F35 Actualité

Further dramatic F-35 cost increases could force Norway to reconsider programme

If there is a further dramatic cost increase on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Norway will reconsider its participation in the programme.

"If there should happen to be something that would really affect the cost curves in the next months, in the next years, all nations including Norway will, of course, reconsider the whole project," says Norway's state secretary for Defence, Roger Ingebrigtsen. "I have no reasons to believe that. I was more nervous two years ago than I am today."

Should something go horribly wrong, however, Norway would be forced to reconsider the programme, he says. But Norway needs the F-35.

The best we can get is the F-35," Ingebrigtsen says. There is a reason that a nation like Japan, which has signed onto the programme comparatively late, has selected the stealthy fifth-generation jet for its arsenal, he says. But US support for the F-35 is critical.

"I hope the politicians in the United States stay strong on the F-35 programme," he says.

The country will buy 52 of the jets. But even with its increasing oil wealth, the Nordic nation cannot afford to pay for all of those aircraft at the same time. So the country will have to stagger its procurements.

"It's really a huge sum of money," Ingebrigtsen says. "Therefore we have to spread it out."

For Norway, the F-35 is its largest ever defence procurement. The runner-up is Lockheed's own F-16, which Norway bought in 1977, Ingebrigtsen says.

Getting the F-35 on the timeline it has set is important for the country because its F-16s will reach the end of their lives around 2020-2022. The country will start off its procurement with four jets in 2015, which will be used for training. A further six would be purchased in 2017. Later jets would be bought in 2022 through 2023, but buys could stretch through 2024 if necessary.

But Norway wants the US to jointly integrate the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile onto the F-35, and it wants the US to sign onto the programme, Ingebrigtsen says. The weapons could be useful to the US against ships and land targets. After a series of meetings with US officials, Ingebrigtsen says, "We feel [confident] that the United States supports this missile."

Another issue that affects the Norwegian F-35 buy is the installation of a braking parachute to operate on icy runways in the far north. The country needs that parachute for its fleet and if the problem cannot be resolved by 2015, that could delay a Norwegian buy.

"Lockheed Martin needs to solve this," he says. "We need parachutes on the first fighter we procure."

Meanwhile, Norway is in discussions to replace a Lockheed C-130J Hercules that crashed earlier in the year. But the cause of that crash has not yet been discovered, the investigation cannot be completed until the summer when the weather is warmer.

General Electric and Rolls-Royce's decision to abandon their fight for an alternate engine to power the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter finally put an end to a long, politically charged battle with incumbent Pratt & Whitney. Or did it?

No, the GE-Rolls F136 is not rising from the dead. But a U.S. Air Force demonstrator program, in which GE, Rolls and Pratt are competing separately to develop fuel-saving propulsion technology for combat aircraft, could conceivably produce an alternate engine sized for the JSF as early as 2020. That possibility has sent jitters through Pratt and its allies on Capitol Hill.

The issue surrounds the adaptive engine technology development (AETD) program, a new effort that is rapidly gaining traction within the Pentagon because of its potential to save up to 25% in fuel burn over state-of-the-art engines. The Pentagon—which actively opposed the F-35 alternate engine plan for five years—supports the initiative run by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and sees it as a key part of an energy-saving strategy to keep the Air Force's annual fuel use below 2.4 billion gal.

Sensing the longer term threat, Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), the senator most associated with the moves to counter the F136, ......

...... is leading efforts to limit any possible impact of AETD on the F-35.

But Lieberman, who leads the Senate Armed Services air-land subcommittee in charge of tactical aircraft, says he will not stop the Pentagon program aiming to develop engines that vastly improve fuel efficiency.

Despite these reassurances, according to insiders, military planners are taking a dim view of what they consider political attempts to emasculate the evolution of U.S. combat engine technology for the benefit of an incumbent manufacturer.

However, of more concern to Pratt is that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter—a past critic of the company's F135 program—is thought to have asked AFRL to outline provisional schedules for making a production-standard engine available as early as 2020. This is well within the extended procurement schedule of the F-35, and early enough to make a significant impact on the production run of the F135.

Yet the Air Force officially downplays any suggestion of either linking the AETD directly to the F-35 or accelerating its development to make it a possible contender before the early 2020s. Testifying to Congress earlier this year, Steven Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said the official target for AETD is for “follow-on final design, engineering manufacturing development (EMD), and ground and flight-test qualification of a production-ready engine early in the next decade for integration into legacy and future aircraft systems.”

The Pentagon has requested $214 million for the AETD in fiscal 2013. Lieberman would not divulge the details of the subcommittee's just-completed draft of the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, but says he is trying to “put some parameters” around the program. “I'm going to do everything I can, not to stop this program, but to make sure that it doesn't become a second engine, because that would be a waste of taxpayer money.”

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, today congratulated the UK Ministry of Defence on the delivery of their first F-35B Lightning II aircraft.

Dan Korte, Rolls-Royce, President – Defence, said, "Rolls-Royce offers our sincere congratulations to the UK Ministry of Defence on this important milestone. We are proud of our unique, advanced technology in the Rolls-Royce LiftSystem®, which provides this aircraft with its vertical-lift capability."

The F-35B Lightning II is the only fighter aircraft in the world to combine Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) technology with supersonic speed and stealth capability. The STOVL jets, which will also be flown by the US Marine Corps, will allow short-deck ship operations or enable fighter capability from austere, forward operating bases.

Rolls-Royce is the only company in the world with the technology to produce the LiftSystem, which comprises a Rolls-Royce LiftFan, Roll Posts and 3-bearing swivel module.

The unique STOVL capability is provided by the F-35B’s propulsion system, pairing a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine and the Rolls-Royce LiftSystem.

In 2012, F-35B STOVL jets have completed more than 200 flights, with more than 130 short take-offs and 55 vertical landings. Overall, F-35B STOVL jets have flown approximately 800 flights, with more than 550 short takeoffs and 330 vertical landings.

U.S. stealth jets may cost 50% more

Each F-35 stealth jet that Japan buys from the United States in fiscal 2013 will be 50 percent more expensive than in the current year, according to Defense Ministry officials.

The ministry cited lower production efficiency for the price hike — which will see the acquisition cost soar to ¥15.4 billion from ¥10.2 billion per aircraft — and plans to buy two F-35s in the next fiscal year, the officials said Tuesday.

To this end, the ministry will seek ¥30.8 billion to cover the acquisition costs in the fiscal 2013 budget request it must submit by Friday, they added.

Japan plans to purchase a total of 42 F-35s and signed a contract to acquire the first four at a price of around ¥10.2 billion each in fiscal 2012. The four aircraft are scheduled for delivery by fiscal 2016. Last December, Japan announced it had selected the F-35 to replace the Air Self-Defense Force's aging fleet of F-4s and become its next-generation fighter jet.

U.S. stealth jets may cost 50% more

Each F-35 stealth jet that Japan buys from the United States in fiscal 2013 will be 50 percent more expensive than in the current year, according to Defense Ministry officials.

The ministry cited lower production efficiency for the price hike — which will see the acquisition cost soar to ¥15.4 billion from ¥10.2 billion per aircraft — and plans to buy two F-35s in the next fiscal year, the officials said Tuesday.

To this end, the ministry will seek ¥30.8 billion to cover the acquisition costs in the fiscal 2013 budget request it must submit by Friday, they added.

Japan plans to purchase a total of 42 F-35s and signed a contract to acquire the first four at a price of around ¥10.2 billion each in fiscal 2012. The four aircraft are scheduled for delivery by fiscal 2016. Last December, Japan announced it had selected the F-35 to replace the Air Self-Defense Force's aging fleet of F-4s and become its next-generation fighter jet.

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US Air Force praises early performance of Lockheed Martin F-35

feedback from US Air Force pilots and maintainers operating the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at Eglin AFB, Florida, suggests the aircraft is performing better than its predecessors did at a similar stage of development.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] is in its infancy, but the stealthy type is already proving to be relatively stable from a maintenance standpoint, says Col Andrew Toth, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing.

"The system right now is behaving as advertised, [although] occasionally, we will have some issues with it on the ground," he says. However, this is usually easily fixed by shutting the aircraft down and then restarting it,

Once the JSF is airborne there are "very limited" issues, with the aircraft's hardware, software and Pratt & Whitney F135 engine all performing well, he says.

"That's all good news," Toth says, but cautions: "We're a very young system and we still have very long way to go."

Sgt Skyler DeBoer, a senior maintainer with the 33rd Fighter Wing, who has previous experience on the Lockheed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] programmes, says the F-35 has the edge on the Raptor. "Compared with the [F-22], this programme is way ahead of where the [F-22] was, software-wise, aircraft-wise," DeBoer says, "Lockheed has made great strides with this aircraft."

DeBoer attributes part of the improvement to better maintenance training. F-35 maintainers have received far more extensive instruction at this early stage of the JSF programme than on the F-22, he says.

Contractor support, too, is far better on the F-35 than was the case on the F-22, he insists. Requests to address specific problems are processed far more quickly through the F-35's autonomic logistics information system, with responses often received within hours, he says.

Additionally, the F-35's stealth coatings are much easier to work with than those used on the Raptor. Cure times for coating repairs are lower and many of the fasteners and access panels are not coated, further reducing the workload for maintenance crews.

According to Lockheed, some of the F-35's radar-absorbent materials are baked into the jet's composite skin, which means the JSF's stealthy signature is not easily degraded.

"There’s no change to our Joint Strike Fighter timetable as published in last year’s budget, which reflects and replicates the timetable for the United States’ Joint Strike Fighter project.

And we expect to see, on the basis of no further delays in that project, the first of our three squadrons arrive in 2020, with two planes being handed over to us for training purposes in the United States in 2014-2015," said Smith.