Posted on 09/07/2022 12:29:55 PM PDT by Enlightened1
The Pentagon has temporarily halted delivery of F-35 fighter jets to the military branches and international customers after Lockheed Martin discovered a metal component used in the jet’s engine had come from China, according to the Pentagon.
The Defense Contract Management Agency notified the F-35 Joint Program Office at the Pentagon on Aug. 19 that an alloy used in magnets contained in the F-35's turbomachine pumps came from China. Lockheed Martin builds the overall aircraft, but the turbomachine is produced by Honeywell.
The discovery does not affect flight operations of F-35s already in service, the Joint Program Office said.
“We have confirmed that the magnet does not transmit information or harm the integrity of the aircraft and there are no performance, quality, safety or security risks associated with this issue and flight operations for the F-35 in-service fleet will continue as normal,” F-35 Joint Program Office spokesperson Russell Goemaere said in a statement to POLITICO.
"Defense contractors voluntarily shared information with DCMA and the JPO once the issue was discovered and they have found an alternative source for the alloy that will be used in future turbomachines,” Goemaere said.
The turbomachine integrates an auxiliary power unit and an air cycle machine into a single piece of equipment. It provides electrical power for ground maintenance, main engine start and emergency power, and also provides compressed air for the thermal management system during ground maintenance.
"Honeywell remains committed to supplying high-quality products that meet or exceed all customer contract requirements," company spokesperson Adam Kress said in a statement. "We are working closely with DOD and Lockheed Martin to ensure that we continue to achieve those commitments on products Honeywell supplies for use on the F-35."
The F-35 is flown by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, along with 10 other...
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Fortune cookies and duck sauce csn really gum up the works.
Honeywell not so well.
So China doesn’t have to lift a finger to get our government to stop producing the latest weapon the U.S. had in it’s arsenal.
On the face of it, it sounds like it is limited to a "we-shouldn't-be-doing-business-with-China" sort of issue.
In which event, perhaps that ought to be a matter of law pertaining to all of our commercial endeavors with China.
Wonder how that would suit Pelosi, the McConnell family and the Biden team?
Nice to know they are monitoring at least some weaponry for components from China and seeking alternatives.
I wrote the original instruction to keep foreign made krap out of our submarines. I assume they still read it and do it. Guess I should have sent a copy to the Air Farce. How hard is it to not buy stupid stuff from a guy you don’t know? Maybe we should paint a small chicom courtesy flag on our F35’s? Back in the day the federal stock system didn’t include country-of-origin on its stock numbers. Maybe they fixed that by now? It’s only been a half century?
I’m a bit bemused as to why they would care, and suspect this is political theater. I used to work for TRW in the automotive electronics division, but also had a program building electronics for another TRW division that provided parts for US military helicopters and warplanes. There’s no way every cap and resistor on those circuit boards was coming from someplace other than China.
Just guessing here but having worked at Honeywell and having been involved in a similar incident I can, perhaps, shed some light. Honeywell buys an assembly from Lighting X. Lightning X builds the assembly to their own specification, which Honeywell used in specifying that assembly. Not listed in Lightning X’s drawing are several parts that Lighting X could source from multiple vendors. They got a better deal from Jing Jong than from Wilmington Magnetics on a framis. Honeywell then did something that required them to disassemble Lighting X’s assembly. This is where they found the part made in China.
Honeywell should get their ass busted so hard the blood could paint a F35.
Especially if it is a part that is designed to fail.
Even if the caps and resistors could have been sourced from Japan, South Korea, etc. the materials used to make them, or the materials in the machines used to make them, likely passed through China.
It would be exceedingly unlikely that every atom in an F-35 has not been in China and every atom in the systems and supplies used to produce the F-35 has not been through China.
[I’m a bit bemused as to why they would care, and suspect this is political theater. I used to work for TRW in the automotive electronics division, but also had a program building electronics for another TRW division that provided parts for US military helicopters and warplanes. There’s no way every cap and resistor on those circuit boards was coming from someplace other than China.]
Raw materials inside the stealth coating? How is China going to see that? That alloy signature is never going to make it out the exhaust. Unless the stealth isn't so great.
Just run reliability QA on it and move on.
They’ve been building this thing tor how long? And they are just finding this now?
How stupid are we?
Then why are you suspending deliveries? Continue to use up the stocks you already have, source new materials domestically, and continue deliveries.
Looks like you are pretty close. And it appears it wasn't a "Chinese part" so much as Chinese alloy provided by a contractor to manufacture a magnet. It seems pretty strict that even raw materials such as this alloy cannot be sourced from China. Considering Russia's struggles to build advanced weapons with all the current sanctions, a wise move. From a more detailed story:
Honeywell International Inc., an F-35 subcontractor, notified Lockheed in late August that “alloy sourced from the People’s Republic of China” and provided by a “fifth-tier” subcontractor was used in a magnet, Laura Siebert, a spokeswoman for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, said in a statement.
Here’s the reasoning for not using foreign sourced materials. Building a weapon system requires a complete infrastructure. Here’s an analogy. You want to have a healthy population of Florida Indigo snakes. But having the snakes requires large areas of a particular type of land with the right type of food source. The snakes are almost extinct because their habitat has been taken over by lots of subdivisions with neatly mown lawns and all the swampy areas neatly piped into French drains. There is no longer an ecological space where the snakes can survive.
The same thing is true of alloys. The manufacturer requires an ecological niche where he can survive. This means that someone has to buy enough of his products at a sufficient price, so he not only survives but thrives. The more money he makes and the more desired his products are the more sophisticated he can make his processes and the cheaper and more available the material becomes.
One reason why China has cornered the “rare Earth” metals market is because the processes needed to purify them are ecologically damaging. Think lots of acid washes. So, the various state and federal EPAs have shut down the American mines and processing plants. This is very damaging to national security. Trump husbanded a California mine and processor to the point where they could get back into production. I can’t find anything on the project, and it wasn’t certified before he left office. My guess is the EPA shut them down. This is the same thing except the mine isn’t directly connected to a high priority project.
Did this part come from a US company that China set it’s sights on and bought through the backdoor?
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