The Department of Defense has finally removed its restriction imposed in June 2020 that no F-35A should fly in thunderstorm conditions, the Breaking Defense military affairs website reported on Monday.
The Defense Department formally lifted the restrictions on March 19 after approving hardware and software upgrades to the aircraft's lightning protection system, Breaking Defense cited F-35 Pentagon-Lockheed Martin Joint Program Office (JPO) spokesman Russ Goemaere as saying.
The F-35A had been prohibited from flying within 25 miles of lightning since June 2020, when damaged tubes were found installed on the On-Board Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS) in several of the aircraft, Breaking Defense said.
The OBIGGS prevents a jet from exploding when being struck by lightning by pumping nitrogen-enriched air into the fuel tanks to make its contents inert, and damage to the tubes carrying the inert gas raised the specter that the system would not function properly in an emergency, the report said.