The F-35 Saga

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From DefenseNews

 

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Pentagon Acquisitions Board Meets to Discuss F-35

Feb. 21, 2012 - 04:23PM

By DAVE MAJUMDAR

 

The Pentagon’s Defense Acquisitions Board (DAB) met Feb. 21 to discuss the tri-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a defense official confirmed.

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From DefenseNews

 

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JSF Production Might Be Further Slowed

Feb. 22, 2012 - 11:56AM

By DAVE MAJUMDAR

 

The Pentagon’s Defense Acquisitions Board (DAB) of top weapons buyers recertified the tri-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program during a Feb. 21 meeting, but high sustainment costs might force the Pentagon to slow production down further or trim flight hours for aircrew, a senior defense official said.

[harikaridog]

From DefenseNews

 

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JSF Production Might Be Further Slowed

Feb. 22, 2012 - 11:56AM

By DAVE MAJUMDAR

 

The Pentagon’s Defense Acquisitions Board (DAB) of top weapons buyers recertified the tri-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program during a Feb. 21 meeting, but high sustainment costs might force the Pentagon to slow production down further or trim flight hours for aircrew, a senior defense official said.

 

Hmm it seems to be a race between our CVF and the F-35 as to which will win the prize for most confused and delayed project.

Every morning I drive to work past Portsmouth naval base...... and I can quite clearly see the Ark Royal slowly falling apart plus 3 x quite capable Type 22 batch 3 Frigates rusting as I watch.

All the while I know massive funds continue to be poured into two projects that will probably never ever see the light of day in British Service!

 

That drive to work used to be a pleasure......all it does is depress me now.

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From Defense Aerospace

 

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Pentagon Relaxes Two F-35 Performance Targets

(Source: Fort Worth Star Telegram; published March 03, 2012

 

Interesting report out of InsideDefense.com (free version) says Pentagon officials have relaxed the ground rules the F-35A model, the conventional-takeoff-and-landing version of the Joint Strike Fighter, can meet the minimum range goal for the aircraft -- the minimum, not the desired range.

 

Direct link to the Inside Defense article.

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From Defense Aerospace

 

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ANALYSIS: F-35 LRIP 5 Contracts: Unit Cost Tops $200M for First Time

(Source: defense-aerospace.com; published March 12, 2012)

By Giovanni de Briganti

 

PARIS --- Previously estimated at nearly $160 million, the unit price of F-35 fighters ordered as part of the fifth Low-Rate Initial Production batch (LRIP Lot 5) has now passed $200 million, once additional contracts awarded by the Pentagon since our previous estimate on Dec. 9, 2011 are included.

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From Defense Aerospace

 

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Loose Fasteners Blamed for F-35 Fuel Leak

(Source: Northwest Florida Daily News; published March 9, 2012)

 

EGLIN AFB — Maintainers with the 33rd Fighter Wing have determined that three loose fasteners caused the small fuel leak during the F-35’s first mission flight Tuesday.

 

The wing’s first F-35A Joint Strike Fighter took off at 10:07 a.m. for what was supposed to be a 90-minute flight. The sortie was cut short to roughly 20 minutes when the pilot of an F-16 acting as a chase plane spotted what appeared to a small fuel leak on the F-35.

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From Flight Global

 

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Canada raises the spectre of abandoning Lockheed’s F-35

By: Dave Majumdar Washington DC

16 hours ago

 

Analysts say Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) doesn't meet Canada's requirements even as earlier this week a top Canadian official raised the spectre of leaving the programme.

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Latest GAO report on JSF here (PDF)

 

Commentary at Bloomberg and Reuters.

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From Flight Global

 

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First Dutch F-35 leaves assembly line

By: Craig Hoyle London

 

Lockheed Martin has rolled out the first F-35A Lightning II to have been produced for an international customer, with aircraft AN-1 to be flown by the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

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From Foreign Policy

 

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The Jet That Ate the Pentagon

The F-35 is a boondoggle. It's time to throw it in the trash bin.

BY WINSLOW WHEELER | APRIL 26, 2012

 

The United States is making a gigantic investment in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, billed by its advocates as the next -- by their count the fifth -- generation of air-to-air and air-to-ground combat aircraft. Claimed to be near invisible to radar and able to dominate any future battlefield, the F-35 will replace most of the air-combat aircraft in the inventories of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and at least nine foreign allies, and it will be in those inventories for the next 55 years. It's no secret, however, that the program -- the most expensive in American history -- is a calamity.

[broncepulido]

Everything about the F-35 is everytime more unbelievable

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From Flight Global

 

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Australia to push back F-35 decision by two years

By: Greg Waldron Singapore

9 hours ago

 

Australia will delay its acquisition of 12 Lockheed Martin F-35A aircraft by two years to save costs associated with the programme.

 

The decision to buy the 12 aircraft will be made in 2014-2015, as opposed to later this year, says minister for defence Stephen Smith.

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From Flight Global

 

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USAF: F-35B cannot generate enough sorties to replace A-10

By Dave Majumdar

Washington DC

 

The US Air Force has concluded that the short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) Lockheed Martin F-35B- model aircraft cannot generate enough sorties to meet its needs; therefore the service will not consider replacing the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog close air support jet with that variant.

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From Flight Global

 

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F-35 problems on their way to being fixed

By Dave Majumdar

Washington DC

 

The F-35 Lightning II is making good progress through flight testing this year, a top Lockheed Martin official says. Most of the biggest challenges faced by the programme should be well on their way to being fixed by the later part of the year.

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From Defense Aerospace

 

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F-35 Reality Check Ten Years On -- Part 1: ‘Fifth-Generation’ and Other Myths

(Source: defense-aerospace.com; published May 9, 2012)

By Giovanni de Briganti

 

PARIS --- The controversy that has again flared up in Canada about the planned purchase of F-35 fighters is a perfect illustration of the stubbornness with which some governments are pursuing plans to buy this controversial aircraft despite all of the documented technical faults, schedule slippages and cost-overruns that have been revealed in excruciating detail in recent years.

 

And from Defense Aerospace

 

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F-35 Reality Check Ten Years On, Part 2: The Jobs Mirage and Other Stories

(Source: defense-aerospace.com; published May 21, 2012)

By Giovanni de Briganti

 

PARIS --- Most F-35 partner governments have, at various times, tried to justify joining the F-35 program by the production work the program will provide to their industry, and the high-tech jobs this work will create and support.

 

However, as for the program’s technical promises reviewed in Part 1, (‘Fifth-Generation’ and Other Myths) the facts are hidden behind a P.R. smokescreen.