This 6 page PDF extract about 'F-35 sustainment worldwide & ALIS' goes here - interview with F-35 Program Manager VADM Winter from AIR International Nov 2017.
F-35 Lightning II Starting Worldwide Sustainment
Nov 2017 David C Isby
"David C Isby spoke with Admiral Mat Winter, the new F-35 Program Executive Officer, about sustaining the fifth-generation fighter
Before his retirement last July after a gruelling five-year tour of duty as the F-35 Program Executive Officer (PEO) in charge of the Joint Program Office responsible for the development of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, US Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan issued a warning that the programme could still go “off the rails”. Bogdan identified the biggest single risk: “I am worried about our ability to sustain these airplanes globally, with the numbers and locations we’ll have in 10-15 years … there’s going to be an awful lot of airplanes in an awful lot of places in an awful lot of configurations.” Sustainment will account for most of the F-35’s costs – 66 to 75% of the total – over the life of the programme.
Speaking in Washington DC on September 6, Bogdan’s successor as F-35 PEO, Vice Admiral Mat Winter explained that to manage costs, the United States, international F-35 partners and Foreign Military Sales customers are linked in to a global sustainment enterprise that will grow to provide repair, sustainment and support capability for a global F-35 fleet that will eventually number over 3,000 aircraft. He said: “We are sustaining aircraft right now. F-35s will be operating from 13 new operating locations worldwide in the next four years, with aircraft numbers increasing to almost 1,000.” It will be, Winter said, “an exciting time to be the PEO”.
Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President of F-35 business development and strategic integration, Jack Crisler said: “By the end of the year F-35 flight operations would be under way in Italy, Israel and Norway, with the transition from CONUS-based [continental United States-based] sustainment to an international capability … An ADM [acquisition decision memoranda] signed last year describes how global sustainment is going to work.”...
...Speaking at the Air Force Association convention at National Harbor, Maryland on September 19, Lieutenant General Arnold Bunch, the Air Force’s top uniformed acquisition officer said: “For F-35 sustainment, we have put rules in place that everyone agreed to, so they can’t say there are problems. Our biggest focus is to drive down the F-35’s operating cost. We continue to work with Lockheed Martin and their partners to keep cost under control.”...
...Until 2017, F-35 operational logistics and sustainment experience had primarily been with the US armed services. US Marine Corps F-35Bs, participating in Exercise Red Flag this summer, were able to fly 67 of 70 scheduled sorties. US Navy F-35Cs completed 41 sorties in 19 days on board the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. In the final round of developmental testing sea trials in 2016, F-35Bs completed 60 sorties in 21 days on board the amphibious warfare ship USS America. Commenting on the at sea periods, Jack Crisler said: “Lockheed Martin worked with the Marine Corps on how the service can manage its own deployable spares during shipboard deployments.”..."
Source: AIR International Nov 2017 Vol.93 No.5
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