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The Pentagon has released its cease-of-twelvemonth progress written report on the F-35, and over again, the news isn't very good. This is nothing new for the F-35, which has been bombarded by poor performance reviews, cost overruns, and directly bailiwick to criticism by President-elect Donald Trump.

On paper, the F-35 is supposed to complete its System Development and Demonstration (SDD) and begin its Initial Operational Exam and Evaluation (IOT&Eastward) by August, 2022. SDD certification ways the aircraft is in a mature state of development with demonstrated capabilities in alive-burn down exercises. IOT&Due east refers to "Defended operational examination and evaluation conducted on production, or production representative articles, to decide whether systems are operationally constructive and suitable, and which supports the decision to proceed Across Low Rate Initial Production (BLRIP)."

I'm not saying that all delayed projects fail -- but these were cutting-edge graphics when the first video game featuring the F-35 shipped in 1997.

I'chiliad not saying that all delayed projects neglect — but these were cutting-edge graphics when the first video game featuring the F-35 shipped in 1997.

The Articulation Strike Fighter (F-35) has been in SDD since 2001 and was expected to consummate that procedure this twelvemonth. That's no longer going to happen. Instead, the study indicates the F-35 " will not be able to showtime IOT&E with full combat capability until late CY18 or early CY19, at the soonest." Hither are some of the new reasons why:

  • Technology and system improvements take been rolled out to the F-35 plan in what are known as "blocks." Block 3F mission systems and evolution testing aren't expected to be consummate until July, 2022. Cake 3F weapon testing and integration is also well behind schedule. The F-35B variant (that's the short-takeoff and vertical-landing version developed for the Marines) won't receive its flight envelope Cake 3F full upgrade until the middle of 2022 if the current production schedule manages to hold;
  • There accept been further delays to gun testing on all three platforms and recently discovered "gunsight deficiencies" take delayed this testing also. The four-barrel, 25mm GAU-22/A cannon that the F-35 relies on also carries a laughable amount of ammunition — just 182 rounds for the F-35A, or 220 rounds in an external pod for the F-35B and F-35C. The A-x Thunderbolt Ii carries 1,174 rounds for its 30mm GAU-viii/A, while even the F-16'due south 20mm M61A1 Vulcan 6-barrel rotary cannon packs 511 rounds;
  • The F-35 has an extremely sophisticated computer system for managing mission payloads and hardware swap-outs, and estimating when diverse components have reached stop-of-life. The system mostly doesn't work notwithstanding. The Autonomic Logistics Information System is now expected to exist gear up by mid-2018. Similarly, Mission Information Loads — mission-specific target and sensor information loaded for item types of operations — aren't expected to be available until June, 2022.

The next few points are worth quoting in their entirety:

  • Significant, well-documented deficiencies; for hundreds of these, the program has no plan to adequately set and verify with flight test within SDD; although it is common for programs to have unresolved deficiencies after evolution, the program must assess and mitigate the cumulative effects of these remaining deficiencies on F-35 effectiveness and suitability prior to finalizing and fielding Block 3F (accent added);
  • Overall ineffective operational performance with multiple fundamental Block 3F capabilities delivered to date, relative to planned IOT&East scenarios, which are based on various fielded threat laydown;
  • Connected low aircraft availability and no indications of pregnant comeback, especially for the early on production lot IOT&E aircraft;
  • Delays in completing the required extensive and time-consuming modifications to the fleet of operational test aircraft which, if not mitigated with an executable plan and contract, could significantly delay the start of IOT&E.

Reaping the cyclone of concurrency

Part of the reason the F-35's development costs and deployment times have exploded into such a boondoggle is considering the Pentagon was smoking cleft when it approved the aircraft'southward development strategy. Normally, we develop war machine hardware past building prototypes and fine-tuning capabilities and systems before nosotros build those systems into shipping. With the F-35, the government embraced the idea of building hardware while we had no idea how to implement its capabilities. Imagine breaking ground on a 200-story skyscraper if you had only a vague idea how to build anything to a higher place 120 stories. You'd be assuming that any techniques are required for constructing a 200-story edifice tin can be easily retrofitted into your 120-story model. If it turns out they can't be, you're going to eat the female parent of all development overruns and delays while you retrofit the 120-story building for whatsoever improvements are required to stop information technology.

F35-FMC2

These are non great numbers. Fifty-fifty grading on a bend.

That's more-or-less what the Pentagon did with the F-35, and the study makes it clear just how stupid it were for trying information technology. Above, yous can meet the F-35's stats beyond each variant (Standard, STVOL, catapult-assisted). MC ways Mission Capable, or the percentage of F-35's of that variant that can wing any mission, while FMC means Fully Mission Capable, or the percentage of F-35's that can wing all intended missions. FMC capability varies depending on which "Block" the fighter belongs to, but while later fighter blocks have better ratings, at that place are also fewer of these fighters compared with before blocks:

Due to concurrent development and production, which resulted in delivering operational shipping before the program has completed development and finalized the shipping design, the Services must transport the current armada of F-35 aircraft to depot facilities. This is to receive modifications that take been designed since the shipping were originally manufactured and are now required for full capability. Some of these modifications are driven by faults in the original design that were not discovered until afterwards product had started, such as major structural components that do non encounter the requirements for the intended lifespan, and others are driven past the standing comeback of the design of combat capabilities that were known to exist lacking when the aircraft were first congenital. These modifications are a result of the concurrency of product and development and cause the programme to expend resources to send aircraft for major re-piece of work, often multiple times… Since SDD will go along at least to the middle of 2022, and by then the plan will have delivered nearly 200 aircraft to the Services in other than the 3F configuration, the depot modification plan and its associated concurrency burden will be with the Services for years to come.

When the F-35 was laid down, the Us Air Force promised that the aircraft would exist in service until 2070, with total unit of measurement delivery non expected until 2037. I'd be stunned if the aircraft achieves annihilation similar that level of success — given the toll overruns and scaling problems information technology seems far more probable that the Air Force volition shift to deploying large numbers of diverse types of drones long before the government finishes its original procurement of F-35s. Today, it's less a combat shipping and more of a jobs package / flight issues report.