Navigation Systems Bug Affects 87 Fighters

Lockheed Martin says it is making progress in fixing an electrical glitch that caused some tense moments for pilots ferrying six F-22 Raptor fighters from Hawaii to Japan earlier this month.

The Associated Press reports the glitch -- which popped up as the jets crossed the International Date Line -- affects navigational computers on approximately 87 F-22s. A senior Air Force officer said such anomalies are common during initial deployments of new aircraft.

"Until you really fly the airplane and do something that's when the rubber hits the road. Industry are developing any kind of computer or airplane system, and you will see there is no substitute for flying something," said Colonel Tom Bergeson, Operations Group Commander at the First Fighter Wing at Virginia's Langley Air Force Base.

ANN received several News-Spy reports the glitch caused some concern on the test flight. Loss of the navigational computers came as the jets crossed the Pacific Ocean -- an area without many handy waypoints, for the suddenly-VFR aircraft.

The Air Force states one pilot was able to contact Lockheed Martin, to troubleshoot the problem inflight. The other five pilots attempted to reboot the system on their planes, with no success. Fortunately, the aircraft were able to turn back to Hawaii, aided by the aerial tankers accompanying the fighters to Japan.

Lockheed engineers were able to isolate the problem on those six fighters, and develop a fix within days, the USAF added. Lockheed is now working to remedy the problem on the rest of the affected planes; as Aero-News reported, the Raptors made it to Okinawa's Kadena AFB without further incident.

FMI: www.af.mil, www.lockheedmartin.com