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Monday, 21 September 2009, 07:38 C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000568 SIPDIS EO 12958 DECL: 09/17/2019 TAGS MARR, MOPS, NATO, PINS, PREL, NL SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS/JSF: CONCERN ABOUT SECOND ENGINE REF: A. THE HAGUE 271 B. THE HAGUE 264 C. THE HAGUE 543 Classified By: POLECON Counselor Andrew C. Mann for reasons 1.5(b,d) Summary This cable relays concerns from the US embassy in the Hague that unless greater US support is giving to the development of a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, it might jeopardise Dutch involvement in the project...

Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine has surpassed 20,000 test hours as it completes the ground development and demonstration phase of the program. The F135 accumulated 3,600 test hours during the concept demonstration phase, 15,800 test hours during development and more than 700 hours powering the F-35 Lightning II flight test program. In addition, the F135 team has completed all rigorous STOVL testing required to successfully achieve the initial service release milestone. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company. “Pratt & Whitney is proud of the F135’s performance in the successful ground and flight test programs,” said Bennett...

RAF commander: our air force will be little better than Belgium’s The head of the RAF’s fighter and bomber force has said that drastic cuts in the Government’s defence review “worry the hell out of me” and would leave the Air Force only “slightly above Belgium” in squadron numbers. By Andrew Gilligan Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell, commander of the RAF’s No 1 Group, which controls all Britain’s fast jet combat aircraft, said that Britain was likely to end up with only six fighter and bomber squadrons, half its current number. He warned: “That might not be quite enough.” Air Vice-Marshal...

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program faces a $1 billion budget cut under a bill to finance government operations that’s advancing toward a Senate vote. The move would strip out the JSF money, eliminating seven aircraft, from a U.S. Defense Department request for $7.86 billion and 42 planes, according to the spending measure, which didn’t give a rationale for the new totals. Savings from the JSF program, the Pentagon’s biggest arms project, would be the most among $8.4 billion in weapons- spending reductions in the 1,924-page Senate bill released Dec. 14. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is the largest U.S....

Costly corrosion problems on the F-22 caused by stealth materials and coatings have been addressed on the F-35, but risks remain, concludes a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The GAO's presentation to Congress on its review of the DoD's corrosion evaluation report on the F-22 and F-35, completed at the end of September, says: "Corrosion of the aluminum skin panels on the F-22 was first observed in spring 2005, less than 6 months after the Air Force first introduced the aircraft to a severe environment. By October 2007, a total of 534 instances of corrosion were documented, and...

Despite torpedoing U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East peace drive, Israel is still trying to sweet-talk Washington into providing 20 F-35 stealth fighters it promised free of charge in return for a settlements freeze in the occupied West Bank. Washington withdrew the offer after the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, dominated by right-wing parties, refused to extend a 10-month halt in settlement building for 90 days, the Palestinian condition for continuing the talks. In the face of Israel's refusal, the U.S. administration withdrew the offer of free F-35s worth $3 billion, along with other incentives it had put...

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II program team has reached its 2010 goal of 394 test flights jointly established by the Joint Strike Fighter Program Office and Lockheed Martin. 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. Since the first flight of the F-35 on December 15, 2006, the program has logged a total of 531 flights, expanding the performance envelope of the three F-35 variants and testing the mission systems. In November, the program completed 60 flights against a plan of...

The General Electric-Rolls Royce F136 alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter program looked increasingly vulnerable Dec. 15 when efforts to prolong the controversial program appeared to be losing steam in Congress. In separate but related actions Dec. 14-15, defense lawmakers and their aides said they have worked out a quick compromise to help pass defense authorization legislation for Fiscal 2011, not including an earmark for the engine, while a Senate Democratic appropriations proposal that included F136 language ran into growing conservative opposition. The authorization measure – stripped down after a provision to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy stopped...

The Netherlands expects to ramp up production spending for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter significantly in 2014, according to budget projections submitted to parliament. The latest update the defense ministry is providing to legislators on the planned F-35 purchase shows spending on the system design and development (SDD) phase will wrap up in 2012, with €11.6 million ($15.6 million) and €1.1 million to be spent over the next two years. Additionally, the Dutch government has set aside €8.5 million in 2011 and €3 million in 2012 to complete solely Dutch-financed SDD initiatives. The budget forecast also shows €126.3 million in...

The Pentagon’s most recent per-unit target price for the conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is $111.6 million, according to program officials. The target price for the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) version, which has encountered the most challenging technical and testing problems, is $109.4 million, the F-35 Joint Program Office says. And the target cost for the most expensive variant — the carrier version (CV) — is $142.9 million, officials say. The price data traditionally has not been publicly released, but the program office released these figures to Aviation Week in response to questions. Neither price includes the cost...

Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chair, Howard “Buck” McKeon, today laid out his stance on defense spending as the top man on the committee, backing the embattled F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, its alternate engine program and the Pentagon’s efforts to reduce costs. While the U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35B short take-off and vertical landing version of the jet has experienced numerous testing delays over the past year and is unlikely to meet its scheduled operational date of 2012, McKeon said he doesn’t want to see it cut. “If you take that away then what plane are the Marines going...

The Pentagon announced Friday that aging aircraft at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point will be replaced by 128 new joint strike fighter jets over the next ten years. In a news release, Gov. Bev Perdue said she spent two years lobbying to bring the F-35B planes to North Carolina. "I will always work to bring smart investments of money, people or equipment to the military installations we are so proud of here in North Carolina,” Perdue said. “Growth for the Marine Base means more jobs for the people of Cherry Point." The Department of Defense developed the...

The military plans to put 400 of the Marine Corps' new vertical take-off F-35B fighter jets at four installations in North and South Carolina, California and Arizona. Navy documents released Thursday by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's office say that up to 128 of the stealthy futuristic jets will be based in Cherry Point, N.C., and 88 aircraft and a training unit will go to Beaufort, S.C. Some 96 jets will be based at Miramar, Calif., and 88 will go to Yuma, Ariz. The documents say the jets will begin arriving in phases starting in 2012. The jets are replacing aging...

(Yonhap Interview) Lockheed dispels doubts over F-35 in S. Korea's fighter jet project By Kim Deok-hyun SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. can deliver F-35 fighter jets as early as 2016 if it wins South Korea's multi-billion dollar contract for a fighter modernization program, a senior company executive said Tuesday, dismissing doubts over a delay in the new warplane's flight-test schedule. South Korean officials say the cost rise for an individual F-35 aircraft, stemming from the delay, is a potential obstacle for Lockheed in an upcoming tender by Seoul for 60 fighter jets, valued at 9.7 trillion won...

Can Lockheed deliver on the Joint Strike Fighter dream? By Craig Hoyle The world's biggest military aircraft programme is ending 2010 in much the same manner that it started the year, with uncertainty surrounding its long-term health, cost and delivery schedule. But in reality, it has been a fair past 12 months for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with the company's test fleet on track to meet its revised flight test goals and its "programme of record" for just over 3,100 aircraft still intact - for now at least. The programme in March achieved the first vertical landing by...

The untold story of Canada's JSF deal Canada's purchase of 65 Joint Strike Fighters is the largest military purchase in its history. It is also one of the most controversial. The deal was done without competition or even testing the aircraft against other contenders. By David Pugliese, The Ottawa Citizen December 11, 2010 During a late-night debate on May 27, Defence Minister Peter MacKay was on his feet to talk about the future of Canada's fighter aircraft fleet. He was verbally sparring with NDP defence critic Jack Harris, outlining the government's moves to improve the Canadian Forces and to replace...

Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day made a stop at a River Road facility last Friday that will manufacture components for the highly advanced Joint Strike fighter jet. At the Asco Aerospace Ltd. plant, many military aircraft parts and the machinery that produces them were off limits to cameras, including some sensitive materials that were covered up, as the president of the Treasury Board and minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway announced the funding initiative. Day said the company would receive a loan, called a "repayable investment" by the federal government, of $7.7 million toward a $19 million project that involves researching...

“The government decision on the fighter was announced very shortly after it was made. No prior commitment was given to any of the candidates in advance of the decision,” says Defence Minister Grete Faremo. The Ministry of Defence conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the offers from the two candidates, Swedish JAS Gripen NG and the U.S. F-35, through the spring, summer and autumn of 2008. The F-35 eventually proved to be the best option for Norway. The Government’s and the Parliament's selection of the F-35 is based on clear scientific conclusions. It is especially in the areas of sensor capability,...

Defence giant Lockheed Martin made its sales pitch for the F-35 aircraft to MPs Thursday, warning if Canada withdrew from its current agreement to buy 65 of the planes, the aerospace industry could lose out on billions of dollars worth of contracts. Tom Burbage, executive vice-president and general manager for the U.S. company's F-35 program, testified before the House of Commons defence committee for nearly two hours, explaining all the benefits Canada stands to gain by being part of the joint-purchasing plan with eight other countries. The government plans to spend about $9-billion on the fleet — which doesn't include...

General Electric and Rolls-Royce have been granted a two-week breathing space by the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) to continue tests of the endangered F136 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine. GE-Rolls says the JPO “has enabled us to find a way to stretch the funding” for continued testing of the F136 until Dec. 17, the date earlier indicated as a possible extension by the development team. The change was made possible, the JPO says, by the program execution to date. “The JPO has modified the contract accordingly, and there is no indication that a stop-work order will be issued,” GE-Rolls...