Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Quote:

First, Build Your Jets
by Bill Sweetman at Feb/9/2011

A good deal of our coverage of JSF has been focused on flight testing, and that is the focus of the latest program changes revealed since the turn of the year. However, there are also problems affecting the JSF production effort.

[...]

Three of the remaining jets flew more than a year behind the schedule set in 2008. Four were between six and eight months late. The two SDD aircraft that have not yet flown (CF-2 and CF-3) are respectively 13 and 15 months behind the 2008 schedule, and seven and eight months behind the 2009 schedule. It looks like a production line that is slowing down, rather than accelerating.

[...]

Lockheed Martin says that it has changed the final assembly flow so that more work is completed on the line, that parts shortages have declined 80 percent since mid-2009 and that total flight-line work hours have diminished by 90 percent since early SDD. More important, the company has disclosed that plans now call for the delivery of 34 aircraft in 2012 and 52 in 2013, which would put production back on schedule.

What happens to cost is an open question. The JPO has not yet released cost estimates for the the first three LRIP batches, which are on cost-plus contracts, but there is no doubt that they will be above estimates because of the delays and extra work that has been performed.

[...]

But in the case of the F-35 - and particularly after the 2004 weight reduction campaign, which reduced commonality - the challenge is in triplicate. In early 2009, one industry executive reported that suppliers were, in some cases, struggling with multiple design revisions for parts which were different across all three versions.

Full article: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/de ... d=blogDest

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Yawn, we have all see these reports before.

No new news, just Bill doing what Bill does. (To US planes that is)

Add to that the fact that one of the APA guys has taken up residence in the comments section and it looks like Ares is on a fast track to joining other bottom rung enthusiast message boards.

That APA guy is Peter Goon as far as his picture shows.

Wow, talk about tickets on yourself. Part of Goon's letter to Robert Gates....

"That the JSF Program needs fixing is not in doubt. How this may best be achieved is well understood by the international team of experts at Air Power Australia, whose advice has, to date, been ignored by most of those who advise you."

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-081109-1.html

Nice rating system, either -1, 0 or +1 for whether an aircraft has a particlar feature or a really good version of a feature .... so for situational awareness, they all get a 0 ... even though the F-22 doesn't have anywhere near the technology of the F-35 in this regard, and the PAK-50 and J-20 are not even known.

The first comment after Bills post summed up the 'article' very nicely. The more I think about the more this 'article' seems like lazy journalism, Bill just sits back in his chair and types out another whine regarding the F-35 with nothing new in it. Yawn inducing stuff.

Better off searching for Aurora Billy, at least that was interesting reading!

shep, to be fair to Bill Sweetman, it is reasonable to sum up the 'build situation to date' and there are a few earlier articles of his that perhaps fit your description. Personally all the 'toing and froing' of the F-35 program can be discombobulating to keep track. If the article above is accurate then that is a good service to provide. Otherwise Bill's sarcasm is just silly. Very Happy

I am NO fan of the F-35A/B/C. That being said, I am deeply worried about these reports on the F-35. Reason being the USAF is in DESPERATE need of new airframes! We’ve shut the door on the F-22, after working out the bugs…. Go figure that logic. We’ve scrapped something that works in favor of something INCREDIBLY more complex, which of course means that there are going to be more bugs to work out than the F-22 and its going to take more time, and more delays!

The USAF is preparing to position itself on a razors edge, and on one side is success, and the other side is a total disaster… unless we start up the F-22 line again.

Spaz - Sheep, Alloy, Conan and Hobo would rather argue personalities than facts. Probably because they have none of the latter to bring to the fight.

underhill wrote:

Spaz - Sheep, Alloy, Conan and Hobo would rather argue personalities than facts. Probably because they have none of the latter to bring to the fight.

Coming from you, this is somewhat ironic.

There are facts about delays and cost overruns, but how much that actually matters is a different subject.

5 years, $22 billion. Big whoop.

Has it ever occurred to you that the DoD's pursuit of an all-stealth force started in the early 1980s, with the launch of B-2, ATF, ATA, and Comanche, not to mention ACM and Quartz?

What has it cost, and what has it delivered?

It makes the Maginot Line look like a brilliant investment in military technology.

underhill, another glass half full story. Looks to me as if the 'stealth' is worth pursuing - although apparently difficult.

underhill wrote:

5 years, $22 billion. Big whoop.

Has it ever occurred to you that the DoD's pursuit of an all-stealth force started in the early 1980s, with the launch of B-2, ATF, ATA, and Comanche, not to mention ACM and Quartz?

What has it cost, and what has it delivered?

It makes the Maginot Line look like a brilliant investment in military technology.

Psh, yeah those Ohio Class submarines are totally stupid. I mean, they haven't even nuked a square inch of anything!

B-2- Intercontinental range survivable strike. Blame the Soviet Union for the low production run, they really should've just tried harder with that whole communist thing.

ACM- Same. (Don't really need the B-52 in the triad anymore...)

ATA- Soviets, inherently unrealistic requirements (not just stealth), and Dick Cheney.

Comanche- Feature creep in addition to Stealth, and the fact that it's a lot of it's mission could be better done by UAV's. Oh, and AH-64's were aging more gracefully than previously thought.

underhill wrote:

Spaz - Sheep, Alloy, Conan and Hobo would rather argue personalities than facts. Probably because they have none of the latter to bring to the fight.

Underhill..... That is just it, Bill Sweetman isn't releasing any new facts on F-35 in this report he just rehashed stuff we alreay knew. I am beginning to think that Lockheed Martin may has definetly decided not to give Bill Sweetman any new news worthy quotes.

As for the fear of the USAF running out of airplanes before the F-35 is delivered you worries may be justified. But looking at the bright side of the coin it's not like Canada or Mexico is going to invade any time soon. Besides Canada doesn’t have to invade the United States we just have to restrict the flow of oil for a couple days and the US government will give Canada what ever it wants.

PE - Srsly what have the Ohio class got to do with anything?

The common factor in the CNXd and cut back stealth programs was that they were (or would have been) hugely expensive to acquire and to operate.

AC - I didn't know that. Why don't you provide links to where those production delays and the targets through 2013 were reported earlier?

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

F-35 build woes