The Hidden Troubles of the F-35 [DefenseNews]

[spazsinbad]

Then there is my post a few posts above last one on previous page this thread about the fix working well.

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=55673&p=440246&hilit=armament#p440246

[doge]

Hasn't this GAO figure been posted on F-16.net forum yet? If so, I will try to post.
wow! It's a great amount of work by LM.
The number of "closed" is amazing...!
https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/706815.pdf

[doge]

The season for DOT&E reports has come.
When the report is published, more articles will criticize F-35. (It gets in the way of my web search! )
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ar-earlier

F-35 Flies With 871 Flaws, Only Two Fewer Than Year Earlier
By Anthony Capaccio January 12, 2021

Number of software, hardware flaws little-changed: test office
Lockheed says none of deficiencies endanger flight safety

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the fighter jet already being flown by the U.S. and eight allies, remains marred by 871 software and hardware deficiencies that could undercut readiness, missions or maintenance, according to the Pentagon’s testing office.
The Defense Department’s costliest weapons system “continues to carry a large number of deficiencies, many of which were identified prior to” the development and demonstration phase, which ended in April 2018 with 941 flaws, Robert Behler, the director of operational testing, said in a new assessment obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of its publication.
Lockheed has delivered or is under contract for 970 aircraft of a potential 3,200 or more planes for the U.S. and other nations. The assessment outlining the seemingly intractable roster of flaws -- it’s down only two from the 873 that Behler reported last year -- provides the incoming Biden administration with a primer on the $398 billion F-35 program that retains strong backing in Congress and from overseas purchasers despite its problems.
Those include a stalled one-month simulation exercise required to certify the plane is combat-ready against the toughest Russian or Chinese threats and thus ready for a decision on full-rate production.
Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, has directed a review no later than May 31 on progress toward conducting the oft-delayed simulation that most recently had been scheduled to occur last month. In a previously undisclosed Dec. 15 memo to Navy and Air Force officials, Lord also ordered an update to the Pentagon’s F-35 acquisition strategy. Behler predicted the simulation will occur by mid or late-year.
In October, the F-35 program will mark 20 years since Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed beat rival Boeing Co. in the contest to build the next-generation U.S. fighter.
Earlier: Pentagon Keeps F-35 Full-Rate Production on Hold
Laura Seal, a spokesperson for the Defense Department’s F-35 program office, declined to comment until Behler’s report is released officially.
Aside from the technical flaws, the F-35 program faces a $10 billion shortfall in the Pentagon’s planned budget for 2021 through 2025. The Trump administration’s final budget blueprint calls for requesting $78 billion for research and development, jet procurement, operations and maintenance and military construction. But the Pentagon’s independent cost analysis unit estimates $88 billion will be needed, according to a June 2020 analysis.

Upgrade Schedule
The F-35 program is undergoing a “Block 4” upgrade costing at least $12.1 billion that’s intended to correct past deficiencies and introduce new capabilities in six-month increments through 2026 to keep up with current threats. The plan includes retrofitting some planes already built and in use by militaries from the U.S. and the U.K. to Japan.
Even with this focused effort, “the overall number of open deficiencies has not changed significantly since” early 2018, Behler wrote, “due to ongoing problems with initial software quality” in Block 4 and “limited lab and flight test capability, resulting in a high rate of problem discoveries” in testing and in the field.
The Block 4 process “is not working,” Behler wrote. “It is causing significant delays to planned schedules and results in poor software quality, containing deficiencies.” Software changes “intended to introduce new capabilities or fix deficiencies often introduced stability problems.”
Only 10 of the 871 unresolved deficiencies cited by Boehler involve potentially serious “Category 1” issues, defined as critical deficiencies that could jeopardize pilot or aircraft safety or degrade mission effectiveness. That’s compared with 102 such problems among the 941 cases cited in 2018.
Lockheed said in a statement that none of the 10 current deficiencies are “1A” problems that could affect pilot or aircraft safety but instead are in “Category 1B,” which the program office defines as representing “a critical impact on mission readiness,” training or maintenance.
“Though we have not seen the report, we track all F-35 deficiency reports,” Lockheed spokesman Brett Ashworth said in a statement. He said about 70% of the 871 pending items “are categorized as low priority or are with the F-35 Joint Program Office for resolution.”
Of the 10 pending “mission impacts” deficiency reports, nine have “closure resolution plans, with seven already delivered to the government awaiting action,” and the others currently being reviewed.
A defense official who’s seen the Behler assessment said many of the deficiencies will be resolved with production line changes and software updates. Although deficiencies must be documented for contractual and reporting purposes, the official said, depending on their severity they might not be rapidly resolved. The size, scope and resolution status are being evaluated as part of the ongoing negotiations for a 15th production contract, the official said.
Among other findings, the testing office’s report said that although the F-35 is showing increased reliability, it’s still taking maintenance personnel too much time to repair aircraft and that cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified during earlier testing “have not been resolved.”

[mixelflick]

This will never end.

The media has learned bad news sells, and it doesn't help most of these "journalists" are peace/love/happiness kids just coming out of University (read: brainwashed). You'll never see a piece talking about how effective the jet is in exercises, how its maturing quickly and has already set the standard for everything else (J-31, KF-X) that comes after it.

No, it will take another Desert Storm/F-15 like performance to shut them up. Sad to say, but it really is true...

[juretrn]

Personally, I'd love to see a DOT&E, or better yet, GAO-equivalent report on the Su-57 and J-20.
DEATH SPIRAL!!!1!

[spazsinbad]

Published 2020 F-35 DOT&E report PDF cited here now: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=12237&p=448445&hilit=slow#p448445

DOWNLOAD 0.4Mb PDF: download/file.php?id=34227 2020f35jsf.pdf 16pp

[quicksilver]

“This will never end.“

Jobs program for government bureaucrats; the proverbial ‘self-licking ice cream cone.’

[XanderCrews]

“This will never end.“

Jobs program for government bureaucrats; the proverbial ‘self-licking ice cream cone.’

not just government. There is an entire "ecosphere" like the bad journalism surrounding F-35 that depend on it.

journalism in general is in dire straights, especially now. They need to spin the wheel of what to worry about for the next 4 years

[charlielima223]

More useless bureaucratic bean counter nonsense.

Strange how these deficiencies dont seem to stop the F-35 from being operational asset...

https://theaviationist.com/2021/01/13/f ... r-somalia/

[quicksilver]

So...

What ‘value added’ do these government processes provide in 2021?? Me thinks they are an artifact of ‘Cold War’ processes that are no longer relevant.

Yet we still spend how much on them?

[zhangmdev]

From the optimistic point of view, it is such a good time an immensely bloated and wasteful managerial elite class can exist and self-perpetruate. From the tragic point of view, good times don't last long. All will end in tears.

[doge]

Published 2020 F-35 DOT&E report PDF cited here now: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=12237&p=448445&hilit=slow#p448445

DOWNLOAD 0.4Mb PDF: download/file.php?id=34227 2020f35jsf.pdf 16pp

I did find a positive section part in the DOT&E report. : It's Reliability.

F-35 Fleet Reliability Activity
Assessment•
• Aircraft reliability assessments include a variety of metrics, each characterizing a unique aspect of overall weapon system reliability.
-Mean Flight Hours Between Critical Failure (MFHBCF) includes all failures that render the aircraft unsafe to fly or would prevent the completion of a defined F-35 mission.
-Mean Flight Hours Between Removal (MFHBR) indicates the degree of necessary logistical support and is frequently used in determining associated costs.
-Mean Flight Hours Between Maintenance Event Unscheduled (MFHBME_Unsch) is a reliability metric for evaluating maintenance workload due to unplanned maintenance.
-Mean Flight Hours Between Failure, Design Controllable (MFHBF_DC) includes failures of components due to design flaws under the purview of the contractor.
• Table 2 shows the trend in each reliability metric by comparing values from April 2019 to those of April 2020 and whether the current value is on track to meet the requirement at maturity.

• Between April 2019 and April 2020, all nine of the ORD metrics increased in value, some to a historically unprecedented degree for the program. As a result, in April 2020, six of the nine ORD metrics were at or above their requirement or interim growth goal based on the program’s reliability growth plan, whereas in April 2019, none were. Similarly, all three of the JSF Joint Contract Specification metrics increased.
• The cause of these rapid increases in reliability are still under investigation, and likely not due entirely to the proliferation of new, redesigned hardware components throughout the fleet. Preliminary research shows that some of the reliability increases are concentrated almost entirely within certain production lots, which are not necessarily the most recent lots. The lots that exhibited the increased reliability performance also tended to be the lots that made up the bulk of the deployed aircraft over the time period considered. These deployed aircraft flew considerably longer missions during the deployments, and accrued flight hours at a much higher rate than the non-deployed aircraft. This change in usage may partly explain some of the reliability increases. Software changes are also a candidate driver for reliability improvements, but investigations of root causes are currently inconclusive.

They don't know causes the F-35's Reliability has improved !?

[spazsinbad]

The Defense Department still isn’t meeting its F-35 readiness goals
20 Jan 2021 Valerie Insinna

"WASHINGTON — The F-35 joint strike fighter is still struggling to meet its mission capable rate goals, with current figures well below the military’s target, the Pentagon’s outgoing acquisition chief told reporters on Jan. 19.

The Lockheed Martin-made F-35′s mission capable rate — which describes the percentage of aircraft that can meet at least one of its assigned missions — currently sits at 69 percent, falling short of the military’s longstanding 80 percent goal, said Ellen Lord, whose time as the undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment ended Jan. 20 at noon after Joe Biden was inaugurated as president.

When looking at fully mission capable aircraft able to perform all of the F-35′s assigned missions, “we’re currently at 36 percent fully mission capable, and we are striving to be at 50 percent for the fleet,” she added. Lord attributed the low percentage of fully mission capable jets to ongoing issues with the F-35′s canopy and the F135 engine’s power module.

Although she did not elaborate, the program has grappled with a longstanding problem with “transparency delamination,” where outer layers of the canopy begin to peel away from the base. In 2019, an F-35 joint program office spokesman told Defense News that the department was working with canopy supplier GKN Aerospace to improve the design and increase the supply of canopy transparencies.... [then details about the past MC rates]

...It’s not always easy to chart the trajectory of whether the F-35′s readiness is improving due to a host of factors.

Although Pentagon officials like Lord have, at times, provided updates about the jet’s mission capable rates, it is often unclear whether the numbers cited reflect a single point in time — an especially good month where more F-35s are ready to fly, for example — or a sustained trend. Officials also sometimes talk specifically about “operational” or “combat-coded” squadrons, which leaves out a lot of the early model F-35s used by training and test squadrons, which are more prone to breaking down and needing repairs.... [then more details]

Source: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/01 ... ess-goals/

[marauder2048]

Complete BS.

OSD (Ellen Lord's office) rescinded the 80% MC goal for FY20 forward; per the DOT&E
report the program was allowed to established its own goals

In March 2020, the program set a baseline Mission Capable
(MC) rate goal of 70 percent and a Full Mission Capable
(FMC) rate goal of 40 percent for the whole fleet to attain
by September 2020. Additionally, the program set elevated
MC and FMC goals for units that were training to deploy of
75 percent and 60 percent, respectively, and even higher MC
and FMC goals of 80 percent and 70 percent, respectively,
for units that were in a deployed status. The MC rate
represents the percentage of unit-assigned aircraft capable
of performing at least one defined mission, excluding those
aircraft in depot status or undergoing major repairs. MC
aircraft are either FMC, meaning they can perform all
missions assigned to the unit, or Partial Mission Capable
(PMC), meaning they can fly at least one, but not all,
missions. The MC rate is different than the availability rate,
which is the number of aircraft capable of performing at
least one mission divided by all aircraft assigned, including
aircraft in depot status or undergoing major repairs.

[energo]

Had a quick look, but not sure if this report has been posted. It contains a wealth of details on availability and operations costs for most aircraft in US service up until FY2018/2019.

PS. Had to zip it due to the 11MB upload limit.

GAO_710794.zip

GAO Weapon System Sustainment

(10.54 MiB) Downloaded 1548 times