re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread
related to the Miragedriver's post above:
Posted on InsideDefense.com: May 29, 2014
Norway's parliament will vote on a bill in June on whether to continue with Norwegian-built Joint Strike Missile development, which is part of F-35 Block 4 follow-on development.
In the Pentagon's fiscal year 2015 budget request, which was sent to Congress in March, F-35 Block 4 follow-on development is included as a new-start effort; $14 million is requested for FY-15 and $523 million is projected across the future years defense plan. Some of these funds will be used to integrate the JSM into the F-35.
Norway is one of eight full international partners on the F-35 program, and the country's top defense contractor, Kongsberg, produces the JSM anti-surface and anti-ship munition. Like many Joint Strike Fighter program participants, Norway has insisted on some level of industrial participation, and working the missile into the aircraft's future for use both by the Norwegian air force and other militaries has become a key goal for the country's military and defense industry.
Norway has a bill in the country's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that has to do with the F-35 program. The F-35 program anticipates it will be subject to a floor vote in June. The bill addresses the third and final stage of JSM development and this phase will cost the government about $622 million or 3.7 billion Norwegian kroners, Anders Melheim, Norway's F-35 program director, wrote in a May 29 email to InsideDefense.com.
"The JSM has now concluded Phase II of development, and has completed its Critical Design Review (CDR,)" Melheim wrote. "We also had the Institute of Defense Analyses (IDA) in the U.S. do a review of the JSM-design, and found that it complied with [Defense Department] standards, and has sufficient technological maturity to continue development and begin preparations for integration on the F-35."
If the Norwegian parliament authorizes Phase III of the JSM, initial flight tests using a legacy aircraft may begin as early as next year, Melheim continued.
The plan is to integrate the JSM for Norway, the United States and other countries who are interested in the F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing variant and the F-35 carrier variant of the aircraft. The missile cannot be integrated into the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing variant because its weapons bay is not large enough.
"Should we at a later stage decide to provide for external carriage of the JSM on the F-35, than all three variants will of course be able to carry the missile," Melheim wrote.
JSM as part of Block 4 follow-on development will be ready for use on the F-35 between 2022 and 2024, Melheim continued.
Norway anticipates that its first F-35, AM-1, will be delivered as part of the seventh lot of low-rate initial JSF production in late 2015. This aircraft, along with three subsequent fighters, will be based at Luke Air Force Base, AZ, where Norway's pilots will train, he wrote.
"The first aircraft to arrive in Norway will be from LRIP-9, and will land at Ørland Main Air Station north of Trondheim in late 2017," Melheim added.
Norwegian government officials visited Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, TX, JSF facility two weeks ago, he wrote.
InsideDefense.com reported in January that 24 Norwegian companies have been awarded contracts tied to the F-35, either in support of manufacturing the aircraft or for weapons and ammunition. The total value of these contracts is about $355 million, he wrote.
) 
