Forum: F-35 Lightning II

"Putting the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into production before flight testing had started was "acquisition malpractice", acting Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall told an industry group this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The [JSF] program, Kendall said, had started with "the optimistic prediction that we were good enough at modeling and simulation that we would not find problems in flight test."

"That was wrong, and now we are paying for that," Kendall added.

Kendall acknowledged that "I am going to make headlines" for the comment, in response to a question from Amy Butler. "

He added in his remarks that JSF remains "the future of tactical air," and "we don't at this point see anything that would preclude continuing production at a reasonable rate."

Testing will continue for the next several years, covering 15-20% of the remaining tests each year.

AW/Sweetman

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/de ... 7851e1e0c0

F-16.net Sponsor

"Barry Watts, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C., agreed with Kendall’s assessment.

“My understanding is the amount of concurrency on this program is as great as or greater than any past program,” he said.

Watts, who has been to Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant, described long lines of F-35s already being built.

“Most of those, if they’re going to be operational airplanes eventually, are going to have to go back and have a bunch of changes made to them,” he said. “That drives up cost and delays things.”

Watts said that the Pentagon should have insisted on more flight tests before starting low rate initial production."

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/02/d ... on-020612/

Has the program office announced the goals for 2012? It would be a good idea to have funding tied to incremental goals on a program with problems. Keeps the contractors focused. Additionally it may be more politically acceptable to those in Congress. May take is without goals the program will slip this year.

marksengineer wrote:

Has the program office announced the goals for 2012? It would be a good idea to have funding tied to incremental goals on a program with problems. Keeps the contractors focused. Additionally it may be more politically acceptable to those in Congress. May take is without goals the program will slip this year.

Funding is already partially tied to achievements... its given as rewards.

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Kendall: Putting JSF into LRIP "Acquisition Malpractice