Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

[Triton]

"Exclusive: Mitsubishi Heavy in talks to become F-35 supplier, seeks Japan subsidy: sources"
by Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo
TOKYO Mon Jan 27, 2014 4:02am EST

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/27/us-mhi-f-35-export-idUSBREA0Q0C920140127

(Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is in advanced talks to supply parts for the F-35 stealth fighter to Britain's BAE Systems, in what would be the first involvement of a Japanese manufacturer in a global weapons program, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Any agreement on such a groundbreaking deal hinges in part on whether Tokyo will subsidize the manufacture of components for the rear fuselage of the fighter that Mitsubishi Heavy is seeking to supply as a subcontractor, the three sources said.

Mitsubishi Heavy, which made the famous Zero fighter in World War Two, has already won a contract worth more than $620 million for final assembly for the 42 F-35 jets now on order by Japan's military.

A deal to become a second-tier supplier for the Lockheed Martin F-35 would deepen Mitsubishi Heavy's ties to a project to deliver a fighter jet that the United States and allies plan to use for decades.

It would also mark a break with Japan's self-imposed curbs on military exports at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to bolster the self-reliance of Japan's military amid rising regional tensions with China.

Japan's defense ministry and Mitsubishi Heavy declined to comment. Mark Ritson, a spokesman for BAE, said the company had been involved in discussions about "potential subcontracting" opportunities for Mitsubishi Heavy with Lockheed Martin. He said those discussions were ongoing but declined to comment on details.

People with knowledge of the discussions said BAE and Mitsubishi Heavy had largely agreed terms on what work and technology would be transferred under the potential deal.

The remaining problems are economic. Without a subsidy, Mitsubishi Heavy would struggle to make components for BAE without incurring a loss, the sources said. Under its current contract, Mitsubishi Heavy plans to complete manufacture of the first F-35 for Japan's Self-Defence Forces in 2017.

BAE is responsible for manufacturing the fighter jet's rear fuselage, part of its design to make it harder to detect in flight, which accounts for 15 percent of its construction.

The fuselage construction is expected to be worth billions of dollars if global forecasts for F-35 sales hit projections.

The other countries in the nine-nation consortium building the plane are Italy, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

SEEKING A DEEPER ROLE

It was not clear whether the Abe administration will give Mitsubishi the subsidies it wants. Japan's government has been seeking a deeper role for its suppliers in the F-35 program since 2011, when the previous government announced it had selected the jet as its next-generation fighter.

The immediate priority for defence officials remains ensuring Mitsubishi's plans for a Nagoya-based plant to assemble the F-35's for use in Japan remain on track, one source said.

Any subsidies for Mitsubishi Heavy would have to come out of funding for Japan's Ministry of Defence. Lockheed Martin, BAE and other members of the F-35 consortium are enthusiastic about Mitsubishi Heavy's participation in the wider program, but not if it means relenting on tight controls on production costs, another of the sources with knowledge of the talks said.

So far, Japan's government has budgeted just over $620 million for Mitsubishi Heavy's F-35 assembly plant. IHI Corp has been allocated about $175 million to build engine parts for the jet while another roughly $55 million has been awarded to Mitsubishi Electric to build radar components.

In all three cases, those contracts relate to F-35s that will be flown by Japan's Self-Defence Forces rather than the wider F-35 program.

A deal for Mitsubishi Heavy to become a global supplier to Lockheed Martin could pave the way for the participation of other Japanese manufacturers in the wider F-35 program.

Japan so far plans to buy 42 F-35s, dubbed the Joint Strike Fighter. Analysts expect it to acquire as many as 100 more to replace older Boeing Co F-15s.

The Pentagon expects to spend $392 billion to develop and build 2,443 of the stealth aircraft. Orders for the F-35 from other countries could bring the total global fleet to more than 3,000 aircraft, although the program has been beset by delays and cost over-runs.

Although gradually eased over the past several years, successive Japanese governments have upheld a ban on military exports since the 1960s. Critics have said that means Japan's defence spending is hobbled by inefficiencies since it relies on domestic suppliers that lack the scale of competitors in the United States and Europe.

Abe has taken steps to bolster Japan's military and approved the biggest percentage increase in defence spending in almost two decades for the coming fiscal year.

In a break with precedent, the Abe administration is also pushing for sales of military aircraft overseas with possible low-interest state loans or even development aid to entice buyers.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries plans to market its new C-2 military cargo plane as a repurposed civilian transport aircraft, while Shinmaywa Industries' is in talks to sell the Indian government its US-2 amphibious aircraft.

($1 = 102.3550 Japanese yen)

 

[Triton]

"Tactical Trainer Would Teach F-35 Pilots Decision-Making Skills"
February 2014
by Valerie Insinna

Source:
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2014/February/Pages/TacticalTrainerWouldTeachF-35PilotsDecision-MakingSkills.aspx

A new tactical trainer for fifth-generation aircraft would allow F-35 pilots to practice how to react in deadly situations that would be impossible to recreate in live exercises.

Orlando-based game developer GameSim showcased the new simulation, called the Tactical Training Rehearsal Environment, during the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference.

In one scenario demonstrated at the conference, the user acted as an F-35 pilot defending Taiwan’s airspace. Four enemy aircraft attacked the player as two others dropped bombs.

The pilot had to decide which adversaries to engage and how, said Andrew Tosh, GameSim’s founder and president. Unlike “twitch-based” training where a user is judged on the ability to correctly aim and fire at an adversary, the pilot’s choices are evaluated. Like a role-playing video game, the user selects an action from a menu of options that specifies, for example, at which aircraft to fire and with what weapon.

“You’re not going to learn how to fly an F-35 on this kind of trainer, but you’re going to learn how to make good decisions,” he said.

The trainer is based on Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3d, an off-the-shelf software for creating training exercises. GameSim is programming the enemy’s artificial intelligence and developing scenarios, Tosh said. Instructors would also be able to generate their own lessons, which could be stored in a repository and shared.

Lockheed Martin is also providing GameSim information regarding fifth-generation aircraft like the F-22, Tosh said.

GameSim received funding for the first phase of the project through a small business innovation research award. The company currently is wrapping up its proof of concept, and will further develop and commercialize the trainer if it secures additional SBIR funding, he said.

The simulation is geared toward both home and classroom use. Tosh envisions having multiple hardware configurations that would incorporate anything from a simple laptop computer to multiple displays used with virtual reality goggles.

GameSim currently is developing the trainer exclusively for the Air Force, but “as time goes on, if we’re successful here, it could be adopted by other” services that plan to fly the F-35, such as the Navy or Marine Corps.

 

[Arjen]

Reading material on SNAFU: DOT & E 2013 F-35 Report
http://www.scribd.com/doc/202741252/2013DOTE-F-35-Report

As reported earlier:
- software development is lagging
- no further changes to control laws considered to remedy buffeting and transonic roll off because that would adversely affect handling characteristics
- reduced fleet availability compared to previous report

 

[GTX]

Navy’s F-35C Completes Landing Tests Ahead of October Sea Trials
Dave Majumdar
Published: January 28, 2014

The U.S. Navy’s carrier-based version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is nearing October sea trials after completing shore-based testing at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, to ensure compatibility with shipboard arresting gear.

“From 9 to 16 Jan, the F-35 team accomplished 36 successful roll-in arrestment tests at Lakehurst with the redesigned F-35C arresting hook system on CF-3,” wrote Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office in a Tuesday email to USNI News. “All flight test objectives were met.”

Even before CF-3 deployed to Lakehurst for testing, the F-35C’s redesigned tail-hook showed early signs of promise. “Prior to the Lakehurst deployment, CF-3 also performed 3 lower-energy roll-ins and 1 fly-in arrestment at Patuxent River [Maryland] to reduce risk by confirming system and instrumentation functional operation,” DellaVedova wrote.

Aircraft CF-3, which is the third carrier variant test article, is the first F-35C to be fitted with the redesigned tail-hook. The tail-hook has been a vexing problem on the F-35C variant when it was discovered in 2012 that the original hook could not reliably engage an arresting wire.

Lockheed and the Joint Strike Fighter program office ultimately traced the problem back to the shape of the hook and a faulty wire dynamics model supplied by the Naval Air Systems Command. The solution was to reshape the hook point and adjust the system’s hold-down damper, which helps prevent the hook from bouncing around upon touchdown.

With the Lakehurst deployment completed, aircraft CF-3 will spend the next several months proving that it is suitable for operations at sea onboard a carrier.

“The aircraft has ferried back to Patuxent River, where it will now commence 3-4 month series of field-based ship suitability tests, including fly-in arrestments that are scheduled to begin soon,” DellaVedova said.
“These tests are expected to lead to a certification of the F-35C for shipboard flight trials, which are planned to commence in Oct. 2014.”

The F-35C was originally expected to conduct sea trials on USS Nimitz (CVN-68), however it unclear if that is still the case.

 

[donnage99]

So the cycle continues - the plane was overweight, so make it light, but then now it's vulnerable and cracked up, so lets add back the weight(



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-28/lockheed-f-35-develops-cracks-pentagon-s-tester-finds.html

 

[Grey Havoc]

Via SNAFU: http://www.standard.net/stories/2014/01/28/tests-find-cracks-f-35-pentagon-says

 

[seruriermarshal]

Pentagon says "laser-focused" on F-35 software issues

The Pentagon's F-35 program office on Friday said it was "laser-focused" on finishing development of the software needed for the U.S. Marine Corps to start using its Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets from mid-2015.

The Pentagon's chief weapons tester warned in a report obtained by Reuters and published on Thursday that a possible 13-month delay in F-35 software development, coupled with maintenance and reliability problems, could delay the Marine Corps' plans.

But Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the Pentagon's F-35 program office, says he remains confident that Lockheed will complete the Block 2B software that gives the jet its initial combat capability in time.

Bogdan restructured the F-35 program office last year to put a greater emphasis on software, which he considers the No. 1 technical risk to the $392 billion program, said his spokesman Joe DellaVedova.

As part of the changes, he said Bogdan had named a number of people or "czars" to oversee the range of efforts linked to the Block 2B software and later software versions, as well as the drive to reduce the F-35's maintenance and operating costs.

"Lieutenant General Bogdan and the F-35 program are laser- focused on delivering the Block 2B capability to the warfighter," DellaVedova said. "We track and review F-35 software development data religiously and we're confident we'll deliver Block 2B in time to meet the Marine Corps' needs."

Lockheed is developing three models of the new warplane for the U.S. military and eight partners: Britain, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. Israel and Japan have also placed orders.

Marine Corps officials had no immediate comment on the new report, but the service has not revised its plans to declare an F-35 "initial operational capability" by July 2015.

The report, which was delivered to Congress on Friday, got a muted reaction from the countries that helped pay for development of the new plane or placed orders.

Britain is expected to announce orders for 14 F-35 jets and the associated infrastructure, training and maintenance services, as early as next week, Reuters reported on Thursday. It is buying the same short takeoff, vertical landing B-model jets that will be operated by the Marines.

The Dutch, who have ordered 37 planes, said they had not received the report, but did not expect any major surprises.

"The problems raised are well known and are being addressed," said Defense Ministry spokeswoman Sacha Louwhoff.

The Dutch are testing two trial planes and expect delivery of their first production plane in 2019. The first Dutch F-35 pilot completed his training at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Friday, DellaVedova said.

Endre Lunde, spokesman for Norway's defense ministry, said the F-35 program office was already taking steps to fix issues raised by the report, including software development.

"The information presented in this report has been briefed to all international partners at various points over the past year," Lunde said, adding that he did not expect the issues raised to affect Norway's participation in the F-35 program.

At the same time, Lunde said Norway viewed the report as a "very valuable" tool and "an important external reference in our efforts to keep the development of the F-35 on track."

Belgium is also weighing F-35 orders, but will not make a decision until after elections in May, one official said.

In Israel, one defense official said he did not see any problems for his country's order of 19 jets. "There is no delay (for Israel)," said the official, who declined to be named.

An official at South Korea's arms procurement agency said any delays beyond an intended 2018 delivery date would be "problematic". Seoul has said it would buy 40 of the F-35s, although it still has to finalize this order, a move that could come in February, according to two sources familiar with the issue.

A senior Japan Defense Ministry official said: "We can do nothing but ask the JPO (Joint Program Office) to speed up the program." Tokyo plans to buy 42 of the stealth fighters, with the first four due for delivery by March 2017.

http://www.worldbulletin.net/science-technology/127618/scientists-not-clear-up-the-mystery-of-8-million-year-old-cave

 

[sferrin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6XofdlfJ0k

 

[Grey Havoc]

Via SNAFU: http://www.politico.com/morningdefense/0214/morningdefense12888.html

 

[Triton]

"Navy’s F-35 Tailhook Passes Initial Tests; Carrier Flights In October"
by Colin Clark on February 05, 2014 at 1:59 PM

Source:
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/navys-f-35-tailhook-passes-initial-tests-carrier-flights-in-october/

The F-35C, the Navy version of the Joint Strike Fighter and the plane most in danger of being cut or reduced by its service, has passed the first round of critical tests of its tail hook, the part of the plane that makes traditional carrier landings possible.

“All flight test objectives were met,” Joe DellaVedova, F-35 program spokesman, said in an email. “We’re not declaring victory but last month (9 to 16 Jan) the F-35 team accomplished 36 successful roll-in arrestment tests at Lakehurst with the redesigned F-35C arresting hook system on CF-3.”

CF-3 is the first F-35C to be fitted with the redesigned Arresting Hook System, as it’s formally known. The plane has returned to the Navy’s Patuxent River test facility where for the next three to four months it will undergo “field-based ship suitability tests, including fly-in arrestments.” Those tests are expected to lead to a certification of the F-35C for carrier flight trials, planned for October aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68).

Critics have repeatedly slammed the F-35C for its problems with the arresting hook. The program office has said for more than a year that they believed they had found a sound solution but the F-35 has developed a cadre of critics who, not unreasonably, refuse to believe anything is going well with the program until tests are finished and the plane can do what the program office says it should.

The initial design did not reliably engage the cable and wasn’t strong enough. “Improved damping and optimized hookpoint shape addressed part one,” DellaVedova said. And they basically redesigned the tail hook and made it, and where it connects with the airframe, much stronger.

 

[Grey Havoc]

http://www.inquisitr.com/1105133/f-35-program-compromised-by-discovery-of-iranian-spy/

 

[Triton]

"F-35 awaits capability boost from Block 4 software"
by Jon Hemmerdinger
18:10 23 Jan 2014

Source:
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-awaits-capability-boost-from-block-4-software-395125/

esting will soon begin on the next-generation Block 4 software expected to provide a significant capability boost to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

On 16 January, the US Navy announced – via a posting on the federal government's procurement website – that the F-35’s joint programme office intends to award multiple contracts to Lockheed Martin to develop Block 4 software, with the first contract expected to be awarded in October 2014.

The contracts will include “assessments and evaluations” to ensure Block 4-equipped aircraft meet “future operational requirements”, it says.

When completed, Block 4 software will provide the F-35 with improved radar and electronic warfare systems, and allow the aircraft to carry additional weapons used by both the US military and other F-35 customers.

A document posted on the website of the US Embassy in Norway – a customer for the conventional take-off and landing F-35A – provides more details, however.

This states that aircraft with the Block 4 software package will be able to carry joint stand-off cruise missiles – including Kongsberg's Joint Strike Missile – all variants of small-diameter bombs and Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II air-to-air missiles.

Additionally, the iterative development will add an automated ground collision avoidance system, better protection from hacking and improvements to power and thermal management, to avoid issues that have been raised over the JSF's integrated power package since at least 2007. These culminated in a grounding of the F-35 fleet in 2011.

Block 4 upgrades will also give F-35s the ability to carry speed-reducing drag chutes deployed at landing, which will allow the aircraft to land on icy runways – a critical capability for F-35 partners like Norway.

It will also have streaming video from its electro-optical targeting system and an improved ability to identify targets, the document states.

The contracts are likely to call for development of a prototype to test systems, upgrades to hardware, engineering and design work and for the acquisition of technical, administrative and financial data, the navy's notice says.

The F-35 programme office says Lockheed is likely to build prototypes of subsystems and components, but not a dedicated Block 4 test aircraft.

The Block 4 software has only received funding in the 2014 fiscal year. The US Department of Defense will spend $6 million on the project in this fiscal period, including $1.5 million from the USN, $3 million from the US Air Force and $1.5 million from the US Marine Corps, the programme office says.

 

[Triton]

"F-35 Test Pilots Will Begin Flying 'Gen' Helmet Display"
Singapore Air Show » 2014
by Bill Carey

Source:
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/singapore-air-show/2014-02-08/f-35-test-pilots-will-begin-flying-gen-helmet-display

F-35 test pilots will begin flying this year with a third-generation helmet-mounted display system (HMDS) that incorporates modifications to the earlier-generation display system, which pilots deemed insufficient for missions the Joint Strike Fighter will perform. Last October, after testing the fixes over the course of two years, the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) gained enough confidence in the new “Gen 3” system to stop the development of an alternate helmet-mounted display.

“I definitely have confidence that we are on the right track, that we have the right plan for these fixes in place and that it’s going to be a great system for the fleet,” said U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Kelly, government flight test director at the F-35 integrated training center at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

In 2011, the Department of Defense (DOD) identified the HMDS as one of several F-35 program risks. According to a “quick-look review” of the jet’s flight-test progress, test pilots found that the “Gen 2” helmet system being developed by the joint venture of Rockwell Collins (Stand Q79) and Elbit Systems (Stand N65) of America–then called Vision System International (VSI)–had inadequate night-vision acuity and experienced display jitter during aircraft buffeting. It was also not timely enough at importing imagery from the F-35’s Northrop Grumman AN/AAQ-37 distributed aperture system (DAS), a set of six infrared sensors, flush-mounted around the aircraft to provide the F-35 pilot with 360-degree, spherical coverage for situational awareness, missile warning and target detection functions.

Getting It Right

Getting the HMDS right is a serious issue because the F-35, the DOD’s costliest weapons program, was designed without a pilot’s heads-up display, a feature that is common to fourth-generation fighters. In September 2011, F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin (Stand CS02) awarded a contract to BAE Systems (Stand U67) to develop an alternate HMDS with detachable night-vision goggles (NVGs) as a fallback system in the event VSI failed to resolve issues with the chosen helmet-mounted display.

As recently as last September, Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the outspoken, reformist F-35 program executive officer, said the development of an alternate HMDS continued. However, in October, the JPO announced that it had stopped the development of the BAE Systems helmet in order to focus solely on bringing the Gen 2 HMDS to a “fully compliant” Gen 3 standard. “During the past two years, the JPO and Lockheed Martin used a disciplined systems engineering approach and conducted dedicated helmet flight tests to develop solutions to address the helmet’s technical challenges,” the program office said.

The Gen 3 HMDS “will include an improved night-vision camera, new liquid-crystal displays, automated alignment and software improvements,” according to the JPO. Further, a “cost guarantee” that Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins and Elbit Systems offered the government resulted in a 12-percent reduction from the previous cost of the HMDS–while the program will also recoup $45 million in funds it had originally allocated for the development of the BAE Systems alternatehelmet, the program office said.

The Test Regime

In a recent interview with AIN, Kelly, an F-35 test pilot, described some of the testing that took place during the intervening period between the start and termination of the alternate HMDS development. Flight tests in a surrogate aircraft using a Gen 2 “shell” helmet with a new night-vision camera, as well as tests involving prototype Gen 2 helmets with newly integrated inertial measurement units (IMUs) and software algorithms, gave test pilots enough knowledge to inform Bogdan’s decision to stop the alternate HMDS effort, he said.

The night-vision acuity of the Gen 2 HMDS, which contains an ISIE 10 sensor for low-light-level detection, was the system’s major deficiency, according to Kelly (ISIE stands for Intevac silicon imaging engine). An ISIE 11 sensor based on Intevac Photonics’ patented electron-bombarded activated pixel sensor (EBAPS) technology brings the system’s night-vision acuity closer to the 20/20 vision NVGs can provide. The alternate helmet with NVGs would not have been a perfect replacement, though. In order to switch between night vision and DAS displays, Kelly said, pilots had to remove the entire NVG assembly and then attach another visor, which was “very clumsy and not very pilot friendly,” he added.

Last summer, the F-35 program tested a production-representative night-vision camera with ISIE 11 sensor in a modified Gen 2 helmet, using a twin-engine King Air surrogate aircraft. Flying from St. Mary’s County Regional Airport in Maryland, close to NAS Patuxent River, pilots tested the system in high- and low-light conditions and compared it to using ANVIS 9 NVGs. Testers also used a ground-based laser designator to determine how far away pilots could spot a laser pointer.

“There were some limitations to the test,” Kelly acknowledged. “It wasn’t in an F-35, but it was close enough that we could make a confident decision about the usability and the effectiveness of the new ISIE 11 night-vision camera in the Gen 3 helmet. [We could say] we know enough now to make the decision to start saving money by not funding the alternate helmet. That fed [Bogdan’s] decision matrix in canceling the alternate helmet.”

Integrated Night Imagery

F-35s will have two night-vision cameras. A canopy bow in the jet obstructs the helmet camera, which is positioned above the pilot’s eye level on the HMDS. A second, dashboard-mounted camera is used in combination with the first; the imagery from both cameras is fused for display to the pilot.

In a separate interview with AIN, Intevac Photonics’ general manager Drew Brugal said, “the plan had always been” to eventually deliver the ISIE 11 sensor, which was not mature when the company was contracted to provide integrated night imagery for the F-35 HMDS. Last fall, Intevac started delivering ISIE 11 sensors to Elbit Systems of America, which builds the sensor into the night-vision camera. “The feedback we received was that [the night-vision camera] met the pilots’ expectations and they are comfortable going forward with the ISIE 11,” Brugal said.

The helmet system’s latency, or response time at importing DAS imagery–measured in milliseconds–was not the problem testers thought it would be, Kelly said. Pilots just hadn’t had the opportunity to use the DAS sensor array during flight testing. “Initially there was concern about the latency of the DAS and what that might look like,” he said. “But we were able to do some testing in the spring and summer of 2013 where we looked at a bunch of different tasks [and] some formation flying and, across-the-board, we found there was really no issue with the latency.”

Test pilots experienced helmet-mounted display jitter in areas of the F-35 flight envelope that haven’t been approved for training, Kelly said. The program addressed the problem by integrating micro IMUs and filtering algorithms in the HMDS to cancel out jitter effects. Pilots flew the fixes using a modified Gen 2 helmet. “It’s still not perfect, but it’s the 95-percent solution and the major issue there is resolved,” he said.

Asked if the jitter effect will be further improved, JPO spokesperson Kyra Hawn, answered: “In the bigger scope of the program, we have a lot of sophisticated technology. The constant challenge is, we’ve gotten to the 95-percent solution, which is viable and usable based on the mission requirements. What does it cost us to get the 5 [percent] in terms of investment and time, and what do we get as a result of getting that 100-percent solution? [What] do we derive from the additional investment and is it worthwhile given all other things?”

According to the JPO, the improved Gen 3 HMDS will be introduced to the F-35 fleet in low-rate initial production Lot 7 in 2016, and complete test and development the following year. The Marine Corps, which plans to declare initial operational capability (IOC) of its F-35Bs in July 2015, will start operations with Gen 2 helmet-mounted displays. “The Marine Corps understands that really for IOC we’re not counting on that [Gen 3] capability,” Kelly said.

 

[Arjen]

Thank you for digging up the news. All of it.

 

[Triton]

"UK says close to placing order for F-35 jets"
by Adrian Croft
MUNICH Sat Feb 1, 2014

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/01/us-britain-fighter-idUSBREA100HM20140201

(Reuters) - Britain is close to placing its first order for Lockheed Martin-built (LMT.N) F-35 super-stealth jets, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said on Saturday.

Reuters cited sources last week as saying that Britain was likely to announce an order soon for 14 of the advanced jets, marking Britain's first firm F-35 purchase since it committed to buying 48 planes in 2012.

"We are moving towards that point," Hammond said when asked if he could confirm the imminent order.

"We will have to place a firm order very soon in order to have the first squadron ready to start flying training off the 'Queen Elizabeth' in 2018, which is our current plan," he said in an interview with Reuters Television during the Munich Security Conference.

The Queen Elizabeth is one of two British aircraft carriers currently under construction.

He declined to confirm that the order would be for 14 planes "because we haven't completed the process, but we will be making an announcement in due course".

Britain is expected to order the F-35 B vertical take-off variant of the Joint Strike Fighter.

It has so far taken delivery of three training jets.

The F-35, considered to be the world's most expensive weapons programme at $396 billion so far, was designed to be the next-generation fighter jet for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines.

It is being built by the United States, Britain and seven other co-development partners - Italy, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

British companies such as BAE Systems (BAES.L) and Rolls Royce (RR.L) build 15 percent of each F-35 aircraft.

Hammond said he was not worried by reports of technical issues that could delay the F-35's entry into service.

A U.S. Defense Department report last week warned that software, maintenance and reliability problems with the stealth fighter could delay the U.S. Marine Corps' plans to start using its F-35 jets by mid-2015.

"This is a complex weapons procurement programme. There are always issues in the development of weapons like this, and this particular report comes in a long and well-established line of highly critical reports about weapons systems when they are at this stage of their development," Hammond said.

"The whole point of this internal appraisal is to highlight where the issues still are that need to be resolved in the programme. It is part of the process and it shouldn't be seen as a negative part of the process at all," he said.

Britain's Conservative-led government was embarrassed by its flip-flop two years ago on which variant of the radar-evading aircraft to buy, a decision which cost the British taxpayer at least 74 million pounds ($123 million)

 

[Triton]

"Italian Lawmakers Consider New Cuts to JSF Purchase"
Feb. 9, 2014 - 03:02PM |
By TOM KINGTON

Source:
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140209/DEFREG01/302090010/Italian-Lawmakers-Consider-New-Cuts-JSF-Purchase

ROME — Eight months after the Italian parliament suspended new orders of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), members of the country’s biggest political party may try to halve the total purchase.

A source within the center-left Democratic Party said the members were preparing a policy document for approval in parliament which could seek to cut Italy’s planned purchase of JSFs from 90 to around 45. The country has already reduced its total buy from the originally planned 131 aircraft.

But a second source said that debate inside the party is still continuing, and that the final document may merely threaten a cut if Italy does not obtain better conditions on the U.S.-led program.

Both sources said the document — which could be ready this month — would strive to make Italy invest in the multirole, ground attack version of the Eurofighter. Italy, a partner in the Lockheed Martin JSF program, has hitherto shown relatively little interest in the European plane.

“We are really looking to push for European defense integration,” said the second source.

The Democratic Party is currently a partner in a coalition government led by party member Enrico Letta. In December, the party elected a new secretary, Matteo Renzi, who has been tapped as a candidate to win elections and form a Democratic Party government next year.

Renzi, who has in the past talked about cutting JSF purchases, would need to approve the evolving party policy document on defense before it is turned into a resolution for voting on in parliament, where the Democratic Party already has a majority in the lower house.

The first source said that 75 percent of Democratic Party members of parliament want to scrap the JSF program altogether as Italy struggles through an economic crisis. Recent criticism by the Pentagon’s top testing office has also spurred opposition to the program, he said.

The final report, he said, could call for a “drastic cut” in F-35 orders, potentially as much as half.

But the second source suggested the move to cut — or not cut — could hinge on whether Italy can wring better work share, better technology transfer and lower prices from the program. The source also suggested that savings could be found on other programs as an alternative to JSF cuts, such as the army digitalization program. An early draft of the report complains that the program costs too much and lacks interoperability with NATO standards.

The report follows a series of hearings in parliament’s two defense commissions about Italian military spending, held in the wake of the June vote by parliament to suspend further JSF orders.

Called to speak in September, Finmeccanica CEO Alessandro Pansa appeared underwhelmed by the firm’s work on the JSF program. “Finmeccanica will not build its future as an operator of avant-garde technology by supplying parts of large aircraft,” he said.

Assembly work on Italy’s JSFs at the country’s Final Assembly and Check Out line at Cameri airbase in northern Italy has meanwhile proceeded according to schedule since kicking off last July, said Debra Palmer, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager for the FACO.

An Italian defense source said Italian officials are proceeding with the procurement of 14 aircraft which were covered by full or initial industrial agreements signed before the vote last June. Three of the aircraft come from Low Rate Initial Production batch 6, three from LRIP 7, four for LRIP 8 and four from LRIP 9, including one F-35B jump-jet variant. The defense source said that even if just long-lead items had been ordered for aircraft before the vote, the ministry felt justified in pushing ahead with their full procurement.

Palmer said that Lockheed Martin now had work “locked in” from Italy to deliver three LRIP 6 jets to Italy as well as three LRIP 7 jets and two from LRIP 8, all of the F-35A conventional take off and landing model.

The components of the first aircraft, known as AL-1, are now emerging from the Electronic Mate and Alignment system, one of four at the base, which is run jointly by Alenia and Lockheed Martin and bankrolled by the Italian government.

Engine and electronics testing, including checks on the aircraft’s low observation signature, will begin shortly, with first flights and delivery in 2015, said Palmer.

Work on the second aircraft to be assembled started in November, with the third to start in March and the fourth in July. “All major components have arrived for AL-3 and some for AL-4 are arriving now,” said Palmer.

Alenia Aermacchi is meanwhile stepping up its work on JSF wings at Cameri, with the first two full wing sets destined for US F-35s now in production.

With Italy dropping from 131 aircraft to 90, and The Netherlands— which has agreed to assemble its jets at Cameri — ordering 37 jets instead of the planned 85, Palmer said Cameri “will not have the rate of production originally planned,” but suggested the Dutch order could yet rise. “When they ordered F-16s, they did it in tranches, and we think they could do that again.”

She said other European countries could yet be drawn to Cameri due to the savings from not having to fly new operational aircraft across the Atlantic flanked by tankers and support aircraft.

“The purchase price of the aircraft from Lockheed Martin will be the same regardless of the assembly location,” she said.

 

[donnage99]

Can anyone confirm if this is legit news - the navy wants to have a 3 years break from buying the f-35, revealed in the 2015 budget preview?
http://www.politico.com/morningdefense/0214/morningdefense12888.html

OSD TOLD THE NAVY: YOU CAN’T TAKE A ‘BREAK’ FROM THE F-35C: [/size]According to a congressional source, in its 2015 budget proposal, the Navy asked to take a three-year “break” from its production of the F-35C, its variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. Concerned this was a first step toward walking away from the program permanently, OSD told the Navy: no way.[/size]It’s an open secret that the Navy would prefer to invest more in its F-18 fighters rather than buy the F-35C. But if the Navy pulled out of the program, the unit cost — already under scrutiny — would go up for the Air Force and the Marine Corps.

 

[Triton]

"F-35 Already Packs Regional Punch"
by Angus Batey
February 08, 2014

Source:
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_02_08_2014_p0-662005.xml

The largest defense equipment program in history was always going to have a significant global impact, so it is little surprise that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is of pivotal importance to the defense communities of East Asia – and to the Singapore Air Show.

“Singapore operates a lot of Lockheed Martin products, and is a long-term partner,” Lockheed Martin’s F-35 business development director, Steve O’Bryan, tells ShowNews. “But we’re not at the Singapore Air Show only to support Singapore. The U.S. government will be there as well, and we will be supporting them in any meetings and discussions on the F-35 program with any of the other regional partners.”

Those partners are Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Japan, and it is the latter where much of the regional focus on the F-35 program will fall in 2014. Japan’s first four F-35As – part of low rate initial production tranche 8 (LRIP 8), due for delivery in 2016 – will enter the production line at Lockheed’s F-35 plant in Fort Worth, Texas, early this year, with all subsequent Japanese aircraft built at a new Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facility in Nagoya.

The Nagoya site, run by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, will avoid new construction wherever possible. “We’re going to maximize existing facilities as best we can, and so is MHI, to try to keep prices as low as possible,” O’Bryan says. No date for opening has been confirmed, but the first aircraft scheduled to be assembled at Nagoya are part of LRIP 9, and are due to be delivered in 2017.

The South Korean picture is less certain. The nation is running a competition to meet its F-X Phase III requirement, which was revised last November; the program will mean the purchase of 40 aircraft between 2018 and 2021, with a possible further order of an additional 20. News reports suggest these will be F-35As, but O’Bryan remains cautious.

“The updated requirement stated that they need an aircraft with ‘the most advanced stealth capabilities possible.’” he says. “We understand they’ll do a feasibility study before source selection through their acquisition board. What we would say is that the F-35 is available to meet the Republic of Korea’s 2018 delivery requirements, and it will be in the Block 3F [software] configuration.”

While Japan and South Korea are export customers for F-35, Singapore is a Security Co-operative Participant nation. Nevertheless, the country has yet to finalize an order, with the defense minister, Ng Eng Hen, saying during a November visit to the U.S. that the nation was in no rush to acquire the JSF.

“Singapore has been [involved] since 2004, so they have insight into the program,” O’Bryan explains. “They’ve been evaluating the aircraft, and I know they’re considering a procurement timeline. It’s our job to help and support them with that.

 

[Arjen]

Bloomberg:

Pentagon Said to Seek 34 of Lockheed’s F-35 Jets Instead of 42
By Tony Capaccio February 15, 2014

The U.S. Defense Department will request 34 Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT:US) F-35 jets in its budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, eight fewer than previously planned, according to officials.

The fiscal 2015 request, to be released on March 4, will include funds to buy 26 of the Air Force’s model, six of the Marine Corps’ short-takeoff and vertical-landing jets and two of the Navy’s version for aircraft carriers, according to the officials familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified because the budget hasn’t been made public.

Even with the decrease from past plans, the defense budget reflects pledges by officials to do all they could to insulate the costliest U.S. weapons program from federal budget cuts. Marillyn Hewson, chairman and chief executive officer of Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, predicted in a Feb. 10 interview that its F-35 program is “going to continue to grow and become a larger part of our portfolio.”
[]

While the budget request will be down from the 42 fighters the Pentagon had projected it would buy next year, it’s an increase from the 29 the Defense Department requested and Congress approved for the current fiscal year.

“It would be inappropriate to comment or speculate prior to the formal budget release,” Lockheed spokeswoman Laura Siebert said in an e-mail when asked about the F-35 plans.

The projected price tag of $391.2 billion for an eventual fleet of 2,443 F-35s is a 68 percent increase from the estimate in 2001, measured in current dollars. The number of aircraft is 409 fewer than called for in the original program. The Pentagon’s chief tester has repeatedly questioned the plane’s progress, finding last month that the fighter wasn’t sufficiently reliable in training flights last year.
[]
Future Years

The five-year defense budget plan through 2019 also calls for 55 F-35s for the U.S. military in fiscal 2016, seven fewer than planned, and adds a projection for 96 of the jets in 2019. The figures don’t include purchases by other nations that are partners for the F-35. Among them are the U.K., Norway, Australia, Italy and Canada.

Subcontractors on the F-35 include Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC:US), BAE Systems Plc (BA/) and United Technologies Corp. (UTX:US)’s Pratt & Whitney military engine unit.

Under last year’s bipartisan budget accord, the Pentagon must reduce its total budget request by about $43 billion to stay within a cap of about $498 billion for fiscal 2015.
[]

The spending request, not including spending on war operations, will be about $496 billion, with plans for it to increase to about $535 billion in fiscal 2016, officials said.

“Will there be cuts across the board?” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said this month in outlining the general approach he’s taking to hitting the budget cap. “Of course there will. You can’t do it any other way. Are there going to be adjustments across the board? Of course.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

 

[donnage99]

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/f-35-fighter-plane-costs-103579.html

 

[seruriermarshal]

;D

F-35B Aircraft Fly In Formation In Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing Mode

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., Feb. 19, 2014 – Two F-35B aircraft fly in close formation while in short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) mode for the first time last week. Pilots Peter Wilson and Dan Levin flew the test jets in STOVL mode, also known as Mode 4, with the F-35B LiftFan engaged and engine rotated downward. The mission measured the effects the aircraft had on each other while in Mode 4 to ensure they can operate in formation safely in an operational environment. The U.S. Marine Corps plans to declare Initial Operating Capability with the F-35B next year.

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. Three distinct variants of the F-35 will replace the A-10 and F-16 for the U.S. Air Force, the F/A-18 for the U.S. Navy, the F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier for the U.S. Marine Corps, and a variety of fighters for at least 10 other countries.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 115,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s net sales for 2013 were $45.4 billion.

 

[seruriermarshal]

wow

 

[seruriermarshal]

More Formation in STOVL

;D

 

[seruriermarshal]

Lt. Col. Brent Reinhardt completes a 360-degree roll in F-35A AF-1 with a full weapon load during a test flight from Edwards AFB, California, on 10 January 2014. The photo is a composite of seventeen images taken during the 360-degree roll.

 

[Triton]

"F-35 rivals anxious for verdict on stealth fighter program
Comments from Boeing come as minister unveils next stage in overhaul of procurement process"

The Canadian Press Posted: Feb 19, 2014 2:21 PM ET

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/f-35-rivals-anxious-for-verdict-on-stealth-fighter-program-1.2543681

One of the would-be bidders to replace Canada's aging CF-18 jet fighter fleet says it's anxious to see whether the Harper government will hold a full-blown competition — or stick with the oft-maligned F-35.

The comments from Boeing Co. came Wednesday as Public Works Minister Diane Finley announced the next stage in the overhaul of the military procurement process: a new analytics institute to help inform future decisions.

The arm's-length institute will provide much needed research on defence industries and capabilities, Finley said.
More than a year since process reboot

It's been more than a year since the Conservatives rebooted the controversial fighter program, launching a market analysis to explore the possibility of alternatives to the F-35 stealth fighter, which has been fraught with delays and cost overruns.

Boeing is one of several aircraft manufacturers asked to brief a panel of experts that has spent months examining the capabilities, limitations and cost of the various competitors.
Boeing 'very anxious'

Brian Beyrouty, the defence giant's senior manager of international partnerships, said his company answered the questions put to it last summer by the Public Works secretariat overseeing the program.

Boeing is interested in selling the Super Hornet, an updated, more robust version of the CF-18s, which Canada has flown since the 1980s.

Beyrouty said a few follow-up details were provided later in the fall, but since then the company has been waiting for the government's decision, which could come in the spring.

"We're very anxious to see how the process is going to deliver as they go through that options analysis," Beyrouty said Wednesday in an interview.

"I think we've provided the information that would provide a compelling story to get to a competition."
Pause sparked by scathing AG report

The Harper government paused the planned F-35 purchase following a scathing report by the auditor general which accused National Defence and Public Works of low-balling the stealth fighter's enormous cost.

A subsequent independent analysis estimated that the radar-evading plane could end up costing taxpayers nearly $44 billion over four decades.

The ensuing damage to the meticulously cultivated Conservative image as careful guardians of the public purse led many in the defence industry to predict a decision on replacement aircraft would be delayed until after the 2015 election. In the interim, to get a handle on military procurement, the government has moved big-ticket items to the Public Works secretariat, which will — among other things — seek to wed programs with Canadian defence contractors.
Economic benefits still an issue

Beyrouty said Boeing is keen to see how the secretariat approaches its commitment to leverage defence purchases to the benefit of Canadian industry — specifically, whether it will require firm investment commitments in specific sectors and companies. Indeed, Boeing has already placed a portion of its worldwide Super Hornet program with Canadian aerospace firms.

It remains an open question whether that would count in Boeing's favour should there be a open competition.

Defence experts have suggested that transitioning between the CF-18 and the Super Hornet would be easier in terms of training, logistics and infrastructure than with any of the other competitors.

 

[Triton]

"Lockheed F-35 for Marines Delayed as Test Exposes Cracks"
by Tony Capaccio Feb 20, 2014 9:00 PM PT

Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-21/lockheed-f-35-for-marines-delayed-as-test-exposes-cracks.html

On-the-ground stress testing for the U.S. Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet may be halted for as long as a year after cracks were found in the aircraft’s bulkheads, Pentagon officials said.

Testing of the fighter’s durability was stopped in late September after inspections turned up cracks in three of six bulkheads on a plane used for ground testing, said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 program office.

The previously undisclosed suspension of the stress testing may increase scrutiny of the Marine Corps’ F-35B, the most complex of the three versions of the plane, during congressional hearings on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2015 budget. The department plans to request funds for 34 F-35s, eight fewer than the 42 originally planned, according to officials. Six of those planes would be for the Marines.

“We consider this significant but by no means catastrophic,” Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition, said in an e-mailed statement. While the program office is still performing an assessment, “based on preliminary analysis, a redesign” of some F-35B structures will be required, said Kendall, who has a master’s degree in aerospace engineering.

Michael Gilmore, chief of the Defense Department’s weapons testing office, said in his annual report last month that during ground testing in late September “the cracks continued to grow” until a “bulkhead severed and transferred loads, which caused cracking in the adjacent” bulkhead.

Weight Gain

Redesigning the bulkheads could cause the Marines’ F-35 to regain some of the weight saved by using aluminum bulkheads instead of the titanium ones in the Air Force and Navy models. That move was part of an effort in 2004 and 2005 to lighten the increasingly heavy Marine Corps version.

The test office said in its annual report that the Marine Corps model gained 37 pounds (17 kilograms) last year. Changes to the bulkhead risk adding more weight to a plane that’s now within 202 pounds of the 32,577-pound maximum specified in the contract for it.

“Managing weight growth with such small margins will continue to be a significant program challenge,” Gilmore wrote in his report.

The cracking “is significant enough to warrant changes to the design” of the bulkhead, Jennifer Elzea, spokeswoman for the Pentagon test office, said in an e-mail. “This is a new defect that must now be addressed through a production change and a retrofit plan.”
‘Not Surprising’

“The crack was not predicted to occur by prior analyses or modeling,” she said. “We can’t know all the changes that must be made to the structures until the testing is complete, and it is not surprising when discoveries like this occur.”

The purpose of “durability testing is to intentionally stress the aircraft to its structural limits so we can identify any issues and corrective actions needed to fix them,” the Pentagon’s DellaVedova said in an e-mailed statement. “These discoveries are expected and planned for in a developmental program.”

The F-35 program office and Lockheed are making repairs with a goal of restarting testing by Sept. 30, DellaVedova said. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company concurs with his statement, spokeswoman Laura Siebert said.

Redesigning the bulkhead to make it more durable “would take some time,” George A. Lesieutre, a professor of aerospace engineering at Pennsylvania State University, said in an e-mailed statement.
Extra Margin

Ground testing stresses an airframe to simulate flight conditions and determine whether a plane can reach its projected lifetime, which in the case of the Marines’ F-35B is 8,000 flying hours.

To provide an extra margin of assurance, the Marine, Air Force and Navy versions of the F-35 are all required to undergo tests for the equivalent of 16,000 flight hours. The Marine version was supposed to complete its second 8,000 hours of testing by the end of this year.

The ground testing aircraft had accumulated 9,480 hours “when testing was stopped to conduct root-cause analysis on discovered bulkhead cracks,” DellaVedova said.

“Because of the high hours accumulated,” this “discovery does not affect current F-35B flying operations,” he said, adding that the suspension of ground testing won’t affect the Marine Corps’ goal of declaring its first squadron operational no later than December 2015.

Richard Aboulafia, a defense aerospace analyst with the Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal Group, said the testing halt is a “setback for the program, but this is the Marines’ version, and they have absolutely nowhere else to go” because they need the aircraft in order to operate from amphibious vessels.
Rising Cost

The Pentagon projects that an eventual fleet of 2,443 F-35s will cost $391.2 billion, a 68 percent increase from a 2001 estimate for 409 more planes, measured in constant dollars. The testing office has repeatedly questioned the plane’s progress, finding last month that it wasn’t sufficiently reliable in training flights last year.

The Marine Corps plans to buy 340 of the F-35B, which can take off like a conventional fighter and land like a helicopter. While the ground testing is suspended, pilots can continue development and training flights on the 38 fighters already delivered, according to DellaVedova.

The Defense Department plans to request funds for nine Marine Corps planes in fiscal 2016 and 20 in 2019, according to internal budget figures. The short takeoff and vertical landing model is also being bought by the U.K. and Italian militaries.

 

[BioLuminescentLamprey]

Looks like a whole lot of nope on that (as expected):

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/bulkhead-cracks-in-f-35b-wont-slow-fielding-marines-say/

The Marines say any correction will be made later to their aircraft and will not slow initial fielding of the most complex version of the Joint Strike Fighter.

“The bulkhead crack was found in the ground test vehicle during durability testing after more than 9,400 hours,” Capt. Richard Ulsh, aviation spokesman for the Marines, said in an email. “This event does not impact the IOC date of the F-35B, which the Marine Corps still plans to achieve in July 2015. This finding only affects the future modification schedules to our aircraft so they can achieve the intended service life of the aircraft, which is 8,000 hours.”

Ulsh noted that the goal of durability testing is to stress ”the aircraft to its structural limits so that issues and corrective actions can be identified. These discoveries are expected and planned for in a developmental program.”

Ground testing was halted after the extent of the cracks became clear because the test had accomplished its goal of finding out what happens to the aircraft when stressed beyond its expected lifetime, a program source said.

 

[Arjen]

Breaking Defense:

F-35′s ALIS ‘Way Behind,’ Bogdan Says; One Step Forward Last Week
By Colin Clark on February 25, 2014 at 3:32 PM

NEWSEUM: The key maintenance software program for the F-35, called ALIS, is “way behind,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, head of the program, said today. How far behind? “We are way behind. We are way behind.”

Bogdan told a conference hosted by Credit Suisse and organized by Jim McAleese here that he “could spend hours talking about what’s right and what’s wrong with ALIS,” the Autonomic Logistics Information System. But he kept it pretty short. Program leaders realized the system, designed to monitor the aircraft’s systems and maintenance needs, was a hell of a lot more important and complex than they had originally foreseen. ”It is way more important and way more complicated than that,” Bogdan said, adding that it needs to be treated “like its own weapon system.”

While the program is ”in catch-up mode with ALIS,” Bogdan said they were beginning to see improvements in the system. The latest software update was done at Eglin Air Force Base this weekend. “Normally with ALIS we would take one step forward and two steps back. This time we actually took a step forward and didn’t take a step back. That is encouraging, that because of the way we are changing the development of ALIS we starting to see results. But we are way behind. We are way behind.”

Lockheed Martin defended the program, while acknowledging the problems. “We recognize ALIS has had challenges and we are working with our Joint Program Office and field users to address them,” spokesman Mike Rein said in an email. “An ALIS software update is currently undergoing installation across F-35 bases for increased processing speed. We are incorporating user feedback to further advance the system and intend to field the next major release of ALIS in first quarter of 2015 to provide additional capability. ALIS is maturing in parallel with the aircraft and our team is committed to delivering the most advanced and capable fleet management system with ALIS.”

On the cracked bulkheads found during ground lifecycle testing of the F-35Bs — the Marine aircraft –Bogdan said “his biggest worry” about them is that there are planes on the production line due to receive the bulkhead models that cracked. He said he has “challenged Lockheed to figure out a way to get that fix done as quickly as possible” so he doesn’t have to buy jets and fix them later on.

The other area — related to ALIS — is that the F-35s produced so far are not meeting readiness standards. “Parts are failing more often then we expected and when they fail they take longer to repair and maintainability on the airplane is just taking too long to repair,” Bogdan said. “The good news is we have the wherewithal and the capability to conquer all those problems with the money we have been given.”

All this doubtless has given rise to many acquisition lessons learned. Bogdan, former program manager of the KC-X airborne tanker program, noted he had compiled a pamphlet about the lessons he learned there. “We are probably going to end up doing the same for F-35,” he said. “Instead of a pamphlet we may need an encylopedia because of all the things we didn’t get right.”

Some more hopeful news for Lockheed and the program: Bogdan said he was pretty sure South Korea would buy F-35s. He was less categoric about Singapore, but he clearly thinks it’s likely the city-state will buy the aircraft. Breaking Defense readers already knew that, of course.

 

[seruriermarshal]

;D

Lockheed Secretly Demonstrates New Stealthy Fighter Comms

February 25, 2014
Credit: USAF

Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a secretly developed capability to fix one of the shortfalls of its stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters: their inability to link to one another, or to legacy fighters, for air campaigns.

The company recently showcased a new datalink capability for the fighters through Project Missouri, a proprietary program. During the demonstration, Lockheed validated the use of a Link 16 transmit capability from the twin-engine F-22 Raptor as well as showcased a waveform developed by L-3 Communications and optimized for low-probability-of-intercept/low-probability-of-detection transmissions (LPI/LPD), says Ron Bessire, vice president of technology and innovation at the company’s Skunk Works.

The demonstration required 8 hr. of flight time and took place Dec. 17 and 19, Bessire tells Aviation Week. The trials required the use of an Air Force Raptor as well as the F-35 Cooperative Avionics Testbed (CATbird), a 737-based flying laboratory that is used to test F-35 software standing in as a Joint Strike Fighter surrogate. The F-22 was able to transmit to a Link 16 terminal on the ground.

The F-22 was designed to communicate only with other Raptors in an effort to reduce emissions from the aircraft to maintain signal stealth in the event of a peer-to-peer engagement. However, because of a dramatic cutback in the number of Raptors purchased — 187 operational — the aircraft must now communicate with F-35s expected to enter service next year as well as legacy “fourth-generation” fighters such as the F-15, F-16 and F-18 families.

This so-called fourth-to-fifth capability was highlighted as a need last week by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh at the annual Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., but a firm requirement and funding are lacking. Describing the technology as “nothing cosmic,” Welsh said such a link would extend the range and improve the effectiveness of each platform; ultimately what is needed is handoff of weapons-quality data, meaning data from one aircraft can be used by another to accurately fire a weapon.

“We demonstrated the data was being transmitted at a high rate, [enough] to support rapid update of the air tracks to whomever was on Link 16,” Bessire says.

Should such a capability be fielded, the F-22 could be used to enhance the effectiveness of F-15s and F-16s in an air battle though most of the older fighters lack the use of an active, electronically scanned array radar. The F-22’s Northrop Grumman radar is able to detect airborne threats at ranges far exceeding those of radars on the older fighters.

Bessire said the “LPI/LPD waveform still needs some additional maturation,” but he declined to discuss whether it is in use in another platform. Such a waveform would be useful for the B-2, new unmanned aircraft such as the Northrop Grumman RQ-180 and any system hoping to reduce radio frequency emissions to conduct stealthy operations. Equipment and the optics for the waveform are at a technology readiness level of 9, he said, indicating more work needs to be done before it can be proven in a relevant environment and garner full programmatic status at the Pentagon. The F-22 is, however, able to use its existing apertures to operate the waveform, he said.

Installation of a so-called “open system architecture” (OSA) rack and the radio took place within a year of starting the effort to add Link 16 to the Raptor, Bessire said. The OSA racks can also can enable other operations, such as distributed electronic attack, though this was not demonstrated. “What we learned out of this demonstration is that there is tremendous power in the Air Force open mission architecture standard,” Bessire says. The equipment was installed in the F-22’s avionics bay.

Through Project Missouri, Lockheed is trying to package a capability similar to that offered by the Northrop Grumman Joint Strike Fighter Enterprise Terminal (JETpack) Joint Capability Technology Demonstration within a stealthy aircraft. JETpack was a podded solution; incorporating it on the stealthy F-22 and F-35 would compromise their low radar cross section.

Lockheed is briefing the results of the demonstration to Air Force leadership and is hoping to see an official requirement for such a capability. Suppliers, such as L-3, shared in the cost of the demonstration. But the team is hoping for a sign from the Air Force to continue work. If funding weren’t an issue, the Link 16 system could be fielded by the end of this year, Bessire says. “One of the goals of the demonstration was to create a reusable design whether that was software or hardware,” he says.

Company officials are eager to get Air Force reaction. The program was dubbed “Project Missouri” as a response to a demand from Air Combat Command chief Gen. Michael Hostage. He told the company to “show me” it was possible when Lockheed briefed plans for the demonstration to him before it took place. This, Bessire notes, is the motto of Missouri, the “show-me” state.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_02_25_2014_p0-666721.xml

 

[SpudmanWP]

JETpack turns a F-15C and presumably other assets into min-BACN aircraft via a pod.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post:4ac8bd74-d81d-49c6-8c8d-ad28e0b566ae

btw, The article above titled "Lockheed Secretly Demonstrates New Stealthy Fighter Comms" makes the mistake of stating that JETpack goes on the F-22/35. It does not as it is intended to be mounted on a 4th gen platform to function as a Gateway between the F-22/35 and the rest of the network.

 

[Triton]

"Turkey likely to order Lockheed F-35 fighters in 2015"
by Tulay Karadeniz

ANKARA Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:16am ES

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-turkey-defence-fighterjets-idUSBREA1Q1ES20140227

(Reuters) - Turkey is likely to start ordering F-35 fighter jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) from 2015 onwards and it will start with two orders initially, Turkey's undersecretary for state-run defense industries Murad Bayar said on Thursday.

"We will start F-35 orders either this year or the next. Right now, it is likely to be next year," Bayar told reporters. "We will initially order two. The delivery time will be, depending on the orders, probably in 2017-2018."

Turkey had already announced it plans to buy 100 F-35 jets for $16 billion. Bayar said he expected the deliveries of 100 aircraft to be completed within 10 years.

The F-35, considered to be the world's most expensive weapons program at $396 billion so far, was designed to be the next-generation fighter jet for the U.S. forces.

It is being built by the United States, Britain and seven other co-development partners - Italy, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

Separately, Bayar said Turkey was aiming to achieve results in April on its talks with China over the purchase of long-range missile defense systems, a move highly criticized by Turkey's NATO allies.

In September Turkey chose China's FD-2000 missile-defense system over rival offers from Franco-Italian Eurosam SAMP/T and U.S.-listed Raytheon Co (RTN.N). It said China offered the most competitive terms and would allow co-production in Turkey.

U.S. and NATO officials have raised concerns with Turkish officials about the decision to buy the system from CPMIEC, a company hit by U.S. sanctions for sales of items to either Iran, Syria or North Korea that are banned under U.S. laws to curb the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"Our talks with China are ongoing. We have extended the bidding until the end of April. We are aiming to get results in early April on this," Bayar said.

AIRBUS DELIVERIES

Bayar also said Turkey will seek compensation over the late delivery of the A400 military transport plane after Airbus (AIR.PA) failed to meet some of its contractual obligations.

"My message to Airbus is that it should first focus on fulfilling the terms of the contract. There is no additional bargaining here. The contract, even with the amended version, requires the fulfillment of certain technical qualities and we have had to hold these talks because these requirements were not completely fulfilled," Bayar said.

On Wednesday, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said bargaining was behind the delay and that it was 'unbearable' that the company was still negotiating with Turkey over the plane.

"The aircraft is ready to go. It is instantly, operationally fit for flight. I find the situation increasingly unacceptable," Enders told reporters.

Bayar said he still expected the aircraft, which was supposed to have been delivered to Turkey at the end of last year, to arrive in March but Turkey was going to ask for compensation.

"Of course there has been a delay in the delivery schedule and there will be compensation because of this. This will be the financial dimension," Bayar said.

Meanwhile, Bayar said Japan had told Turkey that it will not allow the export of a Japanese tank engine to third parties without its permission.

His comments came after Japanese media reported that a deal between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe was struck in May, during Abe's visit to Turkey, on the supply of engines, but that Turkey's desire to export to third parties was likely to block the deal.

Bayar said that the potential purchase of the engine for Turkey's Altay tank was dropped for now.

"We have agreed with Japanese authorities to leave this topic off the agenda and focus on other areas of cooperation."

His comments appeared to close the door on a potential deal for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) to supply engines for the Altay tank being developed by Turkey's Otokar (OTKAR.IS).

(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler; Editing by Stephen Powell)

 

[seruriermarshal]

;D

 

[seruriermarshal]

F-35 makes first flight sporting Canadian-made tail wing assembly

TORONTO, March 3, 2014 /CNW/ - Magellan Aerospace Corporation ("Magellan" or the "Corporation") announced today that the first Magellan-manufactured horizontal tail assembly installed on an F-35A Lightning II aircraft was successfully flown for the first time on Wednesday, 26 February 2014. The Magellan tail assembly flew on aircraft AF-46, an F-35A Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) variant, from Lockheed Martin's final assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas. The first flight of this Canadian-manufactured tail assembly marks an important milestone for Magellan as a major Canadian supplier to the international F-35 program.

Magellan is under contract with BAE Systems to produce horizontal tail assemblies for the CTOL variant of the F-35 and is expected to produce more than 1,000 sets of these components for the program over a 20-year period. "This is a very exciting time for everyone who has been involved on the program over the past ten years," said Mr. James Butyniec, President and Chief Executive Officer of Magellan. "While Magellan has been producing a number of F-35 assemblies for the program for a number of years, this first flight of our horizontal tail is a significant event and Magellan is proud of this achievement."

"Magellan delivered the horizontal tail for the aircraft that flew today in December 2012," said Mr. Scott McCrady, Magellan's Corporate Program Director, F-35. "Since then our annual production rates have been steadily increasing and are expected to continually increase over the next several years as the F-35 program matures." Canadian companies like Magellan have had unprecedented competitive opportunities to support this international program since the inception of Canada's participation in the Joint Strike Fighter program in 1997.

Magellan's aggressive investment in facilities, equipment, and processes leading up to this event, has positioned Magellan to potentially achieve sales approaching $2.0B CDN on the F-35 program. To date, Magellan has surpassed $120M CDN in revenues on the program.

Magellan, under contract with Rolls-Royce, has also been producing the vane box assembly and transition duct for all of the F-35B Short Take Off and Landing (STOVL) variants flying today. In addition, Magellan has been producing a number of composite assemblies and machined details to Lockheed Martin directly. This milestone in the Corporation's horizontal tail program demonstrates that companies such as Magellan can be successful and competitive in today's globalized aerospace supply chain.

About Magellan Aerospace

Magellan is a global, integrated aerospace company that provides complex assemblies and systems solutions to aircraft and engine manufacturers, and defence and space agencies worldwide. Magellan designs, engineers, and manufactures aeroengine and aerostructure assemblies and components for aerospace markets, advanced products for military and space markets, industrial power generation, and specialty products. Magellan is a public company whose shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: MAL), with operating units throughout Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Poland.

Forward Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release may be forward-looking statements or statements of future expectations based on currently available information. When used herein, words such as "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "believe", and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the Corporation in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Corporation believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause the Corporation's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Corporation's Annual Information Form (copies of which filings may be obtained at www.sedar.com). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on the Corporation's forward-looking statements. The Corporation has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Magellan Aerospace Corporation

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1767999

 

[Arjen]

Reuters:

US Navy to order 33 fewer F-35s than planned in next 5 yrs
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, March 3 Mon Mar 3, 2014 9:27pm EST

(Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is set to order 33 fewer Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets than originally planned over the five years starting in fiscal 2015 due to budgetary pressures, a defense official said Monday.

In a move that will sharply slow work on the F-35 model built to land on aircraft carriers, the Navy will ask Congress to fund 36 F-35Cs instead of 69, said the official, who could not speak publicly ahead of Tuesday's release of the 2015 budget request.

The Air Force is also deferring orders for four conventional landing F-35 A-models in fiscal 2015, but is expected to resume its planned orders for the jet in 2016 and beyond, said a second source familiar with the plans. It plans to order 238 in total.

The Marine Corps, which expects to start using its F-35 B-model jets in combat from mid-2015, is sticking to its projected orders of 69 jets for the period, the sources said.

That adds up to 343 F-35s to be funded by the U.S. military through fiscal 2019, excluding three Marine Corps jets that could be added to the Pentagon's war funding request, which will be submitted in April or May.

Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told a conference last week that the department's decision to buy eight fewer F-35s in fiscal 2015 was based on affordability, not the aircraft's performance. Defense officials say they remain committed to the program, and still plan to buy a total of 2,443 F-35s over the coming years for all three military services.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week said the total number to be funded over the next five years could be scaled back further unless Congress revokes automatic budget cuts that are due to resume in fiscal 2016 and beyond.

Lockheed is building three models of the aircraft for the U.S. military and eight international partners that helped fund its development: Britain, Canada, Norway, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.

Israel and Japan have also ordered F-35 jets, and South Korea is expected to announce orders for 40 F-35s on March 12.

Lockheed and the Pentagon's F-35 program office had hoped that foreign orders would comprise half or more of the total number of F-35s in a ninth batch of jets, which are funded in fiscal 2015.

However some foreign orders have now been delayed as well and the combined number is expected to be around 57, far short of 73 jets that had been seen as possible at one time, said a third source familiar with the program. The total number will be finalized in the coming months.

 

[donnage99]

http://www.theprovince.com/technology/irrelevant+without+accompanying+stealth+says+general/9587730/story.html

F-35 ‘irrelevant’ without accompanying stealth jet, says U.S. general


New questions are being raised about whether the F-35 stealth fighter is the right aircraft for Canada after a U.S. general acknowledged the jet is limited in what it can do and needs to be accompanied on its missions by another multi-million-dollar aircraft.[/size]The issue for Canada and other potential F-35 buyers is that the other aircraft referred to by the general – the F-22 – isn’t available for foreign sales because of its sophisticated technology.
Gen. Michael Hostage, head of air combat command in the U.S., said the F-35 is critical for the future of that country’s air force. But in an interview with the Air Force Times, published in February, Hostage pointed out the F-35 needs to work hand-in-hand with the F-22.“The F-35 is not built as an air superiority platform,” Hostage said. “It needs the F-22.”The U.S. Air Force is upgrading the F-22, which officers see as essential. Without the upgraded F-22s, “the F-35 fleet frankly will be irrelevant,” Hostage said.The comments have sparked heated debate in aerospace and defence circles, and analyst Martin Shadwick says Hostage’s statements are bound to raise eyebrows in Canada. “I’m sure you won’t see the general’s comments in any F-35 marketing literature,” said Shadwick, a York University professor. “Canada needs a multi-role fighter and even if the F-22 were available we couldn’t afford another aircraft to fly top cover for the F-35s.”Senior Royal Canadian Air Force officers have acknowledged they are keen to see the F-35 in Canada.But in 2012, the Conservative government put a temporary halt to its purchase of the F-35 and appointed a group of senior officials to examine options for the replacement of the country’s CF-18 fighter jets.That process is still under way. Public Works and Government Services can’t say when it will be completed.Hostage’s comments echo earlier concerns by critics that the F-35 is mainly designed to strike at ground targets and is not well suited for aerial combat and interceptions.But Mike Barton, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Canada, said the F-35 meets all Canada’s needs. The general’s comments are a reflection of how the U.S. Air Force operates and are not relevant to Canada, he added.Barton said Lockheed Martin has not seen any adverse reaction to Hostage’s comments from the Canadian government or any other nation interested in purchasing the F-35. “We’ve heard nothing about it impacting foreign interest,” Barton said.The F-35 stealth fighter had become a major political headache for the Conservative government, which made it a lynchpin of their defence policy.The controversy surrounding the F-35 purchase has centred on technical and cost issues, as well as the acquisition process. The Department of National Defence originally claimed the project would cost around $14.7 billion but then-Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page put that price tag at around $29 billion.Auditor General Michael Ferguson also issued a report concluding that DND officials withheld key information from Parliament about the jet purchase, underestimated costs, and didn’t follow proper procurement rules.Still, the F-35 has had strong support in government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has labelled the jet a good deal for Canada.

 

[bobbymike]

The first F-35A strike fighter assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing touched down at Luke AFB, Ariz., its new home, on Monday. "This is the first-ever international weapon system program, and Luke will be the future home of its first-ever international flying training unit," said Air Force spokesman Maj. Matt Hesson in a statement ahead of the airplane's March 10 arrival. All F-35 pilots currently train at the joint-service F-35 schoolhouse at Eglin AFB, Fla. "Upon completion of the programmed aircraft delivery, Luke will be home to 144 F-35A aircraft belonging to eight partner nations" for the training, said Hesson. The first F-16 instructor pilot at Luke to convert over to the F-35A began training earlier this year. Luke's first F-35A is the 100th F-35 airframe to roll off Lockheed Martin's production line at Fort Worth, Tex.

 

[GTX]

F35 Joint Strike Fighters: Pentagon says jets getting cheaper, Australia could become regional service hub

JSF price sinks to US$80-85m

Tony Abbott to approve Australia’s biggest ever military purchase of stealth fighter jets

 

[Racer]

JSF price sinks to US$80-85m

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usaf-details-five-year-spending-plan-396901/

"The US Air Force on 11 March released a detailed budget proposal showing how much it intends to spend in the five-year period to fiscal year 2019 on current and next-generation aircraft programmes.

The plan calls for an investment of almost $28 billion over five years to purchase 238 Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, at an average flyaway cost of about $107 million each."

 

[GTX]

Lockheed Martin Says F-35 Will Get Cheaper In Next Five Years
(Source: Yonhap News Agency; published March 21, 2014)

FORTH WORTH, Texas --- South Korea will benefit from economies of scale when production of the F-35 stealth jet goes into full swing in the next five years if it signs a contract for 40 aircraft for delivery starting from 2018, a senior Lockheed Martin official said.

Seoul is set to confirm a plan to buy 40 F-35As through the U.S. foreign military sales (FMS) program without open bidding, while the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) and the finance ministry are currently deliberating the total budget.

Gary North, vice president for customer requirements for Lockheed Martin, suggested South Korea is in a good position to profit from economies of scale as his company is expected to start full-scale production between 2017 and 2018.

"As the number of the airplanes goes up over the years, the cost is coming down. Once it reaches the full rate production, the cost will flatten out as a function of the economics," North told Korean reporters during their visit to the F-35 production line in Fort Worth, Texas.

South Korea had initially planned to buy 60 advanced jets to replace the aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s, but it reduced the number after rejecting Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle, the only aircraft that met the previous competition's budget of 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion), leaving open the possibility of 20 more jets in the future.

Lockheed Martin fell short of providing an estimated budget for the South Korean deal as the FMS conditions require a foreign government to pay the amount specified by the U.S. government. Instead, North pointed to a recent cost projection by the Pentagon's F-35 program chief.

Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan said during a visit to Australia last week that the cost of the F-35B conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant will fall to US$80-85 million.

"Lockheed Martin agrees with Lt. Gen. Bogdan's assessment that the cost of the F-35 is on a downward path that will lead to a Unit Recurring Flyaway (URF) cost for an F-35A of between $80-85 million," said Randy Howard, the director of F-35 Korea business development.

"This projected price includes the aircraft, avionics and mission systems, and the engine" as well as logistics support and a flight simulator, he said.

But Korean acquisition officials, who grappled with budget issues in the past program, warned the company's projection may be too rosy.

"It seems like the most optimistic price estimation made under the premise that international sales of 3,200 F-35s will go ahead as planned," a senior DAPA official said, asking for anonymity. "There is a gap between the estimated cost and the real contract price as the F-35 is sold through the FMS program for all purchasers."

Another Seoul official said the cost for the total package, including armament and maintenance support, could be higher than the Pentagon's estimate for the unit flyaway cost.

An earlier state-sponsored study estimated that 40 F-35A would cost about 7.4 trillion won for delivery between 2018 and 2021.

Regarding concerns over software problems identified in a recent Pentagon report, North promised to provide F-35As with Block 3F software that is fully operable for the South Korean Air Force.

The U.S. Air Force plans to declare the F-35A operational in 2016, while the Block 3F software is expected to be ready in 2017.

"Our company is confident that we will deliver the 3F software to the customers, to the nations and services, to meet their operational requirements," said the retired U.S. Air Force four-star general who served as commander of Pacific Air Forces.

-ends-

 

[Arjen]

New GAO report March 26th: Bloomberg

Lockheed Martin F-35 Jet’s Software Delayed, GAO Says
By Tony Capaccio Mar 22, 2014 6:00 AM GMT+0100


Delays in testing critical software for Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)’s F-35 jet are threatening to delay the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon and boost development costs, according to congressional investigators.

“Persistent software problems” have slowed testing to demonstrate the aircraft’s war-fighting, navigation, targeting and reconnaissance systems, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.

The Marine Corps F-35 version, designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings, has a key milestone next year. While the Marines want the plane to be deemed ready for combat in mid-2015, tests on some of its software might not be be completed on time, and possibly 13 months late.

“Delays of this magnitude would mean that the Marine Corps will not likely have all of the capabilities it expects in July 2015,” according to a draft of a GAO report obtained by Bloomberg News. “The effects of these delays compound as they also put the timely delivery of Air Force and Navy initial operating capabilities at risk.”

The Air Force’s F-35 version is supposed to meet a similar deadline in 2016, and the Navy model in 2018. Italy and the U.K. are buying the Marine Corps model.

The F-35 program is estimated to cost $391.2 billion.

While Lockheed Martin officials haven’t yet seen the GAO report, they are “confident we will complete flight testing of the software required for Marine Corps initial operational capability this year,” Laura Siebert, a spokeswoman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based contractor, said in an e-mail statement.
Pilot Helmet

The company plans to release the required software for the Marine version “no later than July 2015,” she said. “This software will enable the Marines to identify, target and engage the opposition.”

Since the program completed a major reorganization in March 2012, “acquisition cost and schedule estimates have remained relatively stable, and progress has been made in key areas,” the GAO said.

Lockheed Martin is improving its production processes and reduced problems with its pilot helmet, the Navy F-35’s tailhook, which enables the plane to land on aircraft carriers, and an automatic diagnostic system.

The company and the Pentagon program office also made progress in 2013 toward reducing the cost of the Navy and Air Force models, though not the Marine Corps version, the GAO said.

As of January, the military planned to have verified basic functions for 27 percent of the software intended to operate the Marine Corps version. Instead, it got to 13 percent, leaving a “significant amount of work to be done by October,” when testing was to be complete, the GAO said.
Testing Delays

“At this point, we believe the most pressing issue is the effect software testing delays are likely to have on the capabilities” of the first aircraft each service declares ready for combat, the watchdog office said.

If the current schedule isn’t improved, the Marine Corps may “initially receive less capable aircraft than it expects,” according to the GAO draft report.

The Pentagon’s long-range budgets project the F-35 program will average $12.6 billion annually by 2018 and through 2037. That may be unaffordable because of current budget constraints, the GAO said.

At its peak, F-35 funding will be about $15 billion, so “annual funding of this magnitude clearly poses long-term affordability risks,” as “lower than expected reliability” risks keeping support cost estimates high, the agency said.
Fewer Aircraft

The projected price tag of $391.2 billion for an eventual fleet of 2,443 F-35s for the Air Force, Navy and Marines is 68 percent higher than the estimate in 2001, measured in current dollars.

The number of aircraft is 409 fewer than called for in the original program. The Pentagon is requesting $8 billion for 34 aircraft for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, compared with 29 that were approved in each of the last two years.

One of the program’s challenges will be meeting the Defense Department’s specific cost goals at the start of full-scale production in 2019.

The per-jet cost still require reductions of as much as $49 million, the report said.

A final version of the GAO report will be featured at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 26 that’s set to include testimony from the GAO’s top F-35 official.