http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/us-deploying-pre-production-f-35-aircraft-unfit-for-combat-160429?news=858730
The aging Air Force fleet is a problem. Air superiority is overwhelmingly being supported by the F-15, which makes up 71 percent of the air superiority platforms but has consumed over 90 percent of its estimated 30-year service life according to the 2016 Index of US Military Strength. The Navy has similar concerns, but is procuring operational fighter aircraft to ease its situation. Meanwhile the need for a viable fighter aircraft has increased. “We’ve seen both Russia and China develop airplanes faster than was anticipated,” Air Force Lt. Gen. James Holmes, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements, told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a March 8 hearing as reported by DefenseOne.
While the services suffer, billions of dollars are being spent especially by the Marines and Air Force in procuring F-35 pre-production aircraft years before the Milestone C production and deployment decision (currently scheduled for 2019). Is there any justifiable hope that these expensive F-35 pre-production systems could ease the current problems?
There seems to be a belief in the land that manufacturing pre-production F-35 aircraft is a solution to this situation. But obviously aircraft which can't be deployed is not a solution to the need for deployed aircraft. The Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall has called this "acquisition malpractice." Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James: "People believed we could go faster, cheaper, better" by designing and building the F-35 concurrently, "and that the degree of concurrency would work. Indeed it has not worked as well as we had hoped and that's probably the understatement of the day."
There is competition among the states over basing these useless aircraft. Arizona has done quite well for obvious reasons. The two dozen (only) planes bought by five (of eight) foreign Joint Strike Fighter Partners have been based in the U.S. Like the U.S. models, they can't leave because future development and operational testing will probably lead to engineering changes which must be done at U.S. depots. Hill AFB in Utah recently became the first depot facility to perform modifications on all three F-35 Lightning II variants. But the planes are still not deployable pending further test and evaluation.
The F-35 won't be combat capable any time soon. "Overall, the program is at a critical time," said Michael Gilmore, head of the Pentagon's Operational Test and Evaluation Office. "Although the Marine Corps has declared initial operational capability, and the Air Force plans to do so later this calendar year, the F-35 system remains immature and provides limited combat capability, with the officially planned start of initial operational test and evaluation just over one year away." In fact, as of the end of January 2016, the program had 931 open, documented deficiencies, 158 of which are Category 1 -- serious. “There are shortfalls in electronic warfare, electronic attack, shortfalls in the performance of distributed aperture system and other issues that are classified,” Dr. Gilmore said March 23. “With regard to mission assistance, stealth aircraft are not visible to achieve success against the modern stressing mobile threats.
Nu har de ändå deklarerat flyget initial operational capability, fast de vet det inte är det.Men de räknar med att de är det senast i december. De vill ju få fortsätta tillverka dem och sälja dem även om de inte är färdiga. Se nedan.
http://breakingdefense.com/2016/08/air-force-declares-f-35a-ioc-major-milestone-for-biggest-us-program/
Aug 2016
USAF declares F35A IOC
“Air Force F-35A initial operational capability (IOC) shall be declared when the first operational squadron is equipped with 12-24 aircraft, and Airmen are trained, manned, and equipped to conduct basic Close Air Support (CAS), Interdiction, and limited Suppression and Destruction of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD/DEAD) operations in a contested environment. Based on the current F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) schedule, the F-35A will reach the IOC milestone between August 2016 (Objective) and December 2016 (Threshold). Should capability delivery experience changes or delays, this estimate will be revised appropriately.
The U.S. services alone are scheduled to buy 2,443.
Will the Air Force buy its full complement? Harrison was skeptical.
“I don’t think it’s plausible that we’ll actually buy that full amount in the long run, but they don’t need to change their plans right now, they don’t need to scare the foreign partners by signaling that right now, it wouldn’t make sense to do it now,” he says. “You don’t have to make that decision on the total quantity, you don’t even have to make the decision on the full-rate production, until four or five years from now. So you can wait four or five years, more of the foreign partners will get deeply invested in the program, and then they can scare them.”
Nu gäller det således få utlänningar köpa f35 planen innan USA satsar på nya bättre allternativ.
