Before seven of the Navys carrier-variant F-35 Joint Strike Fighters embarked aboard the carrier USS George Washington for a third and final round of developmental testing, they completed a required ashore training period, practicing landings at Choctaw Naval Outlying Field near Pensacola, Florida.The landings went wellmaybe a little too well.They were landing in the same spot on the runway every time, tearing up where the hook touches down, Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker, head of Naval Air Forces, told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. So we quickly realized, we needed to either fix the runway or adjust, put some variants in the system. So thats how precise this new system is.The new system in question is called Delta Flight Path, a built-in F-35C technology that controls glide slope and minimizes the number of variables pilots must monitor as they complete arrested carrier landings. A parallel system known as MAGIC CARPET, short for Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies, is being developed for use with the Navys F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers. Together, these systems may allow carriers to operate with fewer tankers, leaving more room for other aircraft, Shoemaker said.Military.com reported on the implications of this new landing technology from the carrier George Washington earlier this week, as the first operational pilot-instructors with Strike Fighter Squadron 101, out of Oceana, Virginia, began daytime carrier qualifications on the aircraft. On Thursday, Shoemaker had an update on the ongoing carrier tests.Of about 100 F-35C arrested landings were completed on the carrier, he said, 80 percent engaged the No. 3 wire, meaning the aircraft had touched down at the ideal spot. As of Monday, there had been zero so-called bolters, when the aircraft misses an arresting wire and must circle the carrier for another attempt.I think thats going to give us the ability to look at the way we work up and expand the number of sorties. I think it will change the way we operate around the shipin terms of the number of tankers you have to have up, daytime and nighttime, he said. I think that will give us a lot of flexibility in the air wing in the way we use those strike fighters.Tankers, or in-air refueling aircraft, must be ready when aircraft make arrested landings in case they run low on fuel during landing attempts. Fewer bolters, therefore, means a reduced tanker requirement.Right now, we configure maybe six to eight tankers aboard the ship, Shoemaker said. I dont think we needthat many. That will give us flexibility on our strike fighter numbers, increase the Growler numbers, which I know were going to do, and probably E-2D [Advanced Hawkeye carrier-launched radar aircraft] as well.The F-35Cs last developmental testing phase is set to wrap up Aug. 23. MAGIC CARPET is expected to be introduced to the fleet in 2019, officials have said.SEE ALSO:Looks like the Pentagon turned on the F-35 money tap againSEE ALSO:A new type of aircraft carrier is gearing up to dominate the seasJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Watch the Marines' F-35 fire an 80-round burst from its gun pod for the first time
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