F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread
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Jura The idiot
General
now noticed Unclear for take-off? F-35 Procurement
Summary
The procurement of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is designed and built by a consortium led by Lockheed Martin, is the most expensive international defence procurement programme in history. A ‘fifth-generation’ aircraft, the F-35 comes in three variants, and the UK is, at present, committed to procuring 138 aircraft. However, there is no guarantee that this total will be achieved. The F-35 programme will supply combat aircraft to nine countries, with the principal customer being the United States of America. The UK is the second biggest client and, as the sole ‘Tier One’ partner in the programme, 15% of all F-35 production will take place in this country.
In July 2017, The Times published a series of articles on the F-35 programme. These reported a number of serious allegations, including claims that the F-35 “is way over budget, unreliable, full of software glitches and potentially unsafe”.
Our report has examined the allegations made by The Times in its investigation into the F-35 programme and has drawn on the work of other studies into the programme, such as the 2016 Annual Report of the US Department of Defense’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), and on the oral and written evidence we have gathered over the course of the inquiry, including from both Lockheed Martin and the Ministry of Defence.
Overall, our report concludes that:
We, therefore, recommend that the MoD provide the Committee with six-monthly updates on the programme, detailing the progress made in addressing the issues that have been previously identified, as well as any future problems. We also believe that these updates should include information on the ongoing cost of the programme.
18 December 2017
Summary
The procurement of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is designed and built by a consortium led by Lockheed Martin, is the most expensive international defence procurement programme in history. A ‘fifth-generation’ aircraft, the F-35 comes in three variants, and the UK is, at present, committed to procuring 138 aircraft. However, there is no guarantee that this total will be achieved. The F-35 programme will supply combat aircraft to nine countries, with the principal customer being the United States of America. The UK is the second biggest client and, as the sole ‘Tier One’ partner in the programme, 15% of all F-35 production will take place in this country.
In July 2017, The Times published a series of articles on the F-35 programme. These reported a number of serious allegations, including claims that the F-35 “is way over budget, unreliable, full of software glitches and potentially unsafe”.
Our report has examined the allegations made by The Times in its investigation into the F-35 programme and has drawn on the work of other studies into the programme, such as the 2016 Annual Report of the US Department of Defense’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), and on the oral and written evidence we have gathered over the course of the inquiry, including from both Lockheed Martin and the Ministry of Defence.
Overall, our report concludes that:
- The MoD’s acknowledgement of the potential value of using the Multifunctional Advanced Data Link (MADL) for secure communications between the F-35 and legacy aircraft is welcome. Without such a link and translation node, the UK will be underusing one of the key capabilities of the F-35 and we recommend that the MoD make provision for the procurement of a gateway translation node for MADL-based F-35 to Typhoon communication in the next Equipment Plan.
- The broadband capacity on the Queen Elizabeth carriers will need to be beyond the reported limit of 8 megabits, and, in all likelihood, in excess of the 32 megabits currently available on the USS America, if the potential benefits of the F-35 to the UK’s future carrier strike capabilities are to be realised.
- The assurances from Lockheed Martin and the MoD about the rigorous level of cyber-testing of the ALIS software are welcome, as is the assurance from Lockheed Martin that the UK will have complete and unfettered use of the software for the sovereign operation of our F-35 fleet. However, we ask for greater clarity from Lockheed Martin on the level of protection in place for the technical data gathered by ALIS in relation to the UK’s F-35 fleet, including whether this data falls within the US Government’s ‘unlimited rights license’.
- The MoD’s failure to provide adequate cost estimates for its procurement of the F-35, either on an overall programme basis or on a per-aircraft basis, is wholly unsatisfactory and this unacceptable lack of transparency risks undermining public confidence in the programme. We recommend that the Department provides us with the ‘rough orders of magnitude’ it claims to possess for the total costs of the programme beyond 2026/7.
- The F-35 has clearly experienced a number of software and hardware problems during its development phase, as might be expected from a project of this scale and technical complexity. However, The Times’s investigation has provided cause for concern and these concerns were not alleviated by the disappointing nature of the initial responses from Lockheed Martin and the MoD.
We, therefore, recommend that the MoD provide the Committee with six-monthly updates on the programme, detailing the progress made in addressing the issues that have been previously identified, as well as any future problems. We also believe that these updates should include information on the ongoing cost of the programme.
18 December 2017
Jura The idiot
General
Today at 8:28 AM
MOD's failure to give F-35 stealth jet costs is 'wholly unacceptable' say MPs
related:
MOD's failure to give F-35 stealth jet costs is 'wholly unacceptable' say MPs
Billie Flynn is very talented, and a highly reliable source, of course he's enthused about this airplane, as is almost everyone that we've heard from who flys it? The lad who got his "fanny dusted" by the F-16 was flying AF-2, an aircraft without coatings and combat goodies?? a very early bird in which a great deal of developmental testing was carried out, an amazing aircraft,,, but without any of the bells and whistles....
and I will point out, the F-35 is a very heavy densely packed aircraft,,, it will never be a light little fliver like the F-16, which is extremely agile, to the point that early F-16s had their FCS dialed way back in order to prevent "sleepers" the F-16, like the Raptor will put you to sleep...
Now, the F-16 has almost all that capability dialed back in to bring it almost to F-22 standards, AF-02 is operating on very rudimentary FCS, it too will get much better....
I wouldn't tell em a damn thing,, kinda like your wife asking you how much you spent at the PUB?? would you tell her?? or about the bar maid that kinda "flirts with you",,, not if you want to stay married!
Communication with politicians is always cutting your own throat, they almost to a man,,, way to many women now as well?? are more concerned about their re-election for the next term, and making a name for themselves for the next step up the rungs of POWER and influence!
If "wifey" asks you?? does this dress make me look fat??? are you gonna say YES??? NOT IF YOU WANT TO BE IN A HAPPY MARRIAGE!
and politicians are not there to help you,,, they are playing a game, and if you're an Island Nation of the coast of Europe,,,, (why did England "Brexit"??) you better be on your A game, the bad guys are looking to pick off that little lamb that is separated from the herd, you BETTER keep your Blaster handy kid!
That my friend is sadly why the Royal Navy is saddled with the B model and those old ramps on the front of the QE and PW, when they could have been blowing F-35Cs off those decks, an airplane with more wing, more load, more capability, that has MUCH more range, and much more agility in general, and carries a much more effective load out,, don't kid yourself, the UK and Canada are saddled with too many liberal politicians that mean ill toward the military, the MOD knows that!
reminds me of our own Obama regime, putting the nail in the F-22 coffin! stoopid!
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Jura The idiot
General
flies
LOL