At present, F-35 production is led by Lockheed Martin, with BAE and Northrop-Grumman playing major supporting roles, and many subcontractors below that. Italy has made significant investments in JSF development, and the country intends to host a European Final Assembly and Check-Out (FACO) production line in Cameri, near Milan. The F-35 was set to offer interchangeable engine options. The government of Finland authorized the Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command to sign a procurement contract with the Government of the United States on Finlands next multi-role fighter. Contractor and DE&S have added considerable additional resource to address project and risk management shortfalls. April 29/21:Common Reprogramming Tool Development Network Lockheed Martin won a $22.5 million contract modification, which adds scope to provide support required to establish the common reprogramming tool development network and selection of a service-oriented architecture for the development of enhanced reprogramming tools. It covers initial spares in support of 60 F-35s from LRIP Lot 6 and LRIP Lot 7: 37 F-35As, 12 F-35B STOVL, and 11 F-35Cs. To: Keep the suggested date and time, press Send within the email. Aug 3/15: The Marines announced on Friday that ten F-35Bs of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 have achieved Initial Operating Capability, the first IOC milestone for the F-35 program. The first Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II for the Polish Air Force has formally entered production on the F-35 center wing assembly. Well send you a link to a feedback form. The DoDs Joint Program Office says in a statement that the US Services and international partners have temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations while the enterprise conducts a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft. So far, the F-35 has run into its share of problems, including faulty ejection seats, software issues and maintenance problems. These revisions make no amendment to the CR2 LEP itself. The engine uses a modular design to facilitate the swapping out of components, with this also making the entire engine transportable by a single MV-22 Osprey. Known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), the prgram will see about 50 legacy Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 Eurofighter Typhoons upgraded to network with a fifth-generation aircraft; a new fifth-generation aircraft (type and numbers to be decided); and an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (type and numbers to be decided). The schedule for the UK F-35 delivery remains taut but on track. section 2, #14 & 15). The contract, worth $6.25 billion includes 36 of the conventional takeoff-and-landing aircraft variant, due to replace the nations fleets of F/A-18 Hornets and F-5 Tigers between 2027 and 2030. The Raptor is considered to be the first 5th generation fighter, even though the aircraft is out of production, the program itself will continue to attract spending on maintenance, spares, and upgrades. November 20/18: New manoeuvre The Royal Navy achieves another milestone aboard Britains new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Many allies wanted the 27mm Mauser cannon installed instead, as its widely believed to offer the worlds best combination of firing rate and hitting power. As at 30/09/16 the total whole life implementation costs are forecast to be 647m, reflecting a small reduction from the Allocated Budget of 652m. The Norwegian Defense Ministry said the insulation is now being removed and extra filters installed to intercept any potential remains, although it has not yet been decided whether this fix should be regarded as temporary or permanent. The F-35 is an advanced 5th generation fighter jet that that comes with a broad range of integrated missions systems and sensor fusion. April 27/18: Contracts-long-lead parts/softwareTwo US Navy contracts awarded to Lockheed Martin this week, covers addition software sustainment and additional long-lead parts for the F-35. United Kingdom - F-35 Lightning II This will deliver a rapidly deployable airborne capability configured to provide effect across the spectrum of operations until at least 2035. However, significant milestones were reached including the signing of the PAC (Project Allenby Connaught) Contract, the appointment of a preferred bidder for the SPTA housing project amongst others. Denmarks Terma has turned their 25mm gun pod into a multi-mission pod that can accept a variety of sensors and equipment. November 27/18: GCAS testing The US Air Forces 461st Flight Test Squadron is currently testing an Auto GCAS system on F-35 JSFs. BAE Systems has been awarded a 3 million ($4.1m) contract to provide technology for Kongsbergs Joint Strike Missile system for the F-35. Development of the CLS Solution to be delivered through a predominately DCS contract and a small FMS contract for sensitive equipment, has not yet reached sufficient maturity to allow formal costing activity to take place. The deal will see the firm undertake the development and test of a single Advanced Radar Threat System Variant 2 (ARTS-V2) production representative system, with follow on options for a further 20 systems. August 4/21: Customer Unique Capabilities Lockheed Martin won a $51.8 million deal, which provides for program management support to include development of customer unique capabilities in support of the continued development of the air system for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program for a Foreign Military Sales customer. Germany is looking to replace its 85 Tornado jets between 2025 and 2030, and requests have been sent for information about the F-35, as well as three other jets: Boeings F-15 and F/A-18E/F fighters, as well as the Eurofighter consortiums Typhoon. One is that he hopes to have unit cost, including the engine, down to $90 million by 2020 about 10% lower than current Pentagon estimates beyond 2017. Another 42-48 planned fighters are slated to begin turning into contracts as of 2017, and the programs official overall cost currently lists as NOK 60 billion/ $FY12 10 billion. The other question involves conflict-of-interest issues, in which Lockheed Martin or the US government decides to use the bottleneck as a way of shutting competitors out of a potential export market. Turkey was probably thinking of these kinds of issues when they postponed their planned IOT&E buy in January. January 19/16: Engine makers Pratt & Whitney will make engines for the F-35 program. Forsvarsmateriell, the Norwegian Defense Material Agency, was responsible for conducting successful test drops of the JSM missile from the F-35A in the desert at Edwards Air Force Base in California in February. The adaptive engine optimizes performance and fuel efficiency across the flight envelope by utilizing a third stream of air to optimize the engine at different flight conditions. To solve the problem, changes were made to the helmet, the ejection seat and the ejection sequence. 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. This may increase the cost by US$1 million per aircraft. October 31/16: US officials close to Turkeys F-35 fighter procurement claim Ankara is considering a second batch of fighters, possibly as many as 24 aircraft. February 10/23: Greece US Senator Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has approved the sale of Lockheed Martins F-35 fighter jets to Greece. The F-35B faced a suspension of structural fatigue life stress testing in 2012, after cracking was discovered in several places. March 2/16: Combat-coded F-35sdropped their first live munitons in testing last week. Visibility. Funding will see eleven more F-35 Lightning IIs than requested by President Obama in February. 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. That forces them to place earlier orders, which can cost a lot more than average over all production estimates. While it is not clear when exactly the suspension of deliveries began, it follows a previous halting for 30 days in 2017 after corrosion where panels were fastened to the airframe were discovered on 200 aircraft. Lt. Gen Christopher Bogden said that this would be upped to 60 units annually from fiscal 2018-2020. The discoveries were made during routine maintenance checks on the aircraft in order to have the fighters status upgraded to initial operational capability. Minister of Defence Mrs. JA Hennis-Plasschaert sends a written brief to Parliament, covering recent developments with the F-35. In contrast, a December 2010 report to the Dutch Parliament placed the expected purchase cost of 85 F-35As at EUR 7.6 billion, and the government has said that if costs continue to rise, the only change will be fewer fighters bought. F-35s carry two AIM-9X missiles on their wings. These sensors are connected to a lot of computing power, in order to create single-picture view that lets the pilot see everything on one big 20? It will also have advanced targeting, surveillance and radar-jamming equipment. Work will take place in New Hampshire, Maryland and expected completion date is in November 2024. Dec 28/12: LRIP-6. Trump also suggested that he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on US military procurement officials going to work for defense contractors, a move that could dramatically reshape the defense industry. It also lacks the Raptors supercruise (sustained flight above Mach 1) and super-maneuverability thrust-vectoring options, which work with stealth to help the F-22 engage and disengage from combat at will. That would make a few allies grumpy. Whether the F-35 genuinely outperformed the other aircraft and as a result received no simulated destruction or was just exposed to less severe operational testing is hard to say. The comments in Australia were made shortly after the DOT&E report (vid. Work will be performed in East Hartford, CT (54%); Indianapolis, IN (31%); and Bristol, United Kingdom (15%), and is expected to be complete in December 2013 (N00019-12-C-0090). Several emergent issues have added more pressure to timely delivery of the Programme, but mitigation plans are being developed to treat these increasing risks and issues. RAF Lakenheath will receive the squadrons aircraft when they begin to arrive later this year. This is something that only one other navy in the world is capable of. While it appears that the 1 July objective IOC date has now been missed, the jet has until December to achieve this milestone, with the dropping of live ordnance reportedly one of the last remaining items on a checklist of required capability tests required for IOC. The Naval Air Systems Command is awarding a contract modification to Lockheed Martin. Work will take place in Texas. August 25/16: After much waiting, trial and error, the F-35s Block 3F software upgrade has speeded up testing of the new fighters weapons systems. The three-stream engine technology is considered critical in developing the Air Forces sixth-generation fighters and will be included in the F135 engine that powers the F-35 JSF. The new system provides a material improvement to the internal control framework and the foundation for the Release 3 capability. A 4th issue, noise, isnt significant yet, but could become so. The Flyvevabnet are reported to have 30 operational F-16s, with 15 more in reserve, out of an original order of 58. Until a Return to Flight plan is approved, however, all 25 F-35Bs will remain grounded. I am deeply concerned about the sustainment issues of the F-35. Recognising that the additional Core H Re-fuel and Resilience (CHRaR) scope of work, which (including an amended FOC of 15 May 2028) received a later separate approval, is currently forecasting below its approval, the combined FCAC is circa 235M above the single combined approval. This will ensure that the project has a more robust bases of cost estimates, is aligned to the latest programme and has a more appropriate approvals and commercial strategy. Development is now expected to last into FY 2019 or later. Forecast net benefits over the 13 Year appraisal period of 402m reflect an improvement on the Target net benefits of 336m. This is nearly double of what the ministry had budget in 2021 for six aircraft. (Latest approved end date), Exempt under Section 35 of Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Formulation of government policy, etc. Plans for support in the Solent will be implemented as we gain experience of operating HMS Queen Elizabeth from her home port. February 27/23: NextGen Open Mission Lockheed Martin won a $32.5 million modification, which adds scope to design, develop, and establish the F-35 NextGen Open Mission services in support of the Mission Planning Enterprise Software, encompassing the usage of modern cloud-based technologies and modern software methodologies for the Joint Strike Fighter Program. December 28/21: 2022 Modification Lockheed Martin won a $324.1 million contract modification, which exercises options to support calendar year 2022 modification and retrofit activities for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to include the procurement of material modification kits as well as program management, non-recurring engineering, aircraft induction, contractor field, depot site and laser shock peening site support. August 2/16: While it doesnt seem so at first, an emerging problem for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is that it is almost too stealthy. UK Facing Slow F-35 Deliveries, Lockheed Martin Warns May 27, 2022 F-35 Credit: Tony Osborne/Aviation Week LONDONLockheed Martin has warned that the The deal also provides unique sea trials on aircraft carriers for the government of the United Kingdom. The modification increases the total value of the contract to $1.4 billion. 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. The second contract, which awarded $38.4 million on Wednesday, covers additional low-rate initial production of long lead materials, parts, components, and effort for economic order quantity increases for the Navy (Lot) 12; and the government of Italy (Lots 13 and 14). The Swiss parliament voted last week to green-light the procurement,which paved the way for the contract signatures. 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.