14 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial
By: Valerie Insinna
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is on the verge of full-rate production, with a decision slated for early 2021. But a congressional watchdog group is concerned that as the company ramps up F-35 production, its suppliers are falling behind.
And those supply chain problems could get even worse as Turkish defense manufacturers are pushed out of the program, the Government Accountability Office said in a May 12 report.
According to the GAO, the number of F-35 parts delivered late skyrocketed from less than 2,000 in August 2017 to upward of 10,000 in July 2019.
The number of parts shortages per month also climbed from 875 in July 2018 to more than 8,000 in July 2019. More than 60 percent of that sum was concentrated among 20 suppliers, it said.
“To mitigate late deliveries and parts shortages — and deliver more aircraft on time — the airframe contractor has utilized methods such as reconfiguring the assembly line and moving planned work between different stations along the assembly line,” the GAO said.
“According to the program office, such steps can cause production to be less efficient, which, in turn, can increase the number of labor hours necessary to build each aircraft,” which then drives up cost, the GAO added.
Those problems could be compounded by Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 program, which was announced last year after the country moved forward with buying the Russian S-400 air defense system. Although Turkey financially contributed to the development of the F-35 as a partner in the program, the U.S. Defense Department has maintained that Turkey cannot buy or operate the F-35 until it gives up the S-400.
The Pentagon has also taken action to begin stripping Turkish industry from the aircraft's supply chain, a process that involves finding new companies to make 1,005 parts, some of which are sole-sourced by Turkish companies.
Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, had hoped to stop contracting with Turkish suppliers by March 2020, but in January she said that some contracts would extend through the year, according to Defense One.
While the Defense Department has found new suppliers to manufacture the parts currently made in Turkey, it is uncertain whether the price of those components will be more expensive. Furthermore, as of December 2019, the new production rates for 15 components were lagging behind that of the legacy Turkish producers.
“According to program officials, some of these new parts suppliers will not be producing at the rate required until next year, as roughly 10 percent are new to the F-35 program,” the GAO said.
“Airframe contractor representatives stated it would take over a year to stand up these new suppliers, with lead times dependent on several factors, such as part complexity, quantity, and the supplier's production maturity. In addition, these new suppliers are required to go through qualification and testing to ensure the design integrity for their parts.”
The F-35 Joint Program Office disagreed with the GAO's recommendation to provide certain information to Congress ahead of the full-rate production decision, including an evaluation of production risks and a readiness assessment of the suppliers that are replacing Turkish companies.
In its statement, the JPO said it is already providing an acceptable number of updates on the program's readiness for full-rate production.
Hard times for the F-35's engine supplier
Not all F-35 production trends reported by the GAO were bad for the aircraft. Since 2016, Lockheed has made progress in delivering a greater proportion of F-35s on schedule, with 117 of 134 F-35s delivered on time in 2019.
However, one of the biggest subsystems of the F-35 — the F135 engine produced by Pratt & Whitney — drifted in the opposite direction, with a whopping 91 percent of engines delivered behind schedule.
At one point in 2019, Pratt & Whitney stopped deliveries of the F135 for an unspecified period due to test failures, which also contributed to the reduction of on-time deliveries.
According to the Defense Contracts Management Agency, “there have been 18 engine test failures in 2019, which is eight more than in 2018, each requiring disassembly and rework,” the GAO wrote. “To address this issue, the engine contractor has developed new tooling for the assembly line and has established a team to identify characteristics leading to the test failures. Plans are also in place for additional training for employees.”
17 juin 2022 | International, Terrestre
Israel will purchase hundreds of combat vehicles from Israel Aerospace Industries for the country's special forces in a deal worth more than $28 million.
2 octobre 2019 | International, Aérospatial
By: Diana Stancy Correll Operating in austere conditions, beyond well-defended bases, is likely in the event of a conflict with a near-peer adversary like Russia or China, according to Air Force leaders. As a result, the service has increasingly focused on its ability to operate in degraded combat environments the past several years. The biennial Mobility Guardian exercise now underway in Washington state is testing mobility aircraft's readiness to conduct their missions in such contested environments. For Air Mobility Command's largest readiness exercise, more than 4,000 U.S. and troops, including members of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps are now at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane and other Western locations to train for airlift, air refueling, aeromedical evacuation and global air mobility support. The exercise is also designed to sharpen participants' abilities to conduct forcible entry, airfield seizure, strategic deterrence and humanitarian relief operations, according to the service. As just one example of the kind of training going on, airmen from the 92nd Logistics Readiness Squadron employed a Fuels Operational Readiness Capability Equipment system, marking the first time the mobile fuel bladders have been used stateside in an uncontested environment. “We use the FORCE to help sustain bare bases and allow for fuel distribution anywhere around the world at a moment's notice,” said Master Sgt. Daniel Rey, 92nd LRS fuels information service center section chief. “The bladder can hold up to 50,000 gallons of fuel, which can help service a wide range of friendly aircraft.” Meanwhile, at Moses Lake, about 100 miles southwest of Fairchild, airmen from the 621st Contingency Response Wing provided tactical operations center support during a first-of-its-kind Ability to Survive and Operate scenario Sept. 16, according to an Air Force news release. In the scenario, aircrew from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker reported chemical contamination while performing an aeromedical evacuation. The Contingency Response Team at the TOC coordinated ground decontamination support and received the aircraft. “We provided command and control coverage, access to ramp space and a location to set up a decontamination line for aircrew flight equipment,” said Master Sgt. Jeremiah Ibarra, 321st CRT chief, in the release. “From the tactical operations center we coordinated with the air operations center to get AFE the equipment and supplies they needed.” CRTs deploy to locations that don't have established air support, and deploy forces that can open and operate an airfield. “We set up airfields and ramps, communicate aircraft landing, parking, maintenance, refueling and fleet service,” Ibarra said. “To my knowledge this is the biggest CRT operation that has ever happened.” The CRT is training alongside the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and the 521st AMOW, Ramstein Air Base, Germany, at Moses Lake to demonstrate the capability to operate as an integrated team. “To have the CRT embedded with us here isn't something that we do often, but it has been super beneficial.” said Capt. Jennifer Krutka, officer in-charge of Moses Lake, in the news release. “It has truly been a team effort. We have port airmen learning how to do maintenance and maintenance personnel learning port duties. One of Gen. [Maryanne] Miller's initiatives was to be more versatile airman, and we are doing that here.” Miller, the head of Air Mobility Command, stressed the significance of the exercise as it related to the 2018 National Defense Strategy at the Air Force Association's Air, Space Cyber conference last week. “It is imperative that we outpace our adversaries and best position the mobility air forces to defeat the threats of tomorrow,” Miller said. She also said the exercises align with the command's evolution over the past year into a “warfighting component command” that streamlines the mobility of forces through direct coordinating authority. “The world has changed and through our transformation efforts, AMC has adapted to meet the growing requirements and accelerated global demands,” Miller said. “As a more agile organization, we have increased our ability to fully leverage the full complement of our mobility resources.” The Air Force says another element of the exercise is fostering relationships with allies. There are nearly 30 international partners participating in the exercise this year. “The future of warfare will be increasingly joint,” Lt. Col. Joseph Monaco, director of Mobility Guardian, said in an Air Force news release Sept. 9. “This exercise is an unparalleled opportunity to develop joint-minded airmen who can integrate seamlessly with soldiers, sailors and Marines to compete and if necessary, win amidst great power adversaries.” The exercise, which kicked off Sept. 8 and concludes Sept. 28, employs aircraft including the KC-10 Extender, KC-135 Stratotanker, C-5 Super Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III and C-130H/J Hercules and Super Hercules. Of the 4,000 service members, 2,500 are from AMC. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/09/25/air-mobility-command-exercise-tests-ability-to-operate-in-degraded-combat-environments
10 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval
Posted on November 9, 2020 by Brett Davis NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Airborne Tactical Advantage Co. (ATAC), part of the Textron Systems segment of Textron Inc., has been selected to continue to provide the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps with fleet fighter jet training support services under the Fighter Jet Services (FJS) program, the company said in a Nov. 9 release. ATAC will provide up to 8,500 flight hours per year of fleet support air training services for approximately five years under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, worth up to $441 million. The training will be provided by ATAC's fleet of Mirage F1, F-21 Kfir, and Mk58 Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft and is expected to commence in the spring of 2021. “ATAC is proud to continue providing tactical flight training support services to the U.S. Navy and its allies and partners, further cementing the company as the leader in the contracted air services industry,” said Scott Stacy, ATAC General Manager. “We look forward to adding additional years to our two decades of established Navy and Marine Corps support of fleet exercises, ship services, fleet replacement squadron syllabi, fleet squadron adversary requirements, Joint Terminal Attack Controller training and Research, Development, Test and Evaluation flights. With additional ATAC aircraft and pilots coming online, we are well positioned to continue to expand our flight operations.” In addition to the Navy Fighter Jet Services program, an ATAC-led team trains Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) under the U.S. Navy's Terminal Attack Controller Trainer (TACT) program. ATAC has also recently won significant contracts to provide adversary air training for three U.S. Air Force bases and JTAC training services to U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command under the U.S. Air Force Combat Air Forces Contracted Air Support (CAF CAS) program. ATAC is the global leader of tactical airborne training, having pioneered much of what are now contracted air services industry standards with a fleet of over 90 aircraft, over 65,000 flight hours, and 20 years of operating experience. ATAC has provided a wide range of contracted air support capabilities to the U.S. Department of Defense in locations world-wide, including the Continental United States, Hawaii and the Western Pacific region. ATAC has helped train crews from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps and regularly operates out of as many as 25 different air bases per year. https://seapowermagazine.org/airborne-tactical-advantage-to-deliver-up-to-441m-in-contracted-air-services