20 avril 2018 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has suspended acceptance of most F-35 deliveries as manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the F-35 program office debate who should be responsible for fixing jets after a production issue last year.
“While all work in our factories remains active, the F-35 Joint Program Office has temporarily suspended accepting aircraft until we reach an agreement on a contractual issue and we expect this to be resolved soon,” a Lockheed spokeswoman confirmed in a statement, adding that the company remains confident that it can meet its delivery target of 91 aircraft for 2018.
News of the delivery pause was first reported by Reuters.
The dispute is rooted in a quality control issue that caused F-35 deliveries to stop from Sept. 21 to Oct. 20. At the time, corrosion was found in fastener holes of F-35As being repaired at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Lockheed and the JPO were able to agree on a corrective action plan, one source said, and Lockheed was able to complete planned deliveries of the F-35 for 2017.
But sometime after that, a dispute over who should pay for the fix resurfaced and the Defense Department opted to take another production pause, a source said, declining to comment on how long deliveries have been suspended.
“Per the direction of the program executive officer, F-35 deliveries have been temporarily paused while the government and Lockheed Martin reach an agreement on a contractual issue regarding repair work to remediate the known aircraft fastener hole primer quality escape,” said a statement from the F-35 joint program office.
“This is not a safety of flight issue but rather a contractual resourcing issue that needs to be resolved. The government has implemented this pause to ensure the warfighter receives a quality product from industry. We look forward to a swift resolution of this issue.”
Production of the aircraft is ongoing at Lockheed's line in Fort Worth, Texas, and at final assembly and check out facilities in Nagoya, Japan, and Cameri, Italy. A source noted that some customers have accepted planes due to warfighter demands.
According to Reuters, two aircraft have been delivered to the Defense Department since it imposed the suspension. Meanwhile, a repair bill for more than 200 jets is on the line.
The corrosion issue is just one of several production problems that has plagued the F-35 over the last couple years.
Vice Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35 joint program executive officer, spoke Wednesday at the Navy League's Sea Air Space conference but did not disclose the fact that deliveries had stopped.
A statement from the F-35 joint program office was added at 9:05EST on April 12.
24 juillet 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Australia said on Monday it would spend A$9.8 billion ($6.60 billion) to buy 20 new Super Hercules military transport aircraft, ahead of a visit later this week by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
15 février 2024 | International, Terrestre
The CCS-C program develops the C2 system for most U.S. MILSATCOM systems including the Defense Satellite Communications System, Milstar, Wideband Global SATCOM and Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites.
26 novembre 2020 | International, C4ISR
Mark Pomerleau WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army's office for procuring sensors, electronic warfare systems, intelligence programs and cyber tools recently created an integration office designed to better align the various elements of its portfolio across the larger Army, joint force and commercial industry. As the military looks to link sensors and information to shooters in a new concept it is calling Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, standardizing data and systems will be critical. The new integration directorate within Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors — established in April — is aligned under three offices, according to its director, Christian Keller, who virtually briefed members of industry Nov. 24. The three offices are: Architectures, which is focused on system-of-systems engineering and common standards for interfacing with other programs. Futures, which is focused on understanding threat analysis and conducting science and technology transitions from groups across the Army. It is also looking at how to better integrate demonstrations and experimentation efforts such as Project Convergence, Multi-Domain Operations Live and the Defender series. The last group is looking at interfacing the program executive office with other elements of the Army such as Futures Command and its cross-functional teams, the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Force, and the various centers of excellence within Training and Doctrine Command. “We have [a] very complex system-of-systems environment we're dealing with,” Keller said. “We have various sensor capabilities out there, which have to interface to ground stations and may have to interface to various users, both maneuver wise and fires wise and everything like that.” One of the main efforts the group is undertaking involves various stakeholders working to wrangle what systems — to include a variety of forthcoming systems such as Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node, the Army's next-generation ground station; the Terrestrial Layer System, the Army's first integrated signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber platform; and the Multi-Domain Sensing System, a high altitude ISR platform — along with existing systems to ensure data is provided seamlessly and effectively from sensors and nodes all the way to commanders and shooters. “What we're trying to do within the group is work on understanding what systems are interfacing with what, understand what the data is going back-and-forth between those systems, how to do that effectively, and how to do that in somewhat of a seamless manner, although nothing is that easy,” Keller said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2020/11/24/us-army-creates-new-office-for-integrating-data-and-sensors/