The U.S. Air Force confirmed with Defense News that it has sent a letter to the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to inquire on the cost and challenges of switching the default Martin-Baker ejection seat to the ACES 5.
Speaking to Defense News, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, said the reason “for going forward is safety and having a risk mitigation.”
“We’ve not given [the JPO] direction to qualify. We’ve not asked them to go qualify, we’ve not asked for any change in the configuration in the airplane,” Bunch stressed. “What I have tried to do is get the information in so we would know what it would cost, how much it would take, all it would entail, so we have that available were something else to occur.”