F-35 mission software stability pose greatest risk USAF IOC

Cockpit, radar, helmet-mounted display, and other avionics
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by spazsinbad » 08 Mar 2016, 08:03

F-35 mission software stability poses greatest risk to USAF IOC
06 Mar 2016 Marina Malenic

"Key Points
• A software glitch that interferes with the F-35 radar's ability to remain working in flight poses the greatest threat to meeting the USAF's IOC schedule
• Training on a new increment of ALIS and a fuel pressure modification are the other two unresolved issues

A software glitch that interferes with the ability of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter's AN/APG-81 AESA radar working in flight poses the greatest threat to delaying US Air Force (USAF) plans to declare its jets operationally deployable, a top service official told IHS Jane's on 4 March.

Major General Jeffrey Harrigian, director of the air force's F-35 integration office at the Pentagon, described the problem as "radar stability - the radar's ability to stay up and running" using the 3i software that the air force intends to use when it declares initial operational capability (IOC) for its fleet sometime between 1 August and 31 December.

"What would happen is they'd get a signal that says either a radar degrade or a radar fail -something that would force us to restart the radar," Maj Gen Harrigian said in further describing the issue.

The issue arose in late 2015, according to the general. "We first started to see it in testing," he said.

"Lockheed Martin discovered the root cause, and now they're in the process of making sure they take that solution and run it through the [software testing] lab." He added that new software that corrects the error is to be delivered to the USAF at the end of March.

To correct the software quickly, some code writers were diverted from their work on increment 3F, Maj Gen Harrigian said. However, any solution to the problem in increment 3i will be transferable to 3F coding, so both increments will benefit from the work
...."

Source: http://www.janes.com/article/58561/f-35 ... o-usaf-ioc


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by spazsinbad » 11 Mar 2016, 05:23

F-35 Logistics System May Not Be Ready for Air Force IOC Target
10 Mar 2016 Lara Seligman

"WASHINGTON – The latest version of the F-35's logistics system may not be ready by the time the Air Force wants to declare its jets combat-ready this summer, according to the program manager.

The Air Force has a window between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 to declare initial operational capability for its F-35As. Aug. 1 is the target date for Air Force IOC, and the joint program office has promised to meet that goal.

But the JPO may be about 45 to 60 days behind schedule due to problems with the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), designed as a kind of internal diagnostic system that tracks the health of each part of each plane worldwide, according to JPO chief Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan.

“We’re going as fast as we can, industry is going as fast as they can, but we’re not 100 percent sure we can make up that time,” Bogdan said March 10 at the Credit Suisse/McAleese FY2017 Defense Programs Conference. “We will know as we get closer, this spring and this summer.”

Although the program office may not have the latest version of ALIS ready by Aug. 1, Bogdan does not see any risk to making the the Dec. 31 threshold date for IOC.

Behind ALIS, the biggest risk to Air Force IOC is software development, Bogdan has said. The JPO is racing to finish the next increment of software, Block 3i, which the Air Force needs for IOC, as well as the final software block required for full war-fighting capability, Block 3f. The JPO is still seeing some problems with software “stability,” a measure of how well the sensors work, but has identified the root cause of the problem, he said. In essence, a timing misalignment of the software of the plane’s sensors and the software of its main computers are causing a “choking” effect, where the jet’s systems shut down and have to be rebooted.

The JPO and industry team will fly an improved software load for Block 3i, which they hope will fix the problem, on flight test planes in late March or early April, Bogdan said. This does not leave much margin in the schedule, as Bogdan has said the JPO has until May to fix or at least mitigate the stability problems before the Aug. 1 IOC date could be affected.

However, Bogdan expressed confidence that the JPO and manufacturer Lockheed Martin can get the software fixed in time. The hurdle to meeting the Aug. 1 IOC date is ALIS, not software, Bogdan stressed.

“The long pole in the tent is not software, it’s ALIS, so they are both vying for who is going to be later,” Bogan said."

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /81605826/


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by popcorn » 24 Mar 2016, 03:13

https://fcw.com/articles/2016/03/23/f35 ... litch.aspx

F-35 software fixes on the way, program officer tells Congress

A senior defense official told lawmakers that a fix for a software glitch in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet will be tested next week in hopes of solving the issue in the next month. But it will delay the final flight test by an additional four months.

"Currently, our most significant technical concern is the development and integration of mission systems software," said Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office at the Defense Department, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee's Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee on March 23.

At issue is the stability of a block of software that leads to timing problems between the radar and main computer, which causes the radar to shut off and reboot about every four hours of flight time. Officials hope that a fix will reduce incidents to once every eight to 10 hours, which Bogdan said is "good enough."

"With 8 million lines of code in the airplane, it is not unusual for both legacy airplanes and modern fifth-generation airplanes every now and then to have to reset one of the sensors in flight or have an automatic reset," he added. "That is not an uncommon situation."

He said the root cause of the stability problems has been identified, and fixes have been tested in the lab. If flight tests are successful, the patches will be added to a new version of a block of the F-35's software.

The glitch is in the 3i block, which includes a new helmet and display system. The final block, called 3F, is required for full warfighting capability. Bogdan said that phase has the most software risk because it has some of the same stability issues as the 3i block and because it must fuse information from a number of sources, such as satellites and ground stations.


The program office anticipates completing all 3i software testing this spring. Full 3F capability be fielded by late fall of 2017, Bogdan said.

The F-35 fleet will cost about $1 trillion to operate and support over its lifetime, according to a DOD estimate. A Government Accountability Office report released for the hearing states that the program faces "significant affordability challenges." GAO auditors also concluded that "delays could be exacerbated by the current mission system software stability issues and large number of remaining weapon delivery accuracy events that must take place."
"When a fifth-generation fighter meets a fourth-generation fighter—the [latter] dies,”
CSAF Gen. Mark Welsh


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by popcorn » 24 Mar 2016, 03:14

https://fcw.com/articles/2016/03/23/f35 ... litch.aspx

F-35 software fixes on the way, program officer tells Congress

A senior defense official told lawmakers that a fix for a software glitch in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet will be tested next week in hopes of solving the issue in the next month. But it will delay the final flight test by an additional four months.

"Currently, our most significant technical concern is the development and integration of mission systems software," said Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office at the Defense Department, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee's Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee on March 23.

At issue is the stability of a block of software that leads to timing problems between the radar and main computer, which causes the radar to shut off and reboot about every four hours of flight time. Officials hope that a fix will reduce incidents to once every eight to 10 hours, which Bogdan said is "good enough."

"With 8 million lines of code in the airplane, it is not unusual for both legacy airplanes and modern fifth-generation airplanes every now and then to have to reset one of the sensors in flight or have an automatic reset," he added. "That is not an uncommon situation."

He said the root cause of the stability problems has been identified, and fixes have been tested in the lab. If flight tests are successful, the patches will be added to a new version of a block of the F-35's software.

The glitch is in the 3i block, which includes a new helmet and display system. The final block, called 3F, is required for full warfighting capability. Bogdan said that phase has the most software risk because it has some of the same stability issues as the 3i block and because it must fuse information from a number of sources, such as satellites and ground stations.


The program office anticipates completing all 3i software testing this spring. Full 3F capability be fielded by late fall of 2017, Bogdan said.

The F-35 fleet will cost about $1 trillion to operate and support over its lifetime, according to a DOD estimate. A Government Accountability Office report released for the hearing states that the program faces "significant affordability challenges." GAO auditors also concluded that "delays could be exacerbated by the current mission system software stability issues and large number of remaining weapon delivery accuracy events that must take place."
"When a fifth-generation fighter meets a fourth-generation fighter—the [latter] dies,”
CSAF Gen. Mark Welsh


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by spazsinbad » 24 Mar 2016, 05:39

F-35 Full Combat Capability Will Be Four Months Late
23 Mar 2016 Lara Seligman

"WASHINGTON – The F-35 will not get its full combat capability package until late fall of 2017, a delay of about four months from the original plan, according to a top general.

Testing of two earlier versions of the F-35 software, Blocks 2B and 3i, took longer than expected, Joint Program Office (JPO) Chief Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan wrote in his March 23 written testimony before the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces. The Marine Corps declared initial operational capability (IOC) with Block 2B last summer; meanwhile, the Air Force needs Block 3i to declare its jets operational this year.

Testing of Block 3F, which will give the jets full warfighting capability, started later than planned because the program office had to spend more time fixing Blocks 2B and 3i, Bogdan wrote. As a result, Block 3F will likely be completed about four months late, and will be delivered in late fall of 2017, Bogdan told lawmakers.

However, Bogdan noted that this delay is an improvement over the JPO’s projection a year ago, and is not expected to impact the Navy’s ability to declare its F-35C jets operational in 2018. The four-month delay will also have no impact on coalition partners’ capabilities, he wrote.

The schedule risk is primarily due to software “stability” issues, seen in both Blocks 3i and 3F. In essence, a timing misalignment of the software of the plane’s sensors and the software of its main computers are causing a “choking” effect, where the jet’s systems shut down and have to be rebooted. However, the JPO and contractor Lockheed Martin have identified the root cause and plan to flight test an updated software load at Edwards Air Force Base, California, sometime in the next few weeks, officials have said.

The program office has established a “Red Team,” made up of experts from the Navy, Air Force and outside the Pentagon to take an in-depth look at the issue, Bogdan told reporters after the hearing. The Red Team has already begun its study and will report back in about a month, he said.

“We brought them together and we’re sending them down to Lockheed to try to figure out, do we have the root cause analysis right on these problems? Are we going after the right issues?” Bogdan said. “Because it’s very easy to just make a fix to the software, but if you don’t fix the fundamental issues going on those fixes only will last so long and they will pop up again.”

Success of Block 3F mission systems hinges on the program office resolving the problems with Block 3i, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Michael Gilmore wrote in his written testimony. The stability and functionality problems in the initial versions of Block 3F, inherited from Block 3i, were “so significant that the program could not continue flight test,” he wrote.

While Bogdan stressed the Block 3F delays will not impact IOC, he acknowledged they could affect how ready the jets are for the formal initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) phase of development, currently planned to start in 2017.

Gilmore estimated Block 3F capabilities will not be ready for IOT&E until 2018 at the earliest.

“The Block 3F schedule, even with significant improvements in software stability, deficiency resolution, and flight test rates, still appears to extend into 2018 before the capabilities will be ready and certified for IOT&E,” Gilmore wrote."

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /82187648/


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by spazsinbad » 24 Mar 2016, 06:03

More detail on the mistiming issue... SPOILER ALERT Tremble gets it RONG... then with a mixture of Rite and RONG....
Software fix readied to prevent further F-35 delay
24 Mar 2016 Stephen Trimble

"Flight tests starting next week will determine whether a key milestone for the US Air Force version of the Lockheed Martin F-35A will be delayed only four months or perhaps even longer, programme officials say....

...“What the pilots are seeing is when they take-off and they need to use the sensors, particularly the radar, the communication between the radar and the computer is mistimed,” says Lt Gen Chris Bogdan, the F-35 programme executive, speaking at the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces on 23 March.

As timing delays pile up, the radar enters a degraded mode or shuts down completely, he says, requiring several minutes to restart. The software causes a sensor to shut down an average of once every 4h, he adds....

...The USAF plans to announce IOC with the next software upgrade called Block 3F, which would the F-35 to carry a full complement of weapons and enable the full flight envelope....

...But the next challenge will be introducing the Block 3F software, which adds significant new functions for operating the sensors, weapons and flight controls.

“We are wary that further issues will emerge,” Stackley says."

Source: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... ay-423497/


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by optimist » 24 Mar 2016, 07:28

this is probably as good a place as any for this.
2016 03 23- Hearing: Update on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program

Europe's fighters been decided. Not a Eurocanard, it's the F-35 (or insert derogatory term) Count the European countries with it.


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by basher54321 » 24 Mar 2016, 12:52

oh the drama!

22:19 the public perception of the F-35 :D


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by str » 24 Mar 2016, 15:13

The nice thing about timing problems is that they're (usually) extremely predictable. Its a creeping error where one system clock runs a little faster/slower than the other, which only becomes a problem when the difference is large enough (say .00001 seconds or so, by the looks of it) that the systems start disagreeing what time it is...which computers really don't like because they're clocks as much as they are calculators.

When the report says the issue happens about every 4 hours, it probably means the issue always happens at the 4 hour mark (or 3:55:45.whatever mark). It looks like a reboot will grab the main system time, so as long as you reboot the system before that that point, it should sync everything back up for another 4 hours. Nice, predictable, and flexible to fit into your mission plan.

Downside is that clocks impact almost everything in a system like this. So while the fix itself is likely trivial, you have to test EVERYTHING over again.


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by KamenRiderBlade » 24 Mar 2016, 17:04

The sad thing about internal PC clocks for time keeping. They're not a completely independent system in most cases. The clocks are updated via the CPU and if you keep running CPU intensive workloads, the upkeep of the base clock gets ever so slightly out of alignment with the more intense workload, the more it'll ever so slightly misalign. Even your cheapo Quartz Clock found in cheapo digital Watches is more accurate and reliable for base internal clock keeping on a Motherboard. But since the design of a computer clock system has been this way for decades, nobody bothers spending that extra $2-5 needed for a dedicated clock based on the Quartz Clock found in Watches.

If it's a timing issue, a simple Quartz Clock built into the Mobo for Time keeping would've been fine, but that would require some work at this point from the Motherboard Manufacturer or very skilled hacking of the BIOS and the CPU clock update system.

A big issue as to when the clock loses time upkeep a lot is when the CPU is hitting 100% load and it loses a few cycles on the clock upkeep.

I don't know how well their Real Time OS compensates for this, but a better solution for the entire world is to spend that $2-5 for integrating that Quartz Clock into the Motherboard and let it do it's thing independently & accurately.


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by botsing » 24 Mar 2016, 17:31

KamenRiderBlade wrote:The sad thing about internal PC clocks for time keeping. They're not a completely independent system in most cases. The clocks are updated via the CPU and if you keep running CPU intensive workloads, the upkeep of the base clock gets ever so slightly out of alignment with the more intense workload, the more it'll ever so slightly misalign. Even your cheapo Quartz Clock found in cheapo digital Watches is more accurate and reliable for base internal clock keeping on a Motherboard. But since the design of a computer clock system has been this way for decades, nobody bothers spending that extra $2-5 needed for a dedicated clock based on the Quartz Clock found in Watches.

If it's a timing issue, a simple Quartz Clock built into the Mobo for Time keeping would've been fine, but that would require some work at this point from the Motherboard Manufacturer or very skilled hacking of the BIOS and the CPU clock update system.

A big issue as to when the clock loses time upkeep a lot is when the CPU is hitting 100% load and it loses a few cycles on the clock upkeep.

I don't know how well their Real Time OS compensates for this, but a better solution for the entire world is to spend that $2-5 for integrating that Quartz Clock into the Motherboard and let it do it's thing independently & accurately.

Looking at the needed accuracy I highly doubt quartz clocks (around 32,768 Hz) will be good enough.

Until we know more about the specifics it is hard to theorize what the issue actually is. For example: it can be creep, out of sync between internal systems, push/pull delay, interrupt requests, stuff like variable wire length or even a combination of these that can cause it.
Last edited by botsing on 24 Mar 2016, 17:34, edited 1 time in total.
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by neptune » 24 Mar 2016, 17:34

KamenRiderBlade wrote:....A big issue as to when the clock loses time upkeep a lot is when the CPU is hitting 100% load and it loses a few cycles on the clock upkeep.....


...gee a clock issue again, again, again, again....the same simple solution from the 1950's again, again, again...master clock independent of the "over worked, ( :(, :(, :( ) cpu... every task does "NOT" have to be processed by the tired little cpu... gee history repeats it's self, again, again, again....

I bet the "fix" will work and the "3I" will allow the AF IOC... much ado about nothing... :)


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by KamenRiderBlade » 24 Mar 2016, 20:46

Blame modern computer motherboards makers and they're endless desire for the drive to save cost.

For consumer end PC's, it'd be a dirt cheap solution that would offer better than what is available accuracy.

As for what type of boards they use on the F-35. Who knows. The only thing I know is that it's custom.


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by spazsinbad » 29 Apr 2016, 09:43

Yes - being concerned about ALIS & the internet - it always puzzled me - but here we have it:
"...All ALIS servers connect through encrypted land or satellite military networks, rather than the “internet” we usually think of, Scott noted....

Could Connectivity Failure Ground F-35? It's Complicated
29 Apr 2016 Lara Seligman + Aaron Mehta

"WASHINGTON — The F-35 joint program office and a top government watchdog are butting heads about a key question for the joint strike fighter: whether or not the fifth-generation plane can fly if disconnected from a key logistics system.

At the center of the debate is the Autonomics Logistics and Information System (ALIS), an internal diagnostic system that tracks the health of each part of each plane worldwide. ALIS is no stranger to controversy, with top program officials identifying it as the last hurdle to declaring the US Air Force jets operational on time this year.

Now a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identifies a new ALIS-related concern — that if a single ALIS server were to go down, whether from loss of electricity or sabotage, it could cripple the entire F-35 fleet.

"Users are concerned that ALIS’ current design results in all F-35 data produced across the fleet to be routed up to the Central Point of Entry and then to the Autonomic Logistics Operating Unit, with no backup system or redundancy,” according to the April GAO report. “If either of these fail, it could take the entire F-35 fleet offline.”

But JPO chief Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan disagrees, telling reporters last week after testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee there is “absolutely” no truth to the claim that a failure to connect to ALIS could ground the fleet.

The differing views of the program office and the GAO over ALIS reflect the ongoing challenges of the F-35 program, and the fleet's logistics system in particular. ALIS is by far the most integrated and complex fleet management system in the US military today, but advances in technology often give rise to new challenges — and without a clear precedent from previous systems, both sides have legitimate arguments to fall back on.

ALIS, often called the backbone of the F-35 fleet, is an information technology hub that is used to plan missions, track aircraft status, order spare parts, and manage sustainment of the plane. By contrast, legacy aircraft use several standalone systems to perform these daily functions. ALIS is the first system of its kind to manage daily squadron operations, track sustainment trends and protect sovereign information — all in one hub, according to Dave Scott, vice president of training and logistics solution business development for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training.

All ALIS servers connect through encrypted land or satellite military networks, rather than the “internet” we usually think of, Scott noted.

There is only one global ALIS server, called the Autonomic Logistics Operating Unit (ALOU), where spare parts are ordered and reliability trends are analyzed, Scott said. Each partner nation has its own server, called the Central Point of Entry (CPE), which stores sovereign data and transmits that information to the ALOU, Scott explained.

Individual squadrons operate locally with a server called the Standard Operating Unit (SOU), which communicates with that nation’s CPE. Squadrons can operate independently and store data for about 30 days without connecting to the partner nation’s CPE, Scott said. Then, when a connection is re-established, the SOU uploads the stored data to the CPE.

Differing Opinions
The fact that the F-35 enterprise has so few servers, and just one main hub for the entire globe, is at the core of concerns ALIS could easily be taken down.

The GAO report warned that ALIS has no backup system to ensure operations if any of the servers — the ALOU, a nation's CPE or a squadron's SOU — were to fail. Specifically, squadron leaders at two sites visited by the GAO expressed concern that a loss of electricity, particularly during deployments to remote locations, “could adversely affect fleet operations.”

The program office, for its part, says it is working to build in more redundancy to the ALIS infrastructure. Program officials are also working to procure two additional ALOUs for backup, and possibly relocating the US CPE to another F-35 site, according to the GAO report.

But in the near-term, the Pentagon feels it can manage even if ALIS were to go down. In fact, the overall F-35 fleet should be able to operate without connection for up to 30 days with maintainers tracking the work off-line, the Pentagon told GAO.

Losing connectivity to ALIS would be a pain, but hardly fatal, the JPO contends. If jets are unable to use ALIS — a ground-based system that provides sustainment and support, but not combat capabilities for the jet — the F-35 is still a usable plane. In fact, the worst case scenario would be that operators would have to track maintenance and manage daily squadron operations manually, just as older jets do.

The best description of the problem came from Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, chief of Air Force Materiel Command, who compared ALIS to a laptop computer.

"You can turn on your laptop, you can use it, you can turn it off and never be on the internet," Pawlikowski said April 28 during a Defense Writers Group event. "But eventually there is stuff you want to send out by email, eventually there are things you may want to put on your Google drive."

Yes, the F-35 can take off and land without connecting to ALIS; yes, operators can make repairs without the logistics system, Pawlikowski said. But at some point users need to feed that information up to the central ALIS hub, she stressed.

"I don't need ALIS to put fuel in the plane and fly it, [I can] take a part and replace it if I have the spares there," Pawlikowski said. "But somewhere along the line I've got to tell ALIS that I did it so that the supply chain will now know that that part has got to be replaced."

For his part, Bogdan believes there were "no surprises" in the GAO report.

"All of the issues mentioned are well known to the JPO, the U.S. Services, International Partners and our Industry team," Bogdan said in a written response to the GAO report April 14. "Overall, the F-35 program is executing well across the entire spectrum of acquisition, to include development and design, flight test, production, fielding and base stand-up, training, sustainment of fielded aircraft, and building a global sustainment enterprise."

Marine ALIS Users Satisfied
As debate rages in Washington over ALIS' viability, the operators who use the system on a regular basis say they are satisfied so far.

A group of four Marine maintainers from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina, the training hub for the F-35B for both the Corps and the United Kingdom, told reporters during an April 14 visit that ALIS has made their life easier.

The Marine Corps declared IOC with its F-35Bs last summer, and conducted its first-ever expeditionary test in December. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 deployed eight jets to Twentynine Palms, California, for Exercise Steel Knight, where they practiced short takeoffs and vertical landings. The Marines are preparing to deploy to Iwakuni, Japan, next year.

“I am more than satisfied with it and seeing it grow and seeing it change," a Marine said. "There’s not as much troubleshooting anymore so maintenance times are definitely up.”

Overall, maintenance on the F-35 is “10 times easier” than on a Navy F-18, said one maintainer. Despite initial challenges, another Marine stressed that the system is constantly improving.

“Compared to how it was originally, it’s night and day,” said the Marine when asked about updates to the system. “The transition has been good. Every upgrade they do is easy to get ahold of, get your head around. It’s been pretty consistent as far as maintainability.”

Source: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /83589006/


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by spazsinbad » 29 Apr 2016, 14:16

Here is the 'internet thing' again. Bloody hell get it straight peoples.
Expecting less of ALIS
29 Apr 2016 John A. Tirpak

"​The Air Force is looking to see if it really needs the F-35’s Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) to do everything it was originally planned to do right away, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski said Thursday. The system is “almost as challenging” as developing a fifth-generation fighter, and while the concepts involved in ALIS are all great, “we have to see … how much is enough, now that we see how challenging it is,” she told reporters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Pawlikowski stopped short of saying USAF would relax its ALIS requirements—which might not even be possible, since it is a multi-service, multi-nation program. However, for purposes of initial service, USAF might think about “how much of the original vision is realistic” and “what’s the real savings if I get it to do a little less?” she said. Closing in on initial operational capability, USAF may “adjust its expectations” for the system, she said.

Asked to comment on whether the F-35 could fly missions without plugging into the internet—a question posed recently because of concerns about ALIS’ cyber vulnerabilities—Pawlikowski made an analogy to a laptop computer. It can work without connecting to the internet, [please explain - NOT THE INTERNET BUT....] she said, but “sooner or later … there are things you want to buy” or upload, or to get updates, so a connection is ultimately inevitable."

Source: http://www.airforcemag.com/DRArchive/Pa ... -ALIS.aspx


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