F-35 expected to enter service in 2015 (my bet would be mid 2014)!

Via...Aviation Week????!!!!

USMC Expect First F-35B In Service Early 2015

Jun 19, 2011 
By Amy Butler abutler@aviationweek.com

The U.S. Marine Corps expects to get its version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into service in late 2014 or early 2015, a two-to-three-year slip, says Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the commandant for aviation.
He is confident the short-takeoff vertical-landing (Stovl) F-35B will be ready for use by then if the fixes in place for technical issues proceed as planned, he tells Aviation Week during a June 19 interview in advance of the Paris air show.
As a contingency plan, the general showed no interest in procurement of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, which are being bought by the Navy. “Plan B is to try harder” at JSF, he says.
In the meantime, Robling says that the current AV-8B Harriers and F-18 Hornets can continue to handle the attack mission. These can undergo service-life-extension programs only “to a degree,” he says. In the middle of the next decade, it is “not viable” to continue extending the lives of these aircraft.
“SLEPs are not easy and they are expensive,” Robling says. Taking the existing Marine Corps Hornets to about 10,000 hr. of service extends the life by two to four years depending on how the aircraft are used. He notes that a Stovl capability is needed for the Marine operational concept.
Recently, Harriers were used for strikes in Libya owing to the lack of availability of a refueling tanker for other aircraft suitable for the mission, he adds. The Harriers, though, aren’t without their problems. Extra water is needed for takeoff in Stovl mode for these missions, he said.

The two-to-three-year slip was brought on by outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision this year to put the Stovl JSF on

“probation.”

“That is a poor choice of words,” Robling says. “This is a time for us to get these fixes done.”

The general reports that the testing of the B continues faster than expected this year, after a lackluster showing last year. As a result, the Marines have opted to remove two Bs from the test schedule earlier than planned to undergo modification in preparation for shipboard testing on the Wasp amphibious assault ship this fall. Robling says this accelerated modification plan “takes out risk” from the program.

Boy talk about a buried story!

But I won't complain too much.  At least Amy reported the news.

The Marine Corps is planning on an initial operational capability by 2015.

In Marine land that means that it better be ready by mid 2014 or you'll see an adverse fitness report inserted into your SRB.

I wonder what the haters, spinners and bullshitters have to say now?

F-35 June Test Update Vid.

Thanks Phil!  Totally missed this one.

Trimble channels Sweetman.

Read this and tell me that the Sith Lord hasn't influenced the young Padawan learner...

The F-35 enters the Paris Air Show on a high note. Perhaps like Canada committing to buy 65 F-35As on the eve of the Farnborough show last year, Lockheed Martin served up a whopper of a press release a few days ahead of the show. Here are some highlights:

• A finally complete fleet of 13 flight test aircraft has flown more sorties through 15 June than all of last year. That's not unexpected after the test fleet population has roughly doubled since 12 months ago, but it's a major accomplishment. If trends continue, the fleet should have no trouble easily surpassing the 872-sortie goal set by the programme for this year. 
• The F-35A variant's AF-1 has come within M0.07 of its top speed of M1.6, and AF-7 has remained airborne for 4.1h. 
• At least 17 F-35s, including the retired AA-1 test aircraft and four early production jets, have been flown and delivered. 

All of that is not to suggest the F-35 has resolved all concerns. Lockheed has not provided an update on mean time between failure rates, which were last year were a 1.8h for the F-35A and about 24 minutes for the F-35B, according to the Government Accountability Office. Thermal loads for mission systems aircraft AF-3 and BF-4 have not jet been tested in the heat of the California and Maryland summer. House appropriators, meanwhile, have proposing removing $75.7 million from next year's budget, which would have launched development of Block IV software. With Block III software already four years behind schedule, there's no need to start working on Block IV.

Geez.

Talking about making dog food out of 5 star meal!

I continue to marvel at the ability of main stream reporters to continue to take outstanding news and make it sound as if the program is still on a downward trajectory.

I have yet to read in Flight Global, Ares, Defense Technology International or Aviation Week....these simple words.

After an extremely shaky start, the JSF Program Office, Lockheed Martin and the Defense Dept have turned the F-35 program around.

I doubt that I ever will....even when the skies are filled with F-35's.

F-35 CF-3 arrives at PaxRiver.

NAVAIR just posted this vid.

F-35 News.

Lockheed Martin F-35 Program Flight Test Update

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 14th, 2011 -- Overall, the F-35 program remains ahead of the overall goals for test flights and test points year-to-date. Through May 31, the program accomplished 378 flights versus a plan of 297 and accomplished 3,342 test points against a plan of 2,217.
Several flight test and production key milestones were accomplished since the last report:

• The F-35B short takeoff /vertical landing (STOVL) jet BF-1 performed the 100th vertical landing for the test program on May 12. For 2011, 106 vertical landings have been performed.
• The F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jet AF-1 flew to Mach 1.53, the fastest-to-date speed of the existing aircraft fleet. AF-7 completed the longest test mission to date lasting 4.1 hours.
• During the month of May, all three variants of the F-35 flew a combined total of 94 System Development and Demonstration (SDD) flights, the most achieved in a single month in program history.
• The F-35 program flew the most flights ever recorded on one day (May 25) when a combined total of 10 flights (includes SDD and LRIP) were completed at all three of its flight test locations at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), Calif.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (PAX).
• The U.S. Air Force accepted into its fleet, the second of a planned 1,763 production-model F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters when AF-6 was delivered to EAFB on May 13. AF-6 was the second aircraft in Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot one contractually delivered.
• One of the first two F-35A production aircraft that will be delivered to Eglin AFB, Fla., accomplished its first flight on May 13. Known as AF-9, the aircraft will be delivered to Eglin for pilot and maintainer training later this year. This jet is the second aircraft to fly from LRIP lot two.
• Two F-35C carrier variant (CV) aircraft, known as CF-2 and CF-3, were delivered to the F-35 test fleet at PAX. CF-2 was delivered May 16 and CF-3 delivered June 2.
• CF-2 successfully completed the first F-35 public fly by at the Andrews AFB, Md., Joint Services Open House Air Show during the opening ceremony for the event May 21.

The following statistics reflect the cumulative flight test activity totals for 2011:

• F-35A CTOL jets have flown 183 times.
• F-35B STOVL aircraft have completed 166 flights.
• F-35C CV jets have flown 62 times.
• From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through June 13, 2011, F-35s flew 971 times, including the production-model acceptance flights and AA-1.

The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th Generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.

Damn!

Who am I seeing in their offices weeping like babies, banging their heads against their desks and saying mommy make the successful American fighter go away?

Why its Sweetman and Wall. 

You can both pound sand boys....the USMC order of this fighter (along with the Navy) will make it more successful than the Eurofighter.  Add the USAF to the mix and the Rafale, Eurofighter, Gripen and F/A-18 Super Hornet become irrelevant in the market place.

Another bad day for a couple of Europeans turned US defense writers, turned undercover European/Russian/Chinese fighter fans.

F-35 Family Photos.

via Elements of Power Blogspot.

F-35.com

Lockheed Martin (seems like a LM day huh?) has a new website here.

F-35.com

33rd Fighter Wing due to get 1st F-35 this month!

via NWFDailyNews.com

Officials at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics are days away from sending Eglin Air Force Base its first of 59 Joint Strike Fighters.
“We are very close to delivering the first jet down there and I would say we believe it will happen in the month of June,” said Mike Rein, a spokesman for the company.
The arrival of the first F-35 will start a string of deliveries from this month to September. Six jets are slated for delivery by the end of the fiscal year, Rein said. The base will receive the majority of the jets within the next three years.
“While we’ll still be delivering aircraft to other bases, Eglin will be the primary focus for the coming years,” Rein said.
Since Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates restructured the program last January, Rein said the deliveries are on schedule.
The proposed delivery date when the Draft Executive Summary came out last September was four planes in 2010 and 26 planes in 2011. Instead, the first six aircraft will be bought this year and another six the following year.
The rate of delivery will eventually increase until Eglin receives its 59 aircraft.
Other than test aircraft, Eglin will be the first base to receive F-35s. The jets will be used to train F-35 pilots and maintainers at the 33rd Fighter Wing’s Joint Strike Fighter Training School.
The first pilots who will train on the F-35 will be instructors. Some of them, including Marines, are already stationed at Eglin and are a part of the cadre tasked with forming the curriculum.
Rein said Lockheed and Eglin plan to have events where the public can see the aircraft sometime this year.
Officials at the Pentagon and Eglin said the base is working closely with Lockheed Martin and will announce the jet’s arrival when the date is firmly in place.
The Joint Strike Fighter is the country’s first fifth-generation, multirole fighter.
“This is going to give our armed forces the capability that they’ve never had before and it is going to be a tremendous leap in technology,” Rein said. “We’re quite excited about it.”

The momentum has become unstoppable.  The program has survived its critics and will go into full rate production.

The Haters can pound sand....eat fish heads and rice...and shut the fuck up...

You lose boys.

F-35A AF-3 In Acceptance Test Facility

F-35A AF-3 is the first flyable F-35 to go through the Acceptance Test Facility. The facility is used to measure radar cross section to ensure that the aircraft meets low observable requirements. The facility was used to test the full-scale pole model of the F-35 in 2009. AF-3 was tested in late October 2010.

F-35 CTOL B-Rolls.

Latest vids from Lockheed Martin.

APA saved the F-35!

A comment made today...

Sgt C said... Kudos to LM if they can keep the plane in the 60-70m range. There would be no reason for anyone who could buy a JSF to buy anything else. Why buy a Yugo when you can get a Corvette for the same amount of money?
USN reluctance and those wild operational cost numbers that came out are pure F18/Boeing mafia. They're pretty entrenched at NAVAIR.
However, don't think that LM is keeping costs in line out the generosity of its Corporate heart. Public scrutiny of JSF (and many defense contracts in general) have them putting the screws to costs. Which is the way it's supposed to work, I believe.

Saw two BF's fly today. Maybe they will make their goals this year. It would be nice to be wrong in this case.

His statement gave me this wild thought.  Without Air Power Australia sounding the alarm (most of the time falsely)...without the criticism from the many critics out there...without the breach....the F-35 program would have probably failed without hope of resurrection.

But because of the early and often fire/brimstone thrown at the program....

Policy makers and Lockheed Martin got a heads up that they needed to make changes---and to do it now.

The irony of the situation is this.  The people that sought to kill the F-35 might in the end have saved it...they did not allow the builder or the government to be lulled into a sense that all was well.

This is beyond delicious! 

Thompson on the F-35.

After some initial reluctance to comment, prime contractor Lockheed Martin has begun to forcefully rebut the absurd cost estimates being issued by CAPE -- estimates that made the plane sound unaffordable. Lockheed chairman Robert Stevens stated last week that the company expects the actual purchase price of each Air Force variant will be roughly the same as a current Lockheed F-16 or Boeing F/A-18. That would be about $60 million in today's dollars -- less than half the price of an F-22 Raptor -- and it includes all the necessary mission equipment.

Read it all here.

F-35 drop test photo.

The F-35C recently completed its drop test with full combat load.  Here is the photo.  Via Lockheed Martin.  Notice the cluster bombs, Mk-82(?) and other ordnance on the wings.  I'm assuming that a full internal load of weapons is included.

F-35 1st Quarter Update.

A more hi-resolution F-35C pics.

F-35 and Israel.

via Alert 5 from the Jerusalem Post.

The defense establishment will hold a series of high-level consultations over the next month with the aim of determining, by the end of July, whether it will buy the fifth-generation stealth Joint Strike Fighter.

The first meeting will be held in the coming weeks and be led by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi as well as OC Israel Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan. The second meeting, scheduled for the end of this month, will be led by Defense Ministry director-general Udi Shani. The final meeting, scheduled for July, will be headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Despite a recent round of JSF-related talks between Israeli and American officials, the parties have yet to reach an agreement regarding the sale of the plane to Israel.

The F-35 will be one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world and, according to the IAF, would significantly boost Israel’s deterrence in the region.

Prediction.  They'll buy the airplane and if my hunch is correct they'll even buy a batch of B models.  Israel is feeling besieged right now.  I imagine that Lockheed Martin might get that vaunted high rate production.  I can easily see the Israeli's buying their airplanes in the less than full capability mode that the Marines will be operating.

PS.
Alert 5 (I love those guys) also dropped this tidbit.  Canada is expected to purchase the F-35....without competition.

Fully missionized F-35B flying at PaxRiver.

Major Hat Tip to B. Bolsøy Oslo---I don't know how I missed this....from F-16.net.

"This mission systems aircraft adds a new dimension to the F-35 flight testing under way at PAX River," said Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and general manager of F-35 Program Integration. "Now, in addition to validating the aerodynamic capabilities and flying qualities of these jets, we will have the opportunity to confirm the performance of what we expect to be a transcendent avionics capability – the most capable ever in a fighter." A fifth F-35B, along with the first Navy carrier variant, is expected to join the fleet later this year at Patuxent River.

I was promised that I was on their mailing list.  Time to send a nasty gram to Lockheed Martin!

F-35C Pics.

I saw some unauthorized pics.  I saw the video.  But I wanted to wait for Lockheed's official pic release of the F-35C's first flight.  I wasn't disappointed.

Dueling articles.

Well I was waiting for the duel to start up again and it looks like we have Information Dissemination and Early Warning picking up the boxing gloves.

While we'll have to wait and see who's right and wrong, I found these to be the 'operative' passages from both articles.

This from ID's article...

And with the higher price, we almost certainly will buy fewer airframes. This is one part of Robert Gates legacy in waiting few want to acknowledge exists.

And from EW....

The official projections are so wildly wrong that the Senate Armed Services Committee directed last week, "cost estimates developed for baseline descriptions and budgetary purposes shall not become the basis for negotiations with contractors and the obligations of funds." Translation: the government's cost estimates for F-35 and other major weapons programs threaten to drive up costs if negotiators take them seriously, rather than holding them down. Further evidence of this fact will become available in June, when the government reveals that F-35s in the next production lot are priced about 25% below what Pentagon estimators predicted. Needless to say, the estimators aren't answering questions about how they came up with their ridiculous guess-timates.

I'll wait patiently to see who's right...but if my suspicions prove to be correct (read that to be Air Power Australia mouth piece) then expect a loud and vocal 'intervention'....one of these guys is wrong and needs to be called on it.  Arrogance must be exposed and I'll enjoy doing it.

CBO report on Navy/Marines fighter gap.

Hat tip to the Navy Times (go to there site here..for the article).  This report (below) is a light read and it lays out 4 options for dealing with the fighter shortfall.  Alternative 1 is a no brainer and will probably be followed.  But you can bet Boeing and their Congressional delegations will be pushing for more F/A-18E/F's.
05-27-FighterInventories