Major F-35 review upcoming

The Pentagon is planning a major review of the F-35 program in the coming weeks. They will be examining the cost of building and operating the aircraft. The review will examine the cost of a 55 year life cycle in the US military.

Sustainment costs are going to be a big part of the review. Current estimates are $1.1T for the full 55 year life cycle, but that is expected to drop. The F-35 Program Office has lowered estimates down to $857B for the full life cycle. The USMC has said that the per hour flight cost is likely to be over 16% lower than Pentagon estimates, which would save over $12B over the life of the aircraft. Britain and Norway have said they will pool resources to reduce costs for both fleets over their life.

The meeting is also expected to tough on the cracks found in the F-35B ground test article during durability testing. The test article was beyond the point it was expected to still be in service, but it's still a problem that needs addressing, and resolving.

Top Pentagon officials will examine the cost of building and operating the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet at a major review of the $392 billion program next week that will also provide updates on lingering technical issues.

Kyra Hawn, spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s F-35 program office, said a high-level Defense Acquisition Board meeting was expected to proceed on Monday despite the partial government shutdown. The meeting has already been postponed several times.

She said officials would receive an update on how the program was meeting cost and schedule targets, as well as progress on technical challenges including the millions of lines of software code being written for the planes.

One key issue to be discussed will be whether to increase F-35 production in coming years, as planned, according to Hawn and other officials familiar with the program.

AvWeek

Keep us in the know..
...btw, I finally got my camera phone...
NOW THE BOYS AREN"T FLYING!!!!

Damn it all!
Plus...it's a BLackberry, seems that I must purchase an additional Media card to store any more photos, or shoot video...what a bunch of BS.

:/

reply to post by Zaphod58


Zaph, why a "review"? Isn't this an already a done deal and fully committed ? Is this opening a door to potential reductions or even scrapping the project?

reply to post by nwtrucker


There's a planned production increase coming. The review is to determine if they should go ahead with it, or if they should delay it until the program is meeting goals better than it has been.

reply to post by nwtrucker


Apparently, the last I heard, they were still having issues with some of the onboard systems such as the pilots oxygen supply getting cut-off during test flights(not sure if they've fixed that).

reply to post by RedShirt73


I hadn't heard of any oxygen problems with the F-35s. A lot of other problems, and a number of systems running behind, but no O2 issues.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I believe you are correct on that, it was the F-22's that had the oxygen problems. But I do believe the designers were concerned that these same problems might occur in the F-35 as they have a similar oxygen systems.

I've talked to some of the maintenance guys down at Pax River and they love working on it. For a test aircraft it still has one of the lowest maintenance to flight hour ratios.

reply to post by RedShirt73


Yeah, there's a lot of commonality where they could get away with it, and the O2 generator system is one of those areas. I don't think they'll see the same problem though, as they don't have the pressure suit the F-22 has.

reply to post by JIMC5499


That's one of the things that surprised me so much about it. You occasionally hear about a maintenance problem, but a lot of that has come from the ground test articles, not from the aircraft in the flight testing program.

I have to wonder how much of this controversy is being stirred up by McBoeing. If the F-35 goes away the only thing to do short term is to buy more F/A-18s.

reply to post by JIMC5499


Some of it is from Lockmart mismanagement too. They screwed up by the numbers for years with their relationship with the JPO. But I would be willing to be at least some of it is from Boeing.

reply to post by JIMC5499


That's good news that the aircraft is easy on the maintenance crews (coming from a machine technician point of view). The quicker you can do the maintenance/repair the quicker you can turn it around and get it back in the fight.
How about word of mouth from the pilots (non test or Lockmart endorsed pilots)? How does it fly compared to their legacy aircraft?

RedShirt73
reply to post by nwtrucker

 

Apparently, the last I heard, they were still having issues with some of the onboard systems such as the pilots oxygen supply getting cut-off during test flights(not sure if they've fixed that).

The F-22 had oxygen problems as well. It makes me wonder these newer generation fighters are doing something differently than in the past?

EDIT:
Zaph, I saw you mention that the F-35 isn't using the same pressure suits as the F-22. Is the cockpit of the F-35 more advanced to allow the pilots to not need a pressure suit?

reply to post by Zaphod58


I've been meaning to ask you Zaphod58. Considering the setback with this program, do you believe this jet fighter is worth it? And I mean the $130 million per plane price tag?

reply to post by Sammamishman


Oh the pilots love it. The ones that flew the B off the Wasp had nothing but good to say about it. The "miss" factor of the AV-8B has been almost completely removed.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


They don't fly as high, so they don't need it.

As for the O2 system, they're going from a LOX style system that we used for years, to an oxygen generator now.

reply to post by cenpuppie


I do, and don't. It's worth it, but it's not going to do everything they claim it is going to do. It's better for a bomb truck like the F-15E, than for the A-10, and F-16 role.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I wonder if the A model is easier/better than the F-16 to fly or the Navy C model comperable to the F-18?

reply to post by Sammamishman


The flight characteristics between the three models are similar. They all actually have characteristics similar to the F-18 honestly. They both have transonic acceleration issues, and energy bleed issues.