Work will take place in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, the UK and California. December 14/16: Israel has received their first two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, making them the only Middle Eastern country to own a fifth-generation fighter. At present, F-35 production is led by Lockheed Martin, with BAE and Northrop-Grumman playing major supporting roles, and many subcontractors below that. September 18/15: The Dutch F-35 program could rise in cost by an additional half-million euros, bringing the program up to EUR5.2 billion ($5.9 billion). During a recently held test, one of the USMCs F-35Bs was able to connect with a HIMARS shot for the first time. Those changes will require further testing afterward, adding more test points to the program each time an issue is found. Work will take place in Connecticut and Oklahoma. June 28/16: The USAF has sent a letter to the F-35 Joint Program Office inquiring on the cost and challenges of switching the default Martin-Baker ejection seat to the ACES 5. Sensors onboard the aircraft detected the fire and failures of the IPP and a hydraulics system while the aircraft was flying in the airports landing pattern. The Joint Strike Fighter Program Office clears the F-35B variant to resume flight operations. The Israelis got some concessions from Lockheed Martin and the US government, including the ability to insert their own ECM(Electronic Counter Measures) defensive equipment. In-depth, updated DID articles that address some of these issues in more detail include: Is the F-35 an industrial program for a fighter, or a fighter with an industrial program? Noise: The F135 engines size and power are unprecedented in a fighter, but that has a corollary. November 13/17: ContractsThe US Navy released Thursday a $34.6 million award to Lockheed Martin for integration work with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and small-diameter bomb (SDB) II. The 2025 FOC milestone is the completion of the Tranche 1 delivery programme, when the last delivery of the 48th jet occurs, this remains 2025 as planned: FOC for Tranche 1 of the F-35 Lightning Programme remains as 31 Mar 2025, in accordance with the Central Supporting Group through Main Gate 4, Review Note 3 (MG4, RN3), DOT&E report [PDF] | Lockheed Martin re: 2012 testing | Reuters | TIME magazine. The precise issue of whether the Martin Baker ejection seat or the helmet requires modification or both is currently under review by the Joint Project Office. Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan stated on Monday that if he had an opportunity to speak with the Trump transition team, he would tell them that the program is now under control after years of delays. Even then, the Pentagons 2012 DOT&E report isnt grounds for software schedule optimism. In the long-term the Pentagon may be able to make artificial intelligence and 3D printing cornerstones of its preventative maintenance toolkit. The former defense research scientist also has the brass to point out that while the military has been busy missing the mark, independent analysts like Air Power Australia laid down key cost and performance markers that are now being vindicated by official reports. This could have an impact on the wing structure and might warrant a redesign on that part of the wing. September 17/15: A leaked memo has uncovered serious concerns over the Marine Corps operational testing of F-35B aircraft aboard USS Wasp (LHD-1) in May, undermining the aircrafts Initial Operating Capability in July. $1.7 billion. To deliver an integrated Armoured Infantry capability that will include the Warrior Capability Sustainment Project and its training solution into service. October 27/16: Issues with insulation found inside F-35 fuel tanks has resulted in slower 3rd quarter deliveries of the next-generation fighter, according to manufacturer Lockheed Martin. July 1/15: In a damning report obtained by War is Boring, the F-35A was out-performed by a F-16D in a mock dogfight in January. This gives a more accurate view of the pipeline, but presents a significant, but artificial, change from last years report. April 13/23: UK Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office have signed a $225 million capability support contract for the UKs F-35 fleet. The two-month deployment will commence in May and more than 130 personnel will be heading to Iceland. Work will be performed at Lockheeds facility in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2019. LCD screen and just fly the plane. In order to avoid subtly mismatched seams, which become radar reflection points, parts need to fit together so precisely that some machines are compensating for the phases of the moon! An FPGA is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing. May 8/17:The first F-35 to be produced outside of the US has rolled off the assembly line at a Final Assembly and Checkout (FACO) facility in Cameri, Italy. Thats a lot, but its a decision that touches on the next area they examine: what happens if some countries dont buy, or the USA buys fewer? July 15/21: FMS Lockheed Martin won a $23 million deal, which provides for the integration of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) country into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and provides country-specific program support for F-35 aircraft production, modifications, logistics, and sustainment efforts. March 5/18: Contracts-LogisticsThe Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin two US Navy contracts Wednesday, February 28, for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Current estimates involve a 2018 finish for all 3 models, with Block 3F software installed and a smaller set of integrated weapons than initially planned. September 25/15: The next set of testing on the F-35C will include new pilot helmets, integration with the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) and operations involving a full internal weapons bay, with these scheduled to take place during the first half of October. Jan 28/13: Fueldraulic fault found. Now in the final stages of delivery, having implemented the majority of its components, the programme is expected to close by the end of 2017, with transition continuing to the nominal end-of-life of the programme in 2020 and beyond. In many ways, the American F-35 program sets the tone for all others. Winter, who is currently the F-35 deputy program executive officer, will assume the rank of vice admiral prior to assuming the role. The F-35 Lightning is a stealthy, supersonic multirole fighter developed by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and programme partners from the NATO and US allies. Additionally, this modification definitizes and extends the period of performance to continue to provide joint technical publication updates, training, depot level maintenance and repair for all fielded propulsion systems at the F-35 production sites and operational locations for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, non-US Department of Defense (DOD) partners, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. July 28/21: Special Tooling Lockheed Martin won a $37 million contract modification, which adds scope to procure special tooling and test equipment for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter production line in support of second source canopy tooling and other known capacity gaps for the Navy, Marines, Air Force and non-Department of Defense (DOD) participants. The combination? Project end date (delivery of all Mod kits) remains 31 March 2024. When deployed from the aircraft, the ALE-70s countermeasure transmitter responds to commands from the countermeasure controller located in the jet and emits waveforms to confuse or decoy adversary radars or radar-guided weapons. Civil Aviation Authority extension to the delivery of Mode S cooperative surveillance agreed. Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the IPA RAG rating. April 27/16: Recent software glitches found in the APG-81 radar for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have not caused any problems for F-35Bs operated by the USMC. June 8/17:Elbit Systems of America has been sub-contracted by Lockheed Martin to develop a cockpit display replacement unit for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter under a program, called Technology Refresh 3, Panoramic Cockpit Display Unit. The implied target of the bill would be the 116 F-35 Lightning II fighters that Washington has promised to sell Ankara, of which 100 are almost ready to be delivered. The other involves the DoDs decision to have just 1 engine manufacturer for the F-35, unlike its existing fighter fleets. This is under negotiation and DP and will be concluded as part of the FE process. The F-35Cs range and weapon capacity give it significant time-over-target advantages in a Falkland Islands kind of scenario. With 326 F-16s in the IAF (224 F-16A-D, 102 F-16i), Israel is the largest F-16 operator outside of the United States. MADL also allows for F-35s to share information on air and ground threats in order to more effectively target and engage them. American purchase decisions can be described as a balancing act between these nightmares. Sign up and get Breaking Defense news in your inbox. The Defense Ministry hopes that the addition will increase Israels offensive capabilities and qualitative edge amid regional threats. September 7/18: Engine damage The Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 125 currently embarked on the USS Abraham Lincoln now has to fly with one fighter less. March 25/22:Israel Unique Software Data Load Lockheed Martin won a $16.6 million contract modification, which adds scope to provide for the development, integration, and testing of the Israel unique software data load in support of integration of Technology Refresh 3 (TR3) onto the F-35 Lot 15 Israel production aircraft. According to Reuters, four sources confirmed that Japan had further trimmed the price for its latest order, largely on ground support costs such as parts, logistics and technical assistance. These changes provide the precise slow-speed handling required for carrier approaches and extend the planes range a bit. May 3/21: Baltic Air Policing Mission Four Italian F-35As have deployed from Amendola Air Base, Italy to mari Air Base, Estonia to augment the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission. The likely result? The LRIP Lot 8 contract was agreed last year, with 43 of the fighters scheduled for production under Lot 8. December 19/17: Milestone-Deliveries 2017Lockheed Martin announced Monday that is has met the US governments target for the year of delivering 66 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to the US military and allied partners. At Q2 2016/17 the IPA Delivery Confidence still reflected their assessment made in December 2015 that successful delivery of the Programme appeared feasible but that significant issues existed requiring management attention. However this will be impacted by the IS slippage explained above. A change of governing parties hasnt shifted Australias long-term commitment to the F-35A yet, but rising costs could do so. Frank Kendell, the programs chief weapons tester, had been warning of delays for some time; however, it had been maintained by some that the jets initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) would occur as planned in August or September 2017. November 30/17: Contracts-SoftwareLockheed Martin has landed a $37.7 million modification to a previously awarded contract worth $10.7 billion, to exercise an option for software conversions for structure and systems datasets in support of Lot 10 production for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The approval means the Martin-Baker Mk16 ejection seat meets the original service specification for the F-35A, which requires the manufacturer to accommodate all pilots weighing over 46.7kg. This follows the F-35B squadron which was passed for combat back in July 2015. It is valued at $211 million. Active means these inceptors are under complete computer control and can be programmed on the fly. Lightning II system development partners included The USA & Britain (Tier 1), Italy and the Netherlands (Tier 2), and Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey (Tier 3), with Singapore and Israel as Security Cooperation Partners, and Japan as the 1st export customer. The UKs Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the involvement of BAE and Northrop Grumman, but declined to say anything about whether DECA, the British state-owned components repair operation, would have a role; however, due to US government insistence, some avionics repairs on the jet here are only undertaken by UK government employees. That scenario would spell disaster for other F-35 customers, who would end up paying far more per plane than they had expected. Whats different is that continued program delays would leave the US military unable to stream new pilots to its production aircraft. The comments come after weeks of hand wrangling with lead contractor Lockheed Martin over pricing. October 21/16: Norwegian F-35s grounded last month for repairs will be back in the air by November, sooner than expected. This would be broken down into $4 billion towards research and development of new submarines, with $9 billion spent on procurement funding. Work will take place in Virginia, and is expected to be completed in February 2028. The Amber RAG status reflects the significant risks and issues which exist in a number of areas, plus the technical challenge of taking a first of class complex warship to sea for the first time. October 5/15: An F-35 released a weapon from its external rack for the first time in late September, according to a Lockheed Martin press release Friday. February 22/22: Mission Equipment Lockheed Martin won a $42.1 million contract modification, which exercises an option to procure ancillary mission equipment in support of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Lot 16 production aircraft for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Foreign Military Sales customers, and non-US Department of Defense participants. Either way, a DSCA-approved export request would be required before any order can be placed. Ankara has committed to procuring a total of 115 F-35s. The F-22 Raptor had been their preferred choice, but America refused to export it. The US military currently has 245 JSFs in its service while there are 75 F-35s in the international fleet. Due to the maturity of the programme the budgeted WLC, specifically the Contracted Logistics Support (CLS), remain based on pre-MGBC studies and assumptions. Note that some media reports dont match up with the 32 planes known to be in Lot V (vid. Work will take place in Texas and is expected to be finished in March 2022. The Pentagon has been mulling what to include in future F-35 weapon tranches, with options including the Small Diameter Bomb II and Joint Strike Missile, as well as several others. June 4/15: Lockheed Martin saw a $920.4 million advanced acquisition contract on Thursday for the F-35 program. The headline budgeted WLC figure has reduced as a result of the decision to remove the Armoured Battlefield Support Vehicle (ABSV) project as a directed cost-saving in ABC16. May 28/18: F-35 support The Navy is contracting Lockheed Martin for a number of support activities as part of the F-35 Lightning II program. As at 30/09/16 the FY 16/17 forecast included 27m expenditure on the Defence Fulfilment Centre (DFC) that moved from FY 15/16 to FY 16/17. Estimated completion will be in December 2021. Work will take place at several locations across the US as well as at Warton, UK, and Nagoya, Japan, with contract completion expected for December this year. Due to the jets high procurement cost, Lockheed Martin is trying to develop systems that extend the F-35s life while keeping the associated costs to a minimum. A special F-135-PW-600 version with Rolls Royces LiftFan add-on, and a nozzle that can rotate to point down, will power the vertical-landing F-35B. Details on contract length were also omitted. F-35 main production and final assembly is currently slated to take place in Lockheed Martins Fort Worth, TX plant. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus election promise to not order the next generation fighter, and government plans to purchase F/A-18 Super Hornets as an interim solution, has resulted in Ottawa not placing any orders for the fighter despite being an original partner nation in the project. To update the UK's submarine heavyweight torpedo: safety improvements are required to ensure residual risks remain as low as reasonably practicable and improved performance is required against increasingly capable threats. The JSF program is tiered, with 4 possible levels of participation based on admission levels and funding commitments for the System Design & Development (SDD) phase. CP&F will provide a single online end to end procurement system for all MOD procurement activity. One response just starts production earlier, and lets the main partner eat most of the concurrency costs. The company will also be responsible for mitigating hardware risks as part of the programs technical Refresh Phase 3 development. Work will take place in North Carolina and is expected to be completed by June 2025. The decision to use only 1 engine also comes into play, as he describes the 6 month negotiations to finalize the F135 engine LRIP Lot 5 contract (vid. The testing took place as part of the programme to integrate the JSM into the F-35, under the JPO (Joint Program Office) which is responsible for the F-35 cooperation programme, and is carried out in close cooperation with US authorities. June 12/18: Order Order The Navy is contracting Lockheed Martin for further work in support of the F-35 Lightning II program. November 5/15: Lockheed Martin has been handed a $5.37 billion contract action for 55 Lot IX Joint Strike Fighters, including 41 F-35As, 12 F-35Bs and 2 F-35Cs. January 9/17: Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has dismissed an idea posed by the upcoming Trump administration to supplant the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with greater procurements of the F/A-18 Super Hornet. March 11/13: GAO Report. December 23/15: Canadas recent exit of the F-35 fighter program may not be as cut and dried as promised on the campaign trail by the Liberal Party government. April 4/23: Updates Raytheon won a $212.7 million modification, which definitizes the existing contract and extends the period of performance to provide continued recurring sustainment, program management, financial and administrative, propulsion integration, engineering, material management, configuration management, software sustainment, security management, equipment management and product management support activities. November 10/16: A fire that erupted in the weapons bay of a USMC F-35B in late October is being investigated. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to be completed in December 2029. The Wasp left Norfolk, Virginia in August, and included a two month stint of providing humanitarian relief efforts following two hurricanes in the Caribbean, before replacing the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard as the flagship of Task Force 76 in the East. However, as part of its new Continuous Capability Development and Delivery effort, the program is looking to incorporate new capabilities, like Auto GCAS, as well as fixes to already fielded software. d. Public Sector technical Support. Valued at $6.5 million, the contract will see the company manufacture the rounds in four lots at Rheinmetall Switzerland and delivery will commence in December, 2017. February 16/22: UK Three more F-35B aircraft are being delivered to the UK, bringing the fleet to 25 aircraft. This marks the first time the F-35 is used for this mission.
