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

[Jura The idiot]

I wouldn't tell em a damn thing,,

I know you wouldn't
LOL

 

[Jeff Head]

Today at 8:28 AM
related:
MOD's failure to give F-35 stealth jet costs is 'wholly unacceptable' say MPs

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Well, whatever el;se, the price has come down and is stil;l falling. 60% less than the first delivery.

The UK now has 14 aircraft, more than anyone else outside the US.

The US now has more F-35s than F-22s.

...and the beat goes on.

 

[Jura The idiot]

Well, whatever el;se, the price has come down and is stil;l falling. 60% less than the first delivery.

...

wow so why don't they (the UK brass) announce the price, then?

 

[FORBIN]

Sweet

 

[Jura The idiot]

in case you didn't know
Lockheed Late Delivering Its F-35s for Fourth Consecutive Year

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December 20, 2017

• Defense contract agency uses different metrics from contractor
• Nine of the planes were supposed to be delivered previous year

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failed to meet delivery timelines set out in contracts for its F-35 jet for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Pentagon’s contract management agency.

It’s a less upbeat assessment of Lockheed’s performance than was offered earlier this week by the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor, which said it met its “2017 delivery commitment” of 66 planes.

While the company -- and the Defense Department’s own F-35 program office -- count how many of the fighter jets were turned over in a calendar year based on an agreed-on commitment, the Defense Contract Management Agency zeroes in on the monthly delivery dates set out in production contracts.

The 66 planes delivered in 2017 included nine from the planes’ eighth production contract that were supposed to be ready in 2016, according to the contract agency. Of the remaining 57, 23 were late based on the monthly “contractual requirements,” Mark Woodbury, a spokesman for the agency, said in an email.

The agency said in February that Lockheed “did not meet contract requirements in 2014, 2015 or 2016” but has begun to improve its performance.

‘Hard Work’
At the time, Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office, said the company and the Pentagon “established a joint committee to deliver 66 aircraft.” DellaVedova said in an email Tuesday that both the contract management agency and Lockheed recognize the importance of setting goals and resolving issues.

The program office “works with our industry partners to make improvements, address challenges and deliver continuous capabilities,” he said.

Lockheed said in an emailed statement that the company “and the F-35 Joint Program Office established a joint commitment to deliver 66 F-35 aircraft in 2017, and on Dec. 15. 2017, we delivered on that commitment.” The contractor noted that the Defense Contract Management Agency “focuses on aircraft-specific contract dates, while our annual target focuses on our total goal for the year.”

In

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on Monday, Jeff Babione, the company’s F-35 general manager, said delivery of 66 F-35s in 2017 represents an increase of more than 40 percent from the previous year and is “a testament to the hard work and dedication of our joint government and industry team to deliver the transformational F-35 air system to the warfighter.”

Meeting the specific delivery markers in contracts would be a confidence-building measure for investors and analysts who follow Lockheed and for Pentagon officials. They want to accelerate the pace of production starting this fiscal year with the eventual signing of an 11th production contract for 141 planes, the most in the program’s history. It also would help bolster the argument that the F-35 has moved past its worst days of delays and cost overruns.

Still, Lockheed’s aeronautics unit “continues to experience ongoing, recurring F-35 quality assurance issues and is unable to deliver on time,” according to an Oct. 23 memo from the Defense Contract Management Agency to senior Pentagon officials preparing for a Nov. 6 meeting with top Lockheed management.

The delays aren’t a major revenue issue for the contractor. The accounting method used by Lockheed lets it book revenue on the F-35 program closer to when costs rather than on delivery.

 

[Jura The idiot]

and now F-35 Ascending: The Pentagon's Biggest Program Had Its Best Year Ever In 2017

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In April of this year, the Defense Contract Management Agency predicted that Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the Pentagon's tri-service F-35 joint strike fighter, would not be able to meet a goal of delivering 66 of the aircraft in 2017. Delivering 66 would represent a 43% increase over the program's performance in 2016, and based on past performance the agency figured Lockheed would fall short by nine planes.

Eight months later, on December 15, Lockheed Martin delivered the 66th plane -- for the umpteenth time confounding critics of the Pentagon's biggest weapons program. Although the contracting agency managed to find an arcane reason why this wasn't really good news, the fact of the matter is that the F-35 program is going gangbusters. Developmental testing is approaching completion after 8,000 flights without a single major mishap, and all three variants of the plane are meeting their performance specifications.

With no show-stoppers left to find, production of the fighter is ramping up fast. The production goal for next year is over 90 fighters, and that number will grow to 160 five years later. In addition to the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, 11 other countries have signed up to buy the F-35, and half a dozen more are signaling interest. One reason is that the price of the most common variant, the Air Force's F-35A, is projected to fall to $80 million per plane by 2020, making it no more expensive than legacy fighters that lack the F-35's advanced technology (the latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner lists for $300 million).

It seems Lockheed Martin has a winner on its hands -- a really big one. Lockheed is a longtime contributor to my think tank and a consulting client, so I have been following the progress of its biggest weapons program since the award was first made on October 26, 2001. It was never hard to understand why such a plane was needed if the U.S. was to sustain global air dominance, but there were times during the intervening years when it wasn't so clear that Congress or the White House grasped the urgency of seeing the program through.

Today, though, the F-35 has broken through the clouds and is ascending fast. Over 500 pilots and 5,000 maintainers have been trained. Aircraft reliability is averaging 93%, which is extraordinary for a new, cutting-edge tactical aircraft. The fighter is operating from 14 different bases, and several allies are already flying it. Israel declared that its fleet of F-35s had achieved initial operational capability earlier this month. All signs point to F-35 being the dominant fighter around the world through mid-century.

If you haven't followed this saga closely, I can explain in simple terms why F-35 is a game-changer. First, the "low observable" (stealth) features built into the airframe from its inception make it nearly invisible to enemy radar. Second, its ability to fuse inputs from on-board and off-board sensors gives pilots comprehensive situational awareness. Third, its secure networking technology allows all the pilots in a strike group to share the same operational picture. Fourth, its Pratt & Whitney engine delivers unprecedented performance.

Put those features together, and you have an agile, supersonic fighter that can see the enemy first and shoot the enemy first -- often before that adversary even knows it is in danger. The performance advantage the F-35 enjoys is so great that it typically defeats adversaries in warfighting exercises by a 20-to-1 ratio. Compared with the best legacy fighters in the joint fleet today, the F-35 is over ten times better at electronic attack, over eight times better at surveillance, over six times better at defeating hostile fighters, over five times better at striking surface targets, and over four times better at surviving when confronted with advanced air defenses.

These performance features have been fully demonstrated in flight testing. Each of the three F-35 variants meets all of its specifications for stealth, meaning few defenders will have any way of opposing it. If Russia is foolish enough to begin a war in Eastern Europe, the F-35 will quickly suppress its air defenses so that other allied planes have unfettered use of local air space. If North Korea is foolish enough to attack the South, F-35 can reach Pyongyang from Seoul in less than ten minutes without being tracked, precisely targeting whatever coordinates have been selected.

As if all of this was not enough good news for the Pentagon's biggest weapons program, in a peculiar twist of fate the F-35 has turned out to be a perfect match for the Trump Administration's economic and security goals. On the one hand, the fighter will assure U.S. global air dominance for decades to come. On the other hand, over a third of the 4,000 F-35s likely to be built will be purchased by overseas allies, creating tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

So the first year of the Trump Administration has turned out to be the best year ever for the F-35 program. The stealthy fighter has debuted in Europe, in the Middle East, and in the Western Pacific to nearly universal praise. The price of the fighter is falling with each successive production lot, and that decline continues to outpace Pentagon projections. The F-35 seems to win every foreign competition in which it goes head-to-head with alternatives, underscoring its unique combination of price and performance.

An interesting question for Lockheed Martin as it wraps up a very successful year is whether it can convince the government that the talent it has for reducing production costs can also be applied to keeping the fighters in a high state of readiness at an affordable price once they are fielded. That activity, known within the military as sustainment, typically absorbs more money over the lifetime of a program than development and production. As the original equipment manufacturer, Lockheed undoubtedly has unique insight into relevant technologies, supply chains and the like. So what will that mean for sustainment of the aircraft in the future?

For now, though, the key take away is that the F-35 program is a smashing success. Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, and the Joint Program Office have delivered on their promise to produce a game-changing tactical aircraft that will deliver "command of the air" for the foreseeable future. Usually when programs turn out this way, promotions follow and sales end up exceeding original expectations. So forget all those doom-and-gloom stories you heard about the "troubled F-35 fighter." This program is a winner.

 

[Jura The idiot]

from what I figured Today at 1:25 PM
they included the backlog and Lockheed meets 2017 F-35 delivery goal

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Lockheed Martin hit the planned F-35 delivery total for the year, rolling out its 66th jet in 2017 earlier this week.

The latest annual delivery total raises overall deliveries of production-series F-35s to 266, including non-US customers, Lockheed says in an 18 December release.

The announcement came as a surprise, following Lockheed’s third quarter earnings call earlier this October.

At the time, Lockheed reported 15 F-35s delivered at the end of September, bringing the total deliveries that year to 44. That put Lockheed behind its original goal of delivering 66 jets by the end of 2017.

Shortly after Lockheed reported its earnings, the Pentagon halted all F-35 deliveries after the US Air Force discovered corrosion issues on an F-35A. A government and industry investigation found Lockheed failed to apply a primer to prevent corrosion in the fastener holes for an aluminium cover plate. The issue did not pose a safety risk to the fleet or affect operations, F-35 Joint Programme Office stated.

The previous quarter saw 14 jets delivered, with 15 in the first quarter, setting a nine-month average of almost three deliveries a month. That meant Lockheed averaged about 5.5 deliveries in October, November and so far this month to meet the annual goal of 66 aircraft.

With 266 jets delivered out of 356 awarded, Lockheed faces a backlog of 90 aircraft.

But the latest delivery wrapped up low-rate initial production lots one through 9, meaning Lockheed will focus on manufacturing the 90 F-35s contracted under LRIP 10 next year. The 90 aircraft goal is part of a production ramp up that will increase to 160 deliveries per year by 2023.

 

[FORBIN]

What 4 ship !

 

[Jeff Head]

in case you didn't know
Lockheed Late Delivering Its F-35s for Fourth Consecutive Year

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December 20, 2017

• 
  
  
  • Defense contract agency uses different metrics from contractor
  • Nine of the planes were supposed to be delivered previous year

Jura...they completed the deliveries for the requisite numbers...they did miss the end by a short time period...but they delivered them all within the year and within the contractual obligation.

There are time periods that they target...and then time periods by which time they must deliver or face financial penalties.

Is Lockheed facing penalties for missing their overall, actual obligation?

If they had, we would have herd about THAT from all the liberal, nay-sying outfits not only in the US...but around the world.

Instead, they did not hit the earlier goal, but they did deliver all required for the annual requirement.

There are some that believe all of the nay-saying and find anything...anything at ll to report negatively about the aircraft will make it bad...will make it undesirable. Instead...the exact opposite is occuring depitse thier activities.

I believe...and I have seen a lot of programs that the liberals and the progressives, and those who have an axe to grind against the US (both internal and external) that they have done all in their power to stop...and sadly they have stopped quite a few...anyhow, I believe of all of them, I have never seen an aircraft that has faced so much unwarranted and mischievous attacks...with a lot just climbing on the and wagon, willing to say anything, make up anything, find any issue (and ANY program this large and complex is going to have issues...that is not abnormal and they need to be addressed. But the amount of ill will and nay saying has reached new heights with this aircraft.

...and that is because most of those who want to naysay it do not want the US or her allies to have such a capability because they know what it will men. Then those types get a whole lof of others climbing on the band wagon.

But it will not matter.

I will say again...the F-35 will be by far the most widely produced, purcahsd and utilized 5th genertion stealth airraft in the world. And the nations who get her, will be happy they have her becaue of the ground breaking, new and capable ways that she brings her war fighting and info gathering to the battle space to the benefit of their forces.

Away and by far the most capable and most sought after.

...despite all the nay saying.

Watch and see!

 

[Air Force Brat]

wow so why don't they (the UK brass) announce the price, then?

It's very, very simple brother, we need the airplane, and as I will continue to remind all, 5 Gen aircraft are very, very, expensive!!! and liberal polies really don't understand that you have to defend your nation to survive! they live in an "alternate universe", where the real enemy is their own "military industrial complex"! Smart folks realize it does NOT matter a whit if you have to spend 2% of your gross GDP, or 20% of your gross GDP to defend yourself,,, and those who are unwilling to do whatever it takes are very shortly overran by the barbarians!

this is a very, very dangerous world we live in Master Jura, and the US invests very heavily in the defense of freedom, and while we appear to be the bad guys,,, we value everyone's freedom. The exception are the bad guys, who intend to take away the freedom of other's,, then it's perspective, we will do what it takes to defend as many as we can with the assets available.

truth be told, it helps the economy, because freedom does indeed increase the ability to produce, and as Jeff Head continues to remind us, the economy of scale drives down costs...

when you cut, and whittle like the bean counters did to the F-22, eventually you end with NOTHING, just like they did to the sweet and very superior F-22, which had just entered a good place in its production life, where value began to overtake cost!