11 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial

Watchdog warns Pentagon to fix F-35 tech problems before full-rate production starts

By:

WASHINGTON — The F-35 fighter jet is finally cruising toward the end of its development phase, but a congressional watchdog is warning the Defense Department not to move to full-rate production until it's certain it's resolved all critical technical issues.

The F-35 Joint Program Office intends to make a decision in October 2019 on whether to move to full-rate production, but had planned to defer certain critical technical deficiencies until after that time, the Government Accountability Office stated in a June 5 report.

That could make the program more expensive overall.

“In its rush to cross the finish line, the program has made some decisions that are likely to affect aircraft performance and reliability and maintainability for years to come. Specifically, the program office plans to resolve a number of critical deficiencies after full-rate production,” it wrote. “Resolving these deficiencies outside of the developmental program may contribute to additional concurrency costs.”

The GAO advised the F-35 JPO to resolve all critical deficiencies before full-rate production — a recommendation with which the JPO concurs and says it will pursue.

However, it's important to understand what “resolve” means in this case.

“The Department of Defense expects the F-35 Program to resolve all critical deficiencies prior to entering Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E), with either a fix, a Service Operational Test Agency approved workaround or a formal acceptance of the deficiency,” the JPO said in a statement.

“The full-rate production decision will include an assessment of SDD [development phase] and IOT&E DRs [deficiency reports], as well as follow-on improvement DRs deferred for post-SDD action.”

Translation: While the JPO will take steps to address all critical deficiencies, there are some that may require future work in order to be completely fixed.

GAO noted that it is common practice for Defense Department acquisition programs to require that problems are “resolved” and not “fixed” because it “affords the department with more flexibility to develop alternative solutions rather than technical fixes.”

In a statement, Greg Ulmer, Lockheed Martin's vice president of the F-35 program, said the company was working with the JPO to prioritize and correct issues.

The F-35's next stage

The GAO report was also critical about the JPO's new plan for Block 4 follow-on modernization, telling its congressional audience that it should consider holding back funding for that phase of the program until the JPO provides full details including an independent cost estimate, final acquisition strategy and test plan.

Last year, Vice. Adm. Mat Winter, the F-35's program executive, announced that the JPO would pursue a path of rapid, agile software modernization during Block 4 called continuous capability development and delivery, or C2D2. The thrust behind C2D2 is for the government to constantly be developing, testing and delivering new capabilities as they become available, instead of as part of a traditional batch of upgrades every couple years.

Currently, the cost of the new plan is unknown. The Department of Defense plans to update its acquisition strategy in time for a Defense Acquisition Board meeting this month, when it will decide when to start the competition for Block 4 development.

By: Valerie Insinna

Currently, the cost of the new plan is unknown. The Department of Defense plans to update its acquisition strategy in time for a Defense Acquisition Board meeting this month, when it will decide when to start the competition for Block 4 development.

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However, a full business case won't be finalized until March 2019 — despite the fact that the Pentagon has asked for $278 million in fiscal 2019 for Block 4 development.

“As a result, DOD requested funding for modernization over a year before the program has a business case for Block 4,” the report stated.

“This means that the program is asking Congress to authorize and appropriate funds for Block 4 without insight into its complete cost, schedule, and technical baselines. Furthermore, once Congress appropriates these funds, DOD would be able to award a contract, beginning a long-term commitment to Block 4, the costs of which are not fully understood.”

However, the GAO also acknowledged that there are some elements of that plan that could end up being a boon to the DoD.

For one, it plans to use “government-owned open systems architecture and acquire data rights” for Block 4 development, which could increase competition throughout the F-35's life cycle and make it easier and cheaper to upgrade the platform.

The C2D2 strategy may also “potentially shorten time frames for delivering capabilities over a traditional acquisition approach,” the agency said in the report.

Most of the noted flaws in the C2D2 plan revolve around oversight — specifically the DoD's decision to keep Block 4 underneath the F-35 program instead of making it a separate acquisition program.

“According to DOD's January 2018 report, however, each capability will be baselined separately in the program's future Block 4 annual reports to Congress,” the GAO noted. “We will review these future reports to Congress to determine what level of insight they provide into the program's cost, schedule, and performance goals.”

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/06/05/watchdog-group-to-pentagon-fix-f-35-tech-problems-before-full-rate-production-starts/

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  • NASA’s new administrator says he’s talking to companies to take over the International Space Station

    5 juin 2018 | International, Aérospatial

    NASA’s new administrator says he’s talking to companies to take over the International Space Station

    NASA is talking to several international companies about forming a consortium that would take over operation of the International Space Station and run it as a commercial space lab, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in an interview. “We're in a position now where there are people out there that can do commercial management of the International Space Station,” Bridenstine said in his first extensive interview since being sworn in as NASA administrator in April. “I've talked to many large corporations that are interested in getting involved in that through a consortium, if you will.” The White House touched off a heated discussion about the future of the orbiting laboratory earlier this year when it said it planned to end direct government funding of the station by 2025, while working on a transition plan to turn the station over to the private sector. Some members of Congress said they would vigorously oppose any plan that ends the station's life prematurely. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said the decision to end funding for it was the result of “numskulls” at the Office of Management and Budget. And it was unclear, who, if anyone, would want to take over operations of the station, which costs NASA about $3 billion to $4 billion a year and is run by an international partnership that includes the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. An orbiting laboratory that flies some 250 miles above the Earth's surface, it has been continuously inhabited by astronauts since 2000. In unveiling its plan to commercialize the station earlier this year, the White House offered few details of how exactly it would work. As it prepares a transition plan, the White House said it “will request market analysis and business plans from the commercial sector and solicit plans from commercial industry.” The international nature of the station could make it tricky, though perhaps there could be an international commercial partnership with some sort of a government role, said Frank Slazer, the vice president of space systems for the Aerospace Industries Association. “It will be very hard to turn ISS into a truly commercial outpost because of the international agreements that the United States is involved in,” he said. “It's inherently always going to be an international construct that requires U.S. government involvement and multinational cooperation.” Bridenstine declined to name the companies that have expressed interest in managing the station, and said he was aware that companies may find it “hard to close the business case.” But he said there was still seven years to plan for the future of the station, and with the White House's budget request “we have forced the conversation.” A former congressman from Oklahoma, Bridenstine, was confirmed by the Senate by a narrow 50-to-49 votethis spring, after the post had remained vacant for 15 months. Democrats had rallied against his nomination, saying he lacked the managerial and scientific background for the job. Many had labeled him a climate-change denier over controversial comments Bridenstine, a conservative Republican, had made in the past. But during a Senate hearing last month, he said his views had evolved, and that he believes human activity is the leading cause of climate change. That earned him plaudits from Democrats, such as Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) who had opposed his nomination. “I have come to the conclusion that this is a true evolution,” Schatz said. “That you respect people with whom you work, you respect the science, you want their respect.” In the interview, Bridenstine said there was no single event that cause him to change his thinking. As chairman of the Environment subcommittee, he said he “listened to a lot of testimony. I heard a lot of experts, and I read a lot. 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  • If the money is there, new and improved F-15s could be coming soon to the Air Force

    28 janvier 2019 | International, Aérospatial

    If the money is there, new and improved F-15s could be coming soon to the Air Force

    By: Jeff Martin IN THE AIR OVER KENTUCKY — The U.S. Air Force could buy a new version of the F-15, known as the F-15X, as long as there is enough money in future defense budgets, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Defense News Saturday. And regardless of whether the service does buy the new jets this year, Goldfein said the new aircraft won't be taking money from the Lockheed Martin F-35. “I'm not backing an inch off of the F-35” Goldfein said. “The F-35 buy that we're on continues to remain on track. And I'm not interested in taking a nickel out of it when it comes to buying anything else in the fighter portfolio.” The FY2020 defense budget has been the focus of speculation for months, and the Pentagon has still not released a final topline figure. Original planning had called for a $733 billion topline, which dwindled down to $700 billion after calls from President Donald Trump to slash federal spending and then ballooned up to $750 billion after the intervention of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. In December 2018, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told Defense News that “all options are on the table," and on Saturday Goldfein acknowledged that the service had built multiple budgets as different figures were proposed. “We built the [$]730[billion] budget, and we went in and did a drill said what if we only get [$]700[billion] and what do we subtract, and what if there was a [$]750[billion] budget?” he said. Goldfein would not directly confirm that the Air Force has the money in the budget for the new planes. But he hinted strongly that the service would pull the trigger on acquiring them. The F-15X is an improved model from Boeing, teaming a new airframe with an improved radar, cockpit, electronic warfare suite and the ability to carry more missiles, bringing in upgrades that have been developed for the F-15s sold to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Late last year, Bloomberg reported that the Air Force was planning to request $1.2 billion for 12 of the fourth-generation jets in the 2020 budget request. The report said the aircraft would go to the Air National Guard to replace the olders F-15Cs, which date to the 1980s. And that age is why the Air Force is looking at a new variant. The service currently has about 230 F-15C and D model aircraft in service. However, Goldfein acknowledged those aircraft don't have the lifespan to make it to 2030 like other current fourth-generation aircraft, such as the F-15E, the F-16 and A-10. “It [has] performed brilliantly, but the cost growth runs to a point to where you're spending too much money," Goldfein said. The Air Force's decision to buy new F-15s came as a surprise late last year, as Air Force leadership had previously pushed back on the Boeing sales pitch. As recently as September 2018, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said that the Air Force needed to prioritize buying fifth-generation aircraft. "We are currently 80 percent fourth-gen aircraft and 20 percent fifth-generation aircraft,” she said at the time. "In any of the fights that we have been asked to plan for, more fifth-gen aircraft make a huge difference, and we think that getting to 50-50 means not buying new fourth-gen aircraft, it means continuing to increase the fifth generation.” But, Goldfein said Saturday that the decision to possibly refresh the F-15 fleet comes down to the need for more fighters in service, regardless of generation. “They complement each other,” he said. “They each make each other better.” When asked if that meant compromising for quantity over quality, he said that would not be the case. “We've got to refresh the F-15C fleet because I can't afford to not have that capacity to do the job and the missions.” Goldfein explained. “That's what this is all about. If we're refreshing the F-15C fleet, as we're building up the F-35 fleet, this is not about any kind of a trade.” He added that Air Force needs to buy 72 fighters a year to get to the amount they need in the future — and to drive average aircraft age down from 28 years to 15 years. And while Goldfein might want all 72 to be fifth generation F-35s, budgetary concerns likely won't let that happen. “If we had the money, those would be 72 F-35s. But we've gotta look at this from a cost/business case.” he explained. “An F-15 will never be an F-35. Never. But I need capacity.” https://www.defensenews.com/newsletters/2019/01/26/if-the-money-is-there-new-and-improved-f-15s-could-be-coming-soon-to-the-air-force

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