ALIS
Posted on InsideDefense.com: March 26, 2014
The program executive officer for the Joint Strike Fighter today gave Congress new details on the F-35's development, noting an infusion of money from foreign partners has lowered the Pentagon's fiscal year 2015 funding needs for the program by $400 million.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, who testified before the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee, also wrote in his prepared testimony that program officials recently completed a design review of a logistics system that has caused aircraft operators and maintainers major problems in the field.
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), the subcommittee's ranking member, revealed at the hearing that she was briefed by Bogdan's office about $400 million made available by international partners for FY-15 JSF spending -- but she questioned whether that additional funding clashed with Bogdan's frequent assertions that he would not need any more money to fund F-35 development activities.
According to the general, that money represents lower-than-expected costs for the partners over the last several years, not new funding they have requested from their own governments. And because they have "generously" handed it over to the JSF program, Bogdan said, $400 million that would have been paid by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps is now available for other expenses in FY-15.
Bogdan's written testimony includes several other details about program cost and performance issues. These include the JSF's helmet-mounted display system, a long-acknowledged technical challenge that program officials believe they have surmounted. The program office last year canceled a competition between the Gen III helmet, built by a Rockwell Collins/Elbit Systems joint venture called VSI, and a BAE Systems backup helmet. At the time, the program office said that decision was based on the technical maturity of the Gen III. Bogdan's testimony adds that VSI provided the JSF program with a "cost guarantee" that will lower the helmet system's price going forward by a significant 12 percent. Canceling the competition also avoided $45 million in expenses tied to the backup helmet.
The general also provided a status update on the F-35's Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), an overarching maintenance and fleet management system that has matured much more slowly than expected.
The Lockheed Martin-developed system has always included plans for a deployable version, and Bogdan wrote that program officials put the deployable ALIS through a critical design review last month. The first operational version should be available by April 2015 in support of Marine Corps initial operational capability, and the second should be ready for the
Air Force's desired IOC date in late 2016.
Bogdan's testimony does not describe the level of capability ALIS will have at those times. Today, the system requires many workarounds that strain pilots and maintainers, slow the pace at which missions are executed and reduce aircraft availability. A new and much-improved ALIS software load is not expected until 2016.
The Pentagon's inspector general recommended last year that the F-35 program split off ALIS as a major and separate acquisition effort to increase oversight and attention on the system. Bogdan wrote that doing so would be detrimental, but JSF leaders have increased their focus on ALIS development.
"Although we have not implemented the recommendation to separate ALIS as a Major Automated Information System program, as I previously mentioned, the enterprise now deals with ALIS as if it is a 'weapons system' and a critical part of the F-35 program," he wrote. "I believe separating ALIS from the Air System, three years before the end of development activities, will introduce significant integration, implementation, and management risks with undesirable effects to the program budget, schedule, and Air System performance."
