F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

[SupersonicMax]

What's the tradeoff?  Forming an operational squadron that can start training for their mission.  The aircraft can operate without ALIS.  It is then operationnal and can start operating.  IOC doesn't mean we drop tools, stop testing and off we go.  It has been recognize that no ALIS doesn't preclude operations for IOC and the milestone have been changed.  Good flexibility.

 

[MarkOttawa]

138 F-35s for RAF/RoyalNavy fairy-land at this point-defence budget 2020s post-Brexit (currently committed only to total 42 https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/mark-collins-another-brexit-oopsie-uk-defence-spending/ )?

RAF hints that UK could still opt for mixed F-35 fleet

A Royal Air Force official has revealed that the UK has not ruled out acquiring a mixed fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35s, as the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B that is currently contracted carries out its first display to the British public.

Speaking at the Royal International Air Tattoo on 8 July, where a British F-35B flew, along with US Marine Corps aircraft and US Air Force F-35As, Air Cdre Linc Taylor, assistant chief of staff for capability delivery, combat air said the UK’s commitment to a full acquisition of 138 aircraft may leave room for discussions on also operating the conventional take-off and landing variant.

The UK committed to the acquisition of all planned F-35s in its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) released in November 2015, although this raised questions about whether it might consider acquiring a mixed fleet of the type.

“What we will do as we go forward into the next SDSR – we have reaffirmed our intent to buy the 138 in the last SDSR – we will look at air force mix,” Taylor told journalists at RIAT. “There is an absolute benefit to maximising combat air power with interoperability with [Eurofighter] Typhoons and the capability from the [Royal Navy's future aircraft] carrier.

“We will look at all of those options as we go forward into the next SDSR.”..

British ministerial and military representatives associated with the programme praised the aircraft and its appearance in the UK, claiming that the nation is on track to declare its land-based initial operating capability (IOC) by December 2018, followed by the same status at-sea in 2020.

The UK will have 24 frontline aircraft by 2023, which the same year will form into two operational squadrons...

Aircraft are currently in the Block 3i software configuration, which will evolve to 3F and eventually Block 4. Taylor says that while all F-35s are aligned across the programme, the UK has a specific list of weapon requirements that it wants to see in the latter standard. This includes the integration of MBDA Meteor, Spear 3 and Block 6 Asraam missiles, plus the introduction of Raytheon Systems' Paveway IV tactical penetrator...
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/raf-hints-that-uk-could-still-opt-for-mixed-f-35-fle-427136/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[YZT580]

Lockheed has now stated that contracts for F35 work here in Canada will not be renewed and no further contracts will be let out to Canadian companies if we buy elsewhere.  So far, contract values are estimated at 750 million, and expected to climb to 10 billion.  The companies involved are very worried that even if they end up with work on the F18 replacements they will be stuck doing old technology manufacturing and lose out, forever, on Fifth generation work.

 

[Kirkhill]

The Brits on the F35B.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/0/what-is-britains-new-f-35-jump-jet-and-is-it-any-good/

And, it looks as if, of the 350 million Quid a week that was going to the EU (or 250 million after the rebate granted at the EU's pleasure) and that could have been repurposed to the National Health Service, at least some of that money will be going towards the Trident independent nuclear force and increased defence spending.  The UK will be bargaining with that for access to the EU market.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/08/six-radical-conservative-ideas-to-stimulate-the-brexit-economy/

I have seen similar articles that suggest this is not an isolated opinion.

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

Lockheed has now stated that contracts for F35 work here in Canada will not be renewed and no further contracts will be let out to Canadian companies if we buy elsewhere.  So far, contract values are estimated at 750 million, and expected to climb to 10 billion.  The companies involved are very worried that even if they end up with work on the F18 replacements they will be stuck doing old technology manufacturing and lose out, forever, on Fifth generation work.

Young Justin has painted himself into quite a corner.  Hope he has the cajones to admit he made a mistake, hold a competition which allows the F-35 to contend, and award contracts accordingly.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Big numbers here should help considerably in bringing costs down--note possible initial international block buy:

Bogdan Hints F-35 Contract Could Be Announced at Farnborough

The Defense Department’s long awaited contract for F-35 low rate initial production lots 9 and 10 is in its final stages, and may be settled in time for Farnborough International Airshow next week.

"My guys are back at home right now finishing up this deal,” F-35 Joint Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said Saturday at the Royal International Air Tattoo. “We think we're close enough such that my contracting officers can close this deal out."

The timing of the agreement, which will cover more than 140 aircraft valued at approximately $14 billion for US and international customers, will be up to aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Bogdan said.

"We are in the end game. We all understand what the costs are in building that many airplanes, and now it's just a matter of us working a business deal that's fair to everybody. And that's not always easy either,” he said.  “But we've gotten past the big rocks, so to speak. We're in the end game, and the important thing here is to now to come up with a business arrangement that's fair to everybody."..

The JPO originally expected a LRIP 9 and 10 contract early this year, but Bogdan said the government needed more time to understand the full cost of the airplane.

“It's just taken us longer to explore all of the costs all the way through the supply chain to make sure that the taxpayers are getting a good deal,” he said. “And so I don't blame anybody for the delay, other than the government had to do its due diligence on $14 billion worth of work."

The Defense Department and F-35 engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney announced a $1.5 billion agreement for F135 engines on Thursday. The company will manufacture 99 engines as part of the low rate initial production batch.

The program office is also eyeing a block buy contract in fiscal year 2017 for international partners and foreign military sales customers buying lot 12 jets, with US participation beginning in FY18 for lots 13 and 14 if approved by Congress.

“I think it is for sure on track for the services and the Congress to do that in ’18,” Bogdan said...
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/show-daily/farnborough/2016/07/09/bogdan-hints-f-35-contract-could-announced-farnborough/86893530/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[AlexanderM]

Young Justin has painted himself into quite a corner.  Hope he has the cajones to admit he made a mistake, hold a competition which allows the F-35 to contend, and award contracts accordingly.

This is the question, is he wise enough and smart enough to admit he's made a mistake. If not we could end up losing all the F-35 contracts and get hit with a NFTA claim ruling or legal action that could cost Canada billions. If that happens it could end up being a political nightmare for JT, it could come back on him and he could end up wearing it like a suit.

 

[observor 69]

These comments from the G&M caught my attention after all the discussion on capabilities and short comings of the aircraft:

"Ultimately, the new government may have no choice but to increase spending on defence. Take the vexed question of replacing the aging fleet of CF-18 fighters. The Liberals promised during the election campaign to scrap the Conservative commitment to the Lockheed Martin F-35, find something cheaper and spend the savings on the navy, which is desperately in need of new ships.

But while a last-generation fighter might be sufficient for bombing and strafing militants in Middle Eastern hills, it won’t do the job in contested airspace over Europe against the best Russian planes."

“They have a choice to make,” says Mr. Lindley-French of the new government. “Either they’re serious or they’re not. My sense of Mr. Trudeau thus far is that he’s not, that he wants to be a free rider.” Of course, sheltering beneath the American security umbrella, squeezing the defence budget and spending the money on domestic social programs is as Canadian as tinkering with the national anthem.

 

[MarkOttawa]

USAF F-35A IOC approaching this year with Block 3i software--still problems with Block 3F:

Final Software Load Plagues F-35 Test Jets

The U.S. Air Force is on the verge of declaring its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters operational after resolving a software bug that caused the jets’ systems to stall out mid-flight and have to be rebooted.

But at Edwards Air Force Base, California, the development test (DT) team in charge of testing each new increment of software is now seeing the same shutdown events in the new Block 3F software – the final load needed to give the F-35 full combat capability.

The Air Force F-35As will reach initial operational capability (IOC) this year with a less mature version of F-35 software, called Block 3i, which does not include some key combat capabilities. The final 3F software load will enable the full-up jets to deploy critical weapons such as the GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb, the GBU-31/32 Joint Direct Attack Munition, the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile and the main gun system [emphasis added].

The Joint Program Office (JPO) is aiming to complete 3F DT by June 30, 2017, in time for the operational test (OT) team to begin testing the full-up jets – a key test period that is officially called initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) – that fall.

But the team at Edwards is already running low on schedule margin to move to IOT&E on time due to the months spent fixing the issues with the Air Force’s 3i software load. Any unplanned discoveries on 3F could throw a wrench in the timeline...
http://aviationweek.com/defense/final-software-load-plagues-f-35-test-jets

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Loachman]

http://www.ottawasun.com/2016/07/09/liberals-chart-the-same-road-to-procurement-hell

Liberals chart the same road to procurement hell 

David Krayden

First posted:  Saturday, July 09, 2016 09:57 PM EDT  | Updated:  Saturday, July 09, 2016 10:05 PM EDT 

When I first joined the Canadian Armed Forces, the Tory government of Brian Mulroney had just announced a procurement plan to replace both the Sea King maritime helicopters and the Labrador search and rescue choppers with the EH-101. It made sense. A single aircraft to satisfy two vital military requirements: anti-submarine warfare and saving lives. The EH-101 was lauded as the sort of helicopter that Canada, with its three oceans and largest coastline in the world, deserved.

But Jean Chretien, still opposition leader and preparing for an election, decided that Canada’s military was not a world-class service and Canadians didn’t need the best aircraft when anything that flew would do. He called the replacement helicopter a “Cadillac,” and that set off a flurry of panic in the self-denigrating towers of National Defence headquarters.

Transitional prime minister Kim Campbell reduced the overall order from 50 to 43 but ultimately led her party into the electoral wilderness nonetheless.

Well, the funny thing is that the Grits ended up buying the EH-101 — at least to replace the Labrador. But they renamed it the Cormorant so nobody would notice they had just purchased a Cadillac and not a Honda Civic. As for the Sea King replacement, they intentionally dumbed-down the requirements so they wouldn’t have to go EH-101 shopping again.

In fact, the Chretien government interfered in the procurement so well that Sea Kings are still flying off Canadian Patrol Frigate decks — 53 years after the first ones were delivered.

Seems the same game is afoot with the CF-18 fighter jet replacements, with the revelation this week that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will dispense with the statement of operational requirements (SOR) carefully crafted by military planners, and imagine some sunnier alternatives.

But why not? This is consistent with Trudeau’s general contempt for the military and insistence that the admirals and generals aren’t as clever as he is. He promised to deep-six the F-35 joint strike fighter because it was all Stephen Harper’s idea – except it wasn’t. Jean Chretien signed on to the F-35 program because all our principal allies – the U.S., the U.K. and Australia – had signed on as well.

Now he seems to favour the Super Hornet as a replacement – though it’s not clear whether that’s a transitional fix or a longer term solution. Regardless, he’ll rewrite the SOR because that will consume a good half decade of the endless procurement timeline.

Looking increasingly comical in this latest saga of defence non-acquisition is the defence minister himself. When not conducting tours of Parliament Hill or other shameless publicity exercises, Harjit Sajjan has mastered the real language of Ottawa: not English, not French but bureaucratese. Sajjan recently spoke of the RCAF having to manage the arcane process of going from “an existing capability gap to a capability loss.” Wow. You can’t make this stuff up.

Meanwhile, Trudeau is in Poland at the NATO summit promising to send our CF-18s overseas to defend eastern Europe from reinvigorated Russian aggression. NATO, you will recall, is the organization that Canada underfunds by refusing to spend a parsimonious per cent of its GDP on defence, and the CF-18s are those aircraft that are headed for “a capability loss.”

Well, Trudeau is always giving away things he hasn’t got and making promises he knows he can’t keep, so why not bring our NATO friends along for the ride?

It’s all part of those sunny ways.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Really?

There is no system in place to strip Canada of its F-35 industrial participation should the government in Ottawa go through with threats to drop the fifth-generation fighter, according to a top US official.

Speaking in London ahead of the Farnborough International Airshow, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, said there is “no process in place” for what happens to Canada’s work share on the F-35 program if it should not buy the jet. He added that prime contractor Lockheed Martin would have to work with the other partner nations to figure out if or how that work share could be reapportioned.

(...)

as Kendall put it: “It is an economic partnership for each of the partners to have work share, and I think there would be pretty strong reaction amongst the rest of the partners to continuing to provide work share to a country that’s not participating in buying aircraft.”

Just how moving work share from Canada to other partners would work, however, is unclear ...

Why do I think a system would be whipped up pretty quickly if/when Canada says "no" clearly, once and for all?

Meanwhile, RUS state media takes the piss a bit ...

• "Canada Ignores Lockheed Threats: Ottawa Wants Super Hornet, Not Faulty F-35"
• "This is F-35's Weak Spot That Russian Radars Could Exploit"

 

[tomahawk6]

The price of an F-35 is down to $85m or 57% according to Lockheed Martin.This might make for a good argument to hold off.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/11/lockheed-martin-ceo-price-of-f-35-jets-down-57-percent.html?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=103777820&yptr=yahoo

The price of Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet is coming down as commercial sales of the pricey aircraft ramp up, CEO Marillyn Hewson said Monday.

The F-35 made its first appearance at the world's largest military air show on Friday. The $379 billion warplane project is the largest arms program in the world.

Six F-35 jets, including one owned by Britain, were on display at the Royal International Air Tattoo, drawing cheers from huge crowds two years after engine trouble and a fleetwide grounding prevented their international debut at the show.

Launched 15 years ago, the world's largest weapons program was plagued for years by cost overruns and technical challenges, but with more than 180 F-35 jets now flying it is finally hitting its stride.

 

[MilEME09]

The price of an F-35 is down to $85m or 57% according to Lockheed Martin.This might make for a good argument to hold off.

If true, suddenly that Super Hornet is looking not as much of a "cheaper" buy that the Grits would hope for

 

[Journeyman]

If true, suddenly that Super Hornet is looking not as much of a "cheaper" buy that the Grits would hope for

Was "cheaper" a factor, or just "not Harper"?

 

[Good2Golf]

"I takes out my pen, an scratch out da F-35.  No F-35!  Zip, zero, nada....no new Joint Strike Fighters!"


...A rose by any other name...

 

[CougarKing]

Probably would never happen for the RCAF as long as Justin thinks that the best fighter in any competition they would hold "does not work".  :

Popular Mechanics

F-35s Could Attack Islamic State This Fall ​

Whether it should is an entirely different matter.

By Kyle Mizokami
Jul 18, 2016

The head of the U.S. Air Force's fighter fleet has told Congress that F-35s could be headed to the Middle East for combat missions later this year. It could mark the troubled aircraft's combat debut.

The U.S. Air Force's F-35A fighters are projected to achieve Initial Operating Capability on August 1st of this year, five years behind schedule. IOC would mean the first squadron of F-35As is ready for combat, and that first squadron is expected to be Hill Air Force Base's 34th Fighter Squadron. According to Fighter Sweep.com, General "Hawk" Carlisle, head of the Air Force's Air Combat Command, told reporters: "The minute I declare initial operational capability, if the combatant commander called me up and said, 'We need F-35s,' I would send them."

(...SNIPPED)

 

[GR66]

With the Russians so active in Syria I would have thought that they'd prefer not to deploy the F-35s there to delay their being able to begin assessing the performance and possible sensor signatures of the aircraft.

 

[PuckChaser]

They've already been able to do that with F-22s for years, this is just a maturation of that aircraft's stealth.

I think the need to show that it works in combat outweighs what the Russians can collect from a couple hundred miles away.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Planned Turkish buy?

F-35 impact from unrest in Turkey unclear: Lockheed

A failed military coup last week will not affect Lockheed Martin’s business relationship with Turkey, though it could be too early to make that call, according to top Lockheed Martin executives.

In a Tuesday earnings call, Lockheed’s chief executive, Marillyn Hewson, and chief financial officer, Bruce Tanner, offered different views over whether recent events in Turkey would affect Lockheed’s business deals there.

“If you look at Turkey, I know there’s been a lot of churn recently,” Hewson says. “But it’s an essential security partner for the US and our allies … we have not seen an indication it will affect our business.”

Tanner measured Hewson’s comments, saying it’s too early to call up implications for the F-35 programme in Turkey. He also notes Lockheed’s business history with Turkish aerospace companies, including the Lockheed’s foreign military sale deal with TAI to upgrade the Turkish Air Force’s F-16 fighters.

“We’ve got a long history with Turkey,” Tanner says. “They’ve been a trusted partner.”..

Turkey's participation in the F-35 programme goes back 14 years. The Turkish government signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Defense Department in 2002 to join the nine-member international partnership, pledging to contribute $175 million to develop the fighter. Northrop Grumman later named Turkish Aerospace Industries as a second source for producing the F-35's complex centre fuselage. In 2014, the US DOD announced that Turkey would host the first heavy engine maintenance centre in Europe in 2018, supporting the Pratt & Whitney F135 powerplant for the F-35A.

Turkey plans to order 100 conventional takeoff and landing F-35As, with the first 30 scheduled for delivery by 2022...
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-impact-from-unrest-in-turkey-unclear-lockheed-427610/

Coup attempt and following mass purge:

Turkey, or, Failed Coup in the Land of the Sublime Erdogan the Magnificent
https://cgai3ds.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/mark-collins-turkey-or-failed-coup-in-the-land-the-sublime-erdogan-the-magnificent/

Mark
Ottawa

 

[The Bread Guy]

This, from VICE:

If newly-obtained documents are any indication, Canada may become the first country to scrap its order for the American F-35 fighter jet, the most expensive weapons program ever. Letters sent to the big industry players are just further evidence that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to pull the trigger on a whole new open competition to pick Canada's next generation of fighter jet.

That competition will likely favour an out-of-the-box jet, over the expensive F-35.

Industry sources confirmed that the government set up meetings with big-name players in the aerospace industry in recent weeks to figure out its next steps in buying a new fighter jet — this, even though it's technically already on the hook to buy 65 of the F-35 Lightning II jets, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

Those face-to-face meetings took place with representatives from two US companies: Boeing, Lockheed Martin itself; Sweden's Saab; the French Dassault; and the European multinational consortium Eurofighter. All of them make fighters that, while less advanced than the stealthy F-35, are vastly cheaper.

The meetings follow a 38-page questionnaire, provided to VICE News, which was sent to the five industry players, asking them to lay out the pros and cons of their jets.

( ... )

The letters, sent July 7, have a due date of July 29 for the submission of proposals.

A spokesperson for the Department of National Defense wouldn't comment on the letters, but indicated that they would be posted publicly next week ...

op: