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Given all the bad news coming out about the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program in recent weeks, I asked Air Force chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz if he is concerned that any cuts to the Marines troubled F-35B program could hurt the Air Force: “If we don’t produce the same amount of airplanes, clearly there’s cost impacts” said Schwartz. “The F-35 is important to lots of folks [three U.S. armed services and eight international partners] and my expectation is that both government and industry will get after making this right.” In the wake of Britain’s move to...

The continuing debate regarding the merits of an extra engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter surrounds a prime example of the waste that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to eliminate. Support for an extra engine is another case of parochial interests trying to trump efficiency and military readiness. The F-35 second engine was not included in the Defense Department plan during or before my tenure as deputy secretary. Every military service vice chief testified with me to Congress that the second engine was too costly and not needed—or wanted. Regardless, each year funding was still added by Congress,...

Joint Strike Fighter Delayed? Not a Big Deal for the U.S. Navy The U.S. militaryÂ’s largest tactical aviation program, itÂ’s safe to say, will not be terminated. Beyond that, a cloud of uncertainty still hovers over the Joint Strike Fighter. Doubts persist about key aspects of the nearly $400 billion program, such as how many airplanes will be produced and when; and most recently, whether the Marine CorpsÂ’ vertical-takeoff variant will even survive. Of all the services, the Navy has been the most aggressive about hedging its bets by shoring up its fleet of Super Hornets and older Hornets. The...

UPDATE 1-US Air Force concerned about F-35 delivery delay * Software, production issues could slow deliveries * Air Force could upgrade F-16s to cover any fighter gap (adds Lockheed statement, paragraph 9) Nov 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force's top general said on Tuesday he was concerned software development and production issues could delay the service's plan to start using new F-35 fighter jets in April 2016. General Norton Schwartz said the Air Force variant of the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) fighter jet was doing better in testing and development than the Navy and Marine Corps' versions, but it...

Lockheed Martin has received a $3.5 billion contract modification from the U.S. Department of Defense to manufacture 31 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters in the fourth lot of low-rate initial production (LRIP). The contract also funds manufacturing-support equipment, flight test instrumentation and ancillary mission equipment. Including the long-lead funding previously received, the total contract value for LRIP 4 is $3.9 billion. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will produce 10 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variants for the U.S. Air Force, 16 F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variants for the U.S. Marine Corps, four F-35C carrier variants for the U.S. Navy...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has learned that development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be further delayed, on top of the 13-month slip that was disclosed in March. Gates also was advised in a Nov. 2 briefing that operations and support costs for the F-35 will be re-budgeted at 1.5 times the aircraft it replaces, more than twice the original goal and 50% more than more recent projections, according to reports. The briefing also covered other tactical aviation issues, and reportedly included data from the technical baseline review (TBR) that was launched by the new director of the JSF...

The F-35 test program is maintaining pace and has completed its 500th flight. The notable flight was achieved by the BF-04 STOVL variant on Thursday November 18 at NAS Patuxent River. The three-hour sortie was mainly to evaluate avionics software. Still only half way through November the program has reached its planned number of about 50 flights for the month. A total of 366 flights have been flown this year, well within reach of the 394 due by year's end. Over 5,000 flights are planned by 2015 for all the three F-35 variants.

Lockheed Martin Corp. received a fourth production contract for 31 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets valued at $3.48 billion, the Pentagon said. The terms call for building 16 of the planes for the U.S. Marine Corps configured for short takeoffs and vertical landings, 10 of the Air Force version of the jet; four Navy models and one for the U.K., the Pentagon said today. There is an option to assemble a 32nd aircraft for the Netherlands. The award is a boost for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed as the $382 billion JSF program faces new questions over development and testing that are...

Senior U.S. defense and Lockheed Martin officials have wrapped up a semi-annual Joint Executive Steering Board meeting with international Joint Strike Fighter partners in Rome, a defense official says. The Nov. 11 session came just after the chairmen of a White House-chartered deficit-reduction commission proposed sharply curtailing U.S. orders for the single-engine F-35. The political bombshell, and the forthcoming technical baseline review (TBR), which will establish new schedule and cost guidelines for the stealthy fighter program, might have hijacked discussions even if they were not on the formal agenda for the meetings, according to one official. Navy Vice Adm. David...

The Pratt & Whitney F135 short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant propulsion system took one more step toward government certification recently with the successful completion of one of the most rigorous, demanding tests in the entire qualification program. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp.company. The high temperature margin test which took place at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee involves intentionally running the engine to turbine temperatures beyond design conditions while simultaneously operating the turbomachinery at or above 100 percent of design conditions

U.S. Defense Department officials responsible for weapons purchases will review Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet program next week to investigate delays in development, Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said today. The review, scheduled for Nov. 22 and led by Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, comes as the F-35 program manager, Vice Admiral David Venlet, is conducting a so-called technical baseline assessment of the $382 billion Joint Strike Fighter, the third such study in less than year. The assessment by Venlet is a "deeper dive so as to avoid future surprises about this program," Morrell said at a news...

The Pentagon is contemplating terminating production of the F-35B short takeoff and landing version, the Daily Report has learned. Britain’s decision to back out of buying its planned 138 F-35Bs—and substitute the F-35C carrier model in yet-undetermined numbers—will cause the unit cost of the Marine Corps’ short takeoff and vertical landing specialty model to go up, possibly enough to make it unaffordable. Britain’s defection leaves the Marines and Italy as the only planned F-35B operators. The F-35B has less range and payload than the Air Force F-35A variant and the Navy C model due to the need to accommodate the...

Japan is expected to soon issue a long-awaited request for proposals for its F-X fighter competition, despite a media report that the country has settled on the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a future combat aircraft. In a rare piece of recent good news for the Joint Strike Fighter program, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Nov. 8 that the ministry planned to request “procurement costs” for the F-35 in its Fiscal 2012 budget request, covering the period from April 1, 2012. But the report, attributed to sources in the ministry and defense forces, left open the possibility of Japan buying other...

The aft bulkhead of the F-35B BH-1 fatigue-test specimen has developed cracks after 1,500 hours of durability testing, Ares has learned. This is less than one-tenth of the planned fatigue test program, which is designed to prove an 8,000-hour airframe life with a safety factor of two. The bulkhead design was modified in the course of the jet's weight-saving redesign in 2004-05, switching from forged titanium - proven on the F-22 - to a new aluminum forging process developed by Alcoa. According to Lockheed Martin,"the cracks were discovered during a special inspection when a test engineer discovered an anomaly." The...

Israel is in talks with the United States to acquire an additional 20 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets, a senior Israeli defense official said on Wednesday. Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel would welcome another 20 fighter jets on the heels of a deal signed in October to buy about 20 of the radar-evading jets at a cost of about $96 million per aircraft. "As I understand -- and that's the latest information I have on this issue -- it's still under negotiation between the Israeli government and the administration," he said, speaking at a news conference alongside Admiral...

Britain's decision to buy a different version of the F-35 fighter jet will not dramatically raise the cost of the aircraft for the US Marine Corps, a military official said Tuesday. "The initial briefs that I've seen is that this does not significantly increase the cost of the aircraft, but that's for the budget and the programmatic folks to deal with," Lieutenant General George Flynn told reporters. As part of a strategic review in October, Britain has canceled plans to purchase the F-35B, a version of the fighter that can vertically land or take off, and opted to buy a...

Well, it looks like the Pentagon may be joining those who recommend scrapping the short take-off and vertical landing variant of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The last few weeks have seen some serious punches thrown at the would-be-wonder jet. First, the British announced that they were cutting their nearly 150-plane F-35B buy in favor of an unknown number of F-35C carrier variant JSFs. Next came reports that the Pentagon is bracing for the possibilty that the program will suffer more delays and cost growth. Then, last week, a presidentially-mandated panel recommended that the government completely scrap the...

ThThe fundamental building block for all future avionics software on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter has entered flight testing on an F-35 test jet. BF-04 lifts off on its 24th flight on November 6 2010. Pilot was Lt Col Matt Taylor. block 1, the first of three principal software-development blocks for the F-35’s mission systems, made its inaugural flight on Nov. 5 in the F-35B short takeoff/ vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft known as BF-4. The functional check flight from Naval Air Station Patuxent River lasted 1.5 hours, and all planned test points were accomplished. “Getting this software...

U.S. offers Israel warplanes in return for new settlement freeze Netanyahu presents security cabinet with Clinton's incentive of 20 F-35 fighter planes and security guarantees in exchange for 90-day West Bank building moratorium. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's seven-member inner cabinet discussed Saturday an offer by the United States to reinstate a freeze on West Bank Settlement construction in return for a package of incentives. Netanyahu presented Saturday the U.S. offer, which was discussed by Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday, to the forum of seven. According to the offer Israel would stop construction in the West...

The Joint Strike Fighter under development to replace many aircraft in all branches of the U.S. military appears to be landing late for training. The first delivery of F-35s was expected this month at Eglin Air Force Base, where pilot and support training squadrons were formed for Air Force, Navy and Marines in April 2010. But the first two aircraft are now destined for Edwards Air Force Base in April 2011. Joint Strike Fighter program officials told the Northwest Florida Daily News that Lockheed Martin needs additional time to make aircraft modifications to support testing.