F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread

[Jura The idiot]

wow, just wow

"Unexplained or unexpected growth in actual sustainment costs:
Service headquarters officials cited concerns about unexplained or
unexpected growth in sustainment costs, particularly between the cost
estimate that they were quoted for budget planning purposes and
what they are actually charged by the program office in the budget
execution year. For example, according to program documentation,
the Marine Corps was initially given a funding requirement for fiscal
year 2017 sustainment support of $293 million, which then increased
to $364 million in the execution year, largely due to increases in
contractor personnel costs. Marine Corps officials said that the
reasons behind this growth in personnel costs were not clearly
substantiated for the Marine Corps by the program office. In order to
afford these increased costs for sustainment support, Marine Corps
officials said that the Marine Corps had to reduce its planned flying
hours. In another instance, documents provided by the Navy show
that the program office increased the cost of the Navy’s and Marine
Corps’ combined spare parts requirements for fiscal year 2017 from
an original estimate of $261 million to $402 million over the course of
the execution year. In addition, service officials told us that they
sometimes become aware of the growth in sustainment costs late in
the services’ budgeting process, making it difficult for them to find
additional funding for such changes."

p. 36 (41 of 59); link is in the post right above

I think Trump should talk to LockMart

 

[FORBIN]

F-35 Aircraft Sustainment

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I don't have see in 59 pages... the flight hour price important a weakness in this report !
Out approx prices :
severals years ago close F-22 60000 $/hour after 42000 in average for all variants
ofc B/C more specials cost more

In 2016 A to 30000$/hour as F-15E the C/D 40000, F-16 20000 so a lot of progress indispensable with a fleet of 1763 birds ! but with coating etc.... surely not possible to do better than about 25000$

Readiness in average A/B 48 - 52 % for all the Fleet aircrafts deployed in all Air Services have a more big % the F-22 is to 68 - 70 % extremely difficult do better with maintenance for coating etc...

 

[Jura The idiot]

Friday at 4:41 PM

October 2017
F-35 AIRCRAFT SUSTAINMENT

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and now I looked at this:

the requirement "Full Mission Capable" 50% F-35A (40% F-35B) isn't that high, is it?

("pilot" above doesn't refer to an aviator LOL but

The use of the term “pilot” with regard to the performance-based agreements denotes a
phased approach to testing aspects of the agreements before introducing them more
widely within the F-35 program.

just saying)

 

[Jura The idiot]

after Today at 6:17 PM

Friday at 4:41 PM

and now I looked at this:

the requirement "Full Mission Capable" 50% F-35A (40% F-35B) isn't that high, is it?

("pilot" above doesn't refer to an aviator LOL but

just saying)

was curious about FMC data of other aircraft, but what I found out is ...:

“So that’s year on year we’ve kind of been funding less of the requirement, and not surprisingly, not unexpectedly, full mission capable aircraft have come down from 55 percent – we try to work in a band between 50 and 60 (percent) – to less than 30 percent today. That connection’s not hard to make,” ... Shoemaker said ..."
Air Boss: Navy Would Prioritize New Platforms Over Legacy Ones When Funding Readiness
March 3, 2017

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[FORBIN]

Interesting comparison the back of the F-35 is not pretty with a very big engine but we san see the size difference for fuselage very bid and why depite its clear inferior size it is not much lighter than the F-22

Unusual bird Buddy... ?

Italians fighters

 

[FORBIN]

Interesting for 1 sec F-16 but in fact equal the F-35 has finished its turn quite sure later F-35 block 3F capable 9G vs 7.5 now beat F-16

Doubtful

 

[FORBIN]

Yet arrived

2 US F-35A fighters arrive in Kadena Air Base

Two US Air Force state-of-the-art F-35A stealth fighters have arrived at the Kadena Air Base in Japan's southern prefecture of Okinawa.

They landed at the base on Monday afternoon.

The US military earlier announced that it would send a dozen F-35A fighters and 300 personnel from a base in the US state of Utah to the Kadena Air Base for 6 months, starting in November.

Japan's Okinawa Defense Bureau says the 2 fighters that arrived at the base are believed to the first of the 12 that the US plans to station at Kadena.

The first deployment of the stealth jets to Kadena is believed to be part of efforts aimed at increasing military pressure on North Korea.

As the US military has been sending many other aircraft to Kadena, the move is likely to trigger increased opposition among local residents, who are wary of the base's functions possibly being upgraded.

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[FORBIN]

F-35A at the Huntington Beach air show

 

[Jura The idiot]

Oct 24, 2017

according to FlighGlobal Lockheed F-35 deliveries lag in third quarter

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and Corrosion issue stops F-35 deliveries for a month
01 November, 2017

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Lockheed Martin halted all F-35 deliveries for a month after discovering excessive corrosion on fasteners under an F-35A’s fuselage panels during maintenance at Hill AFB, Utah, the Defense Department confirmed this week.

The Pentagon temporarily suspended deliveries of the Joint Strike Fighter from 21 September until 20 October, a JPO spokesman tells FlightGlobal.

A joint government and industry investigation found that Lockheed had failed to apply a primer to prevent corrosion in the fastener holes for an aluminium cover plate. The issue does not pose a safety risk to the fleet or affect operations, the JPO says in a statement.

The JPO, international partners and Lockheed are developing a plan to inspect about 250 F-35 already delivered and fix any panels with corroded fasteners, the JPO adds.

“In the interim, primer will be applied to fastener holes of fielded aircraft as panels are removed during routine F-35 maintenance operations,” the JPO states. “Lockheed Martin has taken action to correct the production line work order error to ensure primer is applied to all fastener holes on future aircraft.”

Lockheed delivered 44 F-35s through the firsts three quarters of 2017, averaging nearly 15 aircraft per three-month period. Another 22 aircraft must be delivered in the fourth quarter for Lockheed to hit the JPO's delivery target of 66 deliveries.

 

[Jura The idiot]

Yesterday at 9:48 PM

Oct 24, 2017

and Corrosion issue stops F-35 deliveries for a month
01 November, 2017

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now DefenseNews:
Minor quality control issue creates new problem for F-35 enterprise

A quality control issue at Lockheed Martin stopped F-35 deliveries for a month, but even more time will be needed to roll out a fix to impacted jets across the fleet.

When corrosion was found in several fastener holes under the fuselage panels of a F-35A undergoing maintenance at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, the F-35 joint program office suspended deliveries of the aircraft to give it and Lockheed time to analyze the issue, a Lockheed spokesman said in a statement. That interruption lasted from Sept. 21 to Oct. 20.

The investigation found that Lockheed had not been applying the required primer, which prevents corrosion, to the fastener holes on F-35 substructures during the production process.

In terms the problems that have plagued the F-35 program, the lack of primer on fastener holes is minor when compared to past issues, which have included faulty insulation that disintegrated into the aircraft’s fuel tank or an engine rubbing problem that increased the danger of fires.

“This is a production quality escape issue and, though it needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations,” noted JPO spokesman Joe DellaVedova in a statement.

However, depending on the extent of the problem, making repairs could be a lengthy process — and one that could potentially add even more cost to the program, if the Defense Department is forced to pay for the fix.

The JPO and Lockheed statements do not quantify how many of the more than 250 F-35s already delivered to the U.S. military and partner nations are impacted by the quality lapse. However, the program office states it and Lockheed are currently working on a corrective action maintenance plan to “implement the necessary repairs to all aircraft in the field while minimizing impact to operations.”

Even with the temporary stoppage on deliveries, Lockheed claims it will be meet its goal of 66 F-35s delivered this year, with 54 accepted by the Defense Department so far. The company also has made changes to its production processes to ensure that workers are applying primer as required.

“As part of our corrective action, we have reviewed and addressed work instructions, personnel training and processes to ensure all work is performed to the specifications,” a spokesman said.

Once finished, the corrective action maintenance plan will lay out how the department will modify fielded aircraft, the timeline for making those repairs and which entities will bear the cost. Until then, repairs will be done on a piecemeal basis, as maintainers apply primer to fastener holes that are exposed during routine work on the jets, the JPO said.

source:

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