle Lightning

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may be named the “Lightning II” in homage to two of Lockheed Martin’s World War II-era aircraft, but it turns out at least one variant can’t actually handle the lightning at all.

In early August, the Marine Corps put out a solicitation for portable lightning rods to draw lightning strikes away from the branch’s F-35B aircraft current parked at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan.

“Since the F-35 as a composite type aircraft does not provide inherent passive lightning protection, the lightning rods being requested are needed for deploying aircraft to any expeditionary airfield in support of combat operations or training exercises that do not support all lightning protection requirements for the F-35B,” the Marine Corps says in its justification or the purchase.

According to the Pentagon’s annual intensive assessment of the F-35 program, conducted by the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation and published in January, Lockheed Martin is currently testing new lightning protection capabilities for the designed to appropriately protect the aircraft’s vital Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) from the sudden surge of a lightning bolt. (end of excerpt)

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