The desperation is palpable.
I can imagine the conversations between the Joint Chiefs and the President. He's calling for cuts (and would have even if sequestration wasn't in play) and the Chiefs are offering personnel up instead of weapons. The Chiefs want their F-35 instead so now they're trying to rally support for the F-35 in the public.
But no one gives a damn.
Lockheed Martin spread the cheddar all around the globe but in the end, its still costs too much and other militaries are balking at the cost.
Is it just me, or is LockMart's recent "feel good" PR for the F-35 just not that impressive? We're being shown bits and pieces of stuff this jet is supposed to do... But it's all stuff older jets do just as good if not better.
ReplyDeleteShow us the F-35B landing in the woods somewhere, not a prepared deck. Show us recording from a mock dogfight. Anything!
Patience you must have my young padawan.
ReplyDeleteWith Block2A just now getting to the training fleet, more will be coming as capabilities are added.
Btw, this is a USMC video, not LM. In either case, I do not hold it against them. With so much money being spent and so much ill-informed bad press being spread, they need to counter it any way they can.
Patience, shmatience...
DeleteThis thing is supposed to be COMBAT READY in three years. It's already blown its original ready date (2008), and certainly not from lack of funding. Other countries are starting to pass on it (S. Korea), while others (Canada, Denmark, etc) are starting to have serious doubts about this bird's capability and price.
Time to take the training wheels off.
Not that that will happen, because LockMart and the Pentagon know that this thing is one PR disaster away from being killed. One crash or similar event during testing will be enough to sent the JSF to he scrap heap.
Yes, three years.
DeleteThe squadrons that will develop the plans & capabilities just got their jets in Nov’12. These jets are Block1B. They started getting 2A jets this year and will transition to 2B in 2014/2015.
The transition to Block2A is an important one due to the sensor fusion and datalinks that are important to develop the tactics that will be used in warfare. In addition to these, 2A give support or weapons so the combat training can begin.
On the issue of funding, lack of it played a major part in the delays of the past few years. The re-baselineing basically added a TON of flight tests without adding annual funding for it. This caused the program to stretch to the right. Also, when delays became evident in the software development, they decided to not increase the annual funding in order to meet the original timeline as best they could. Instead, they allowed it to stretch to the right. These delays, in addition to the butchering of the F-35 ramp-up schedule, played a direct part in LM’s apparent inability to meet the SK price cap.
Bullshit.
Delete"Rebaselining" "Block 1B"... Whatever.
The jet isn't ready. That's what matters. Everything else is semantics and PR speak. It's either ready for front-line service or its not, simple as that. The ramp up schedule has been "butchered" because their is no point in pumping out dozens more before the design is finalized.
Their are 100 of these things already. That's bigger than a lot of air forces. Not a single one can go to war. They are still effectively "YF-35s". The Dutch took delivery of two of them and put them immediately into mothballs. What does that tell you? The C model still hasn't landed on a carrier for Christ's sakes.
The concept is flawed. The execution has been drawn out. This thing would have been killed years ago if there was any viable alternative. Meanwhile, the PAK FA and J-20 look like they will eat this thing for breakfast and possibly beat it into frontline service.
Time to move on.
If this were 2015 then you would have a point about not being ready. However, this is not. They have 3 years to get ready and they are on track to do so.
DeleteAs far as production before design finalization, that was a US Government REQUIREMENT, not something LM came up with. The ramp-up has been butchered because the USG bet on concurrency and when it got a little risky, they backed out while ignoring the long term consequences and Partner cost issues. The current likelihood of LM not getting the SK contract directly ties to the USG backing away from concurrency. The execution being drawn out directly ties to the USG backing away from concurrency. The point of concurrency is to stabilize the production, honor the commitments to your Partners, and replace aging aircraft in your fleet. Because the F-35 is a software jet, the costs to upgrade early jets are a lot lower than traditional upgrades. For example, the Block3i upgrade (hardware and software) is only $5mil a plane and 3F (being software only) should be a lot less.
Btw, the reason that the Dutch put the F-35 into “mothballs” is that they were designed to be part of the IOT&E plan. That has not started yet, so there is no point in keeping them flight ready if there is nothing for them to do. Both sides (JPO & the Dutch Gov) are formulating a plan to use the two jets as part of the current test program.
The reason that the C is so far behind the rest is that the F-35C was the last to go into production. It is the last to go IOC. They planned it this way because the F-35C is the lowest priority because Superhornets are still coming off the production line.
As far as “goto war”, the Block 2A jets could do it today if they wanted to.
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