“This organizational change will help ensure a unified voice for operational integration of the F-35 across the Air Force as we collectively work towards bringing this remarkable new aircraft into our combat inventory.” Harrigian said in a statement.Wow.
Harrigian is the Air Force’s assistant deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements. He replaces Col. Carl Schaefer, who heads to Edwards Air Force Base in March to command the 412th Test Wing in March.
Perhaps the most important but obscure bit of this change is that the Air Force’s voting authority in the JPO moves from Air Combat Command to the F-35 Integration Office. That gives the service’s senior leadership a tighter rein on the program. As the statement notes, “all senior leader communication within the Air Force will flow through the integration office.”
“Assigning a general officer on the Air Staff will ensure we have a single point of contact with the Joint Program office empowered to speak on behalf of the Air Force for any aspect of the F-35 program,” Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force Chief of Staff, said in the statement.
Air Combat Command has been booted as the voting authority?
There is now a single point of contact for the USAF on this program?
I fully expect all news to be even more sanitized than it has been. We will hear nothing but sunshine, rainbows and unicorns are being produced. They will lie in an attempt to blunt criticism of this airplane.
I thought it was in trouble before.
Now I'm convinced.
Hopefully people with knowledge of this whole debacle will come out and start to revolt in a manner similar to how retired Generals are staring to with the Mid-East/Anti-Terror strategy (or lack there-of).
ReplyDeleteThe good thing though (well, not "good" but "less-shitty") is that this program is just too expensive to continue to full production. With talk of pulling back sequestration (at least on the DoD), it would be nice if large-price-tag programs like this and the JLTV get much more scrutiny, maybe even some investigating by the GAO if there hasn't been any already?
Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteYour logic summarized:
Any time now they will cancel it.
>LRIP aprooved
Anytime now. Just...just anytime
>Traning squadron delivered
Annnyyyytime now. Complete death sprial. Just going down, cancellation in 30 mins.
>marine's get first airframe
.a...any time now...just...just any time.
the flaw in my thinking is this. i failed to take into account the difficulties of canceling a multi-national multi-billion verging on a trillion dollar program.
Deletewhat you're failing to acknowledge is the failure that is this program. the arrogance and willful refusal to accept the obvious is stunning.
explain if you dare to, the need to form an F-35 integration office at this late date. explain why the Command that is going to be the user of the airplane in USAF service is being frozen out. explain it cowboy. stop being a smart ass and start providing some info.
I think most of these F35 supporters are aware of the problems in the program.. it is just they tried so hard to jump every hoop just to see a hint of silver lining in the massive stormcloud.. they are compelled to do so because after investing so much and so long in their belief of F35, their psyche cannot take a 'no' or a 'failure' as an option , because to accept a negative result will shook their belief system and put them in downward spiral of confusion..
DeleteIn psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.
But, but, "sensor fusion!"
DeleteF35 woo meisters have no leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing logic.
The F-35 program after fourteen years development, and at least four more years to go, has a long list of problems. Still they are producing dozens of faulty, useless development prototypes with severe flight restrictions, at about five for a billion dollars, money that is desperately required for useful pursuits. Air Force and Marine Corps officers are fully complicit in this scam involving the massive transfer of money to Lockheed-Martin as corporate welfare for the "Magic F-35."
ReplyDeleteThe problem, of course, is that the system is not fully developed. Let's look at the particulars of the Magic F-35 which isn't so magic: engine, software, helmet, logistics support (ALIS) and mission files. The F-35 has not yet been proven by more rigorous development tests nor by operational tests to see how it actually performs in service, so we'll go with what we know.
The F-35 engine is its biggest problem. The largest, heaviest and hottest jet engine ever put in a fighter plane is not durable, with breaking turbine blades, and flexes too much in sharp turns. The engine also lacks necessary containment, so the resulting engine breakup due to flex-induced rotor/stator friction and breaking turbine blades sends parts through the engine casing and into the surrounding fuel (used as a coolant for this hot engine) thereby causing a fire and destruction of the plane, as happened at Eglin Air Force base on June 23, 2014. The engine requires extensive redesign to be useful, with more rigidity and containment, but the program office has not recognized that fact. To date no permanent fix has been announced, now seven months after the Eglin fire and flight restrictions still in place.
F-35 performance overall is inadequate for a modern fighter plane. Its weight, fat body and small wings limit its ability to climb rapidly, and its turns are limited to three G's by the engine restrictions, about a third of what a fighter should be capable of in normal operations. Other restrictions are half-stick roll-rate maximum and no rudder input allowed. The plane is inadequate for close air support and also for aerial combat. It can't fire its gun. Currently the plane, called the Lightning II, can't fly near lightning or it will explode.
The F-35 is touted as a fifth generation stealth fighter, but that's hyperbole and marketing. Any stealth capability that the plane had when it was conceived twenty years ago have been countered by advances in radar and infrared detection developments, assisted by the theft of all the F-35 design specifications. Operational tests to evaluate its supposed stealth have not been done.
DeleteSensor fusion is another marketing phrase used for the F-35. Sensors built in to the plane's surfaces are supposed to provide display images on the pilot's helmet but test results to date have been poor. "The test team discovered deficiencies, particularly in the stability of the new display management computer for the helmet, and suspended further testing until software that fixes the deficiencies in the helmet system." this is after thirteen years of development.
The F-35 is a new-type electronic airplane with many computers and eight million lines of software code, but operational tests of software have been curtailed. It is clear is that the plane will finish with deficiencies remaining that will affect operational units, according to the Pentagon's chief tester.
A critical risk to Magic F-35 "combat capability" identified in the recent test report is the availability of "mission data load" software, which works in conjunction with software permanently loaded in the aircraft system and contains information to operate sensors – for example, the data needed to identify hostile radars. There are serious deficiencies with hardware and software used to develop data files.
The plane's logistic system includes on-board computers providing high-speed data download which is supposed to provide increased aircraft availability. The system doesn't work, and has to be over-ridden by the pilot or the plane won't fly.
Lastly, with the Magic F-35 still in development and prior to operational test and evaluation, there has been no development of tactics and procedures for employment. There is more to being "combat capable" than the plane and its support. It also must include successful operational doctrine and training developed through a rigorous test and evaluation process. The Magic F-35 development program includes operational test and evaluation in 2018.
Given all this, especially the engine design problems, we should not believe that the Magic F-35 is combat capable in July 2015 no matter what the Pentagon claims. In fact considering all its failures, with zero chance of adequate performance at a reasonable cost, the program should be terminated not expanded.
The heads of Lockheed martin need to to be tried as war-profiteers, the companies split back up. Everyone in the procurement program charged with dereliction of duty.
ReplyDeleteYou've got my vote. Nationalize, break up, and sell off the pieces.
Delete---">LRIP aprooved"---- LOL LRIP illegal without DOD milestone-C
ReplyDeleteThe faulty prototype planes being produced in increasing quantities are useless, but the money' s good and uniforms now have an "organizational change [which] will help ensure a unified voice for operational integration of the F-35 across the Air Force as we collectively work towards bringing this remarkable new aircraft into our combat inventory." MajGen Harrigian said, in violation of his commissioning oath and blatant disregard for the misuse of taxpayers' money that is funding this most expensive fiasco.
ReplyDeleteForbes, Jan 30
Rising F-35 Volumes Lift Lockheed's Results Despite Weak U.S. Military Spending
Higher production and delivery volume of the F-35 fighter jet lifted Lockheed‘s fourth quarter results even as overall U.S. defense spending remains weak. The defense contractor’s revenue rose by 9% per year to $12.5 billion, and its profit improved to $904 million in the fourth quarter. This strong fourth quarter enabled Lockheed to grow its 2014 top line, against expectations and the company’s own guidance. Lockheed posted $45.6 billion in total revenue in 2014, up marginally from $45.4 billion in 2013.
Importantly, Lockheed’s backlog recovered to $80.5 billion at the end of 2014, after steadily falling through the first nine months of the year. We figure rising orders for the F-35 pushed up the company’s backlog, despite flat-to-declining U.S. defense spending, which constitutes about 80% of its total revenue. Lockheed’s position as the chief contractor on the F-35 program, which is considered a priority program by the government, will continue to provide support to its growth in an environment of uncertain defense spending.
from the Air Force announcement:
ReplyDelete"The $1 trillion F-35 program is the largest joint program, and all senior leader communication within the Air Force will flow through the integration office."
They dropped about $400 billion there, but who's counting.
Weren't we supposed to be in FRP by now, something like 200 JSFs a year but instead we are having LRIP-8,-9,-10, maybe -11?!? I don't think that was in the power point presentation......
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I wonder how many "terrible teens" or maybe more appropriately "terrible hundred", USAF is going to get stuck with, JSFs so different, so full of needed fixes, retrofits,etc that USAF will have paid FULL PRICE for jets that are to end quickly in training schools or just parked and left to quietly be retired after only a couple of hundred hours of flight time.....
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/morning_call/2015/01/boeing-insists-it-can-sell-the-so-called-terrible.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_dallas+%28Dallas+Business+Journal%29
Yes, as they pretend success and cover up the failed development program, because the money's so good. They are reduced to selling it as a jobs program, as if Lockheed cares about jobs vs. profits.
DeleteUnrelated news, about LRSB, new NG ad going to be running during Super Bowl. I highly doubt it's real but fun anyways. Doesn't look like it has any intakes.....
ReplyDeletehttp://defensetech.org/2015/01/30/northrop-runs-super-bowl-ad-for-next-generation-bomber-program/
The reader Radix had a fun comment at a British pilot's blog.--
ReplyDelete"So F-35 not in Red Flag [annual fly-boy exercise at Nellis AFB]. And I was so interested to know kill ratios! To be fair, with the engine induced limitations of 3.0g, half-stick roll-rate maximum and no rudder input allowed the F-35 would be much like a flying duck sitting still hoping it wouldn't get noticed and whilst the F16's F-15's AV8B's F-22's and what not frolic freely around it in the skies the F-35 would still manage to shoot them down all somehow."