F35 JSF Actualité

Pratt & Whitney investigates new fan blade glitch for F135
By Stephen Trimble

Pratt & Whitney is investigating how a "handful" of fan blade tips damaged an F135 engine during a ground test simulating the Lockheed Martin F-35's engine performance at supersonic speeds.

The programme's latest technical issue comes amidst a heated debate between the White House and Congress about continuing to fund the F135's rival engine - the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136.

The new problem also comes amidst a Pentagon-directed cost review for the F135 and the return-to-flight of Lockheed's first short-take-off-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) prototype, which was grounded a year ago to fix a blade fatigue issue discovered in P&W's design.

The F-35 Joint Programme Office estimates it will take five days to identify the cause and corrective action for the F135's latest glitch, says a P&W programme expert who asked to remain anonymous.

Flight tests for the Lockheed F-35 fleet are continuing on schedule despite the investigation, the expert says. The cost to fix the problem is unknown until the root cause is identified, the expert adds.

Engineers discovered the problem when they noticed parts flying out of the tail pipe for a convetional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) version of the F135 engine, the expert says.

Upon inspection, the errant parts were traced to several missing fan blade tips that somehow broke off. The parts were ingested into the compressor, which also sustained damaged in the first and second stages, P&W's expert says. The combustor and turbine stages escaped harm from the flying debris.

Besides the fan blades, P&W also intends to retrieve an unidentified part found on the bottom of the engine bay between the fan and compressor stages, the expert says.

The blade problem occurred during the fifth hour of an 11hr series of ground tests simulating the F-35's engine performance at supersonic speed, the expert says. Although the investigation is ongoing, the supersonic acceleration is not considered to be a direct cause of the blade problem.

"The testing that was actually being done is not thought to be primarily contributory," the expert says. P&W is considering other possible causes such as foreign object debris and the structural design of the blades.

P&W officials emphasized that the incident occurred after the engine completed 2,455 cycles, simulating 8 years of operational service life. That should give P&W several years to develop and install a fix for the problem, the expert adds.

The Department of Defense wants to cancel the F136 and make P&W the sole engine supplier for the F-35 programme, arguing that the costs to develop an alternate engine out weight certain benefits such as supplier competition and reducing the risk of dependence on the F135 to power thousands of tactical fighters.

But some in Congress have pushed to overturn the DOD's decision. The House of Representatives has approved a version of the defence spending bill that restores full funding for the F136, but Senate appropriators have agreed to cancel the programme. The two houses decide the issue during upcoming conference negotiations on a final spending bill.

Fate Of Second F-35 Engine Nears
Sep 11, 2009

Graham Warwick graham_warwick@aviationweek.com


The fate of the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be the central issue of debate when House and Senate negotiators meet in conference late this month or early in October to finalize the fiscal 2010 U.S. defense budget.

The Senate appropriations committee set the stage for the showdown on Sept. 10 when it approved the defense subcommittee's mark-up of the bill, which omits money for the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 engine but fully funds F-35 procurement.

The House appropriations committee had previously added $560 million to their mark-up to fund continued development and initial procurement of the F136, while cutting two aircraft from the Pentagon's request for 30 F-35s to save $538 million.

The standoff has sparked a frenzy of lobbying from both sides, with Pratt & Whitney striving to defend its position as primary and only supplier of JSF engines. With the House firmly backing a second engine, the focus is on the Senate, which has so far heeded threats from the Obama administration to veto the defense budget if it funds the second engine at the expense of the baseline F-35 program.

The JSF engine is not the only area of disagreement conferees face, providing plenty of room for horse-trading. Both sides bowed to administration demands that F-22 procurement be terminated, but they defied the Pentagon in providing funds for more C-17s to keep the line open: the Senate adding 10 and House just three.

The House also added $400 million to make five already-built VH-71 Increment 1 presidential helicopters operational, while the Senate supported the administration's decision to terminate the program and provided money to begin a new competition.

Both sides supported the Pentagon's cancellation of the CSAR-X combat search-and-rescue helicopter program, and added money to procure new HH-60Ms for the U.S. Air Force, with the House adding five and Senate two.

While the Senate funded the administration's requests for procurement of nine F/A-18E/Fs, 22 EA-18Gs and two E-2Ds for the U.S. Navy, the House added money for an additional nine F/A-18E/Fs and one more E-2D. Both cut procurement of UH-1Ys and AH-1Zs for the U.S. Marine Corps -- the House by four and Senate by six -- citing operational readiness concerns.

Additionally, the House trimmed the number of CH-47s for the U.S. Army, citing earlier overprocurement, and cut funding of RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft for the Air Force to just two, from five, where the Senate fully funded the Pentagon's requests.

FORT WORTH, Texas | A short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter has become the first F-35 to complete an aerial refueling test using the Navy- and Marine Corps-style probe-and-drogue refueling system. Thursday's successful mission is the first in a short series of tests that will clear the STOVL F-35B variant for extended-range flights, particularly to its primary test site at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.

NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - A worn-down component in the forward section of United Technologies Corp's F135 engine for the F-35 fighter jet may have caused the tip of a fan blade to break off during testing, the company said on Friday.
A spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, the United Technologies unit doing the work, said the modifications will be minor and would result in little to no disruption in cost or schedule.
...

Pratt: F135 Fan Fix Simple, Cheap
Posted by Graham Warwick at 9/18/2009 4:49 PM CDT

Pratt & Whitney says it's standard industry practice - clip the tip of a blade to remove the piece that's susceptible to damage. And that's what the manufacturer plans to do with the fan blades on its F135 engine for the F-35, after a piece of the tip of a first-stage fan blade broke off during durability testing.

Pratt says the "potential cause" of the piece breaking off was an aerodynamic disturbance caused by a worn bushing ahead of the fan. The bushing is a cylindrical metal part used to seat, or locate, a component in the fan inlet case. Tear-down of the engine revealed all the bushings were severely degraded and some were missing.

That's not as bad as it might sound, because the blade damage occurred 2,455 cycles into a 2,600-cycle durability test of the initial service release (ISR) engine for production F-35As. That's the equivalent of eight years of in-service operation, Pratt says. When the tip broke off, the engine was 5 hours into a supersonic high-cycle fatigue test designed to deliberately excite blade vibration.

Pratt says the "minor modification" to be made immediately to all ISR engines will be to clip the corner off the tip of the fan blade at its trailing edge, removing the piece that broke off and "alleviating the potential" for it to fail. This will not degrade the engine's performance, the company stresses.

Engines for flight-test F135s are not affected, although the bushings are the same, because they have a "first-generation" fan that has already passed the required durability testing. The ISR engine has a "second generation" fan with lighter integrally bladed rotors. The bushings will be inspected periodically for wear until a new design is developed under the F135 component improvement program.

UPDATED: Congressional Staffer Questions Pratt; OSD Document Says Damage to Engine Was “Significant”
This is a tale of at least two perspectives. Pratt & Whitney says it knows what failed on the F135 test engine and can fix it relatively painlessly. The company has identified a “worn bushing” as the likely cause of the recent test engine failure and can make changes to the engine “with little to no impact on cost or schedule,” a senior company official said.
“During a recent qualification test on an F135 CTOL engine, an incident occurred resulting in damage to the forward section of the engine. Pratt & Whitney conducted a thorough review and inspection of the engine,” the senior program official said.
The investigation found that a worn bushing is the “potential cause, which tells us this issue can be addressed with little or no impact on cost or schedule. Pratt & Whitney will immediately implement a minor modification to the fan section for all F135 initial service release (ISR) flight and production engines. This modification can be incorporated into an assembled engine without teardown,” the senior program official said.
But a congressional aide, told of Pratt’s comments, dismissed them, saying that the company was trying to make things look as good as possible to protect the company while funding for the engine programs is decided.
The aide noted that a Sept. 14 Pentagon fact sheet about the incident says that the engine damage was “significant.”
A Pratt spokesman said “we can argue about significant and whether it is or not.”
However, the congressional aide also noted that this is the third failure the F135 has experienced, adding that caution is warranted given that significant problems with the F100 engine that powers most F-15s and F-16s “didn’t really show themselves until two years after initial operational capability.”
The OSD document says that “an approximately 1 inch by 1.5 inch piece separated from a blade on Rotor 1 of the fan. At the time the separation occurred, High Cycle Fatigue sweep tests were being conducted, but high loads at this location on the fan blade were not expected.”
The OSD document said the engine would “undergo tear down and root cause analysis. This is a lengthy process that includes very detailed metallurgy and crack propagation analysis and will take several weeks.”
The Pratt spokesman said the company “will continue to do further metallurgical examination” but did not need to tear down the entire engine. The fixes to the blades are “imminent” and will be done as each engine come down the line, the spokesman said.
No decision has yet been made about the failure’s impact on the test program, the OSD document says. The engines being used for current flight tests “uses an older design of this fan airfoil, and is not expected to exhibit a similar problem,” the OSD document adds.

JSF Market Analysis: How Many JSF’s Will Be Produced?

How many Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will be manufactured? Optimistic marketing figures say that market opportunities for up to 5,000 – 6,000 F-35s are possible. The Dutch government structurally uses a number of 4,500 JSFs in its JSF Business Case calculations. These optimistic numbers are widely used amongst governmental and industrial organisations in several JSF Partner countries. However, if this parameter (4,500-6,000 JSFs) is wrong, the foundation of a lot a calculations, expectations, nice promises, non-binding contracts and investment decisions is also wrong.

This parameter is the foundation of the Dutch Business Case [see #51.1], the foundation of the Dutch participation in the JSF development stage (SDD) and one of the foundation of the Dutch project “Maintenance Valley Brabant”. Similar decisions and projects in other countries are also based on the same foundation: “4,500 to 6,000 JSF’s will be manufactured”.

But it is not only an important question whether the calculation of one of the most important parameters in the JSF Business Case discussion since 2001 is right. All calculations about procurement price, maintenance cost, cost of later upgrades are highly influenced by this parameter. There is a strong relationship between production cost and production quantities [see #51.2].

In this report it will be made clear that this essential parameter is marketing hype only, a “fata morgana” (i.e., a fairy tale—Ed.) Already in 2001 the projections of the fighter market were too optimistic and since the market expectations haven’t increased.

This report is based on a document, dated August 30, 2008, titled “Analysis Business Case parameter 4,500 JSFs” [see #51.3], prepared for several Dutch Members of Parliament.

A more detailed extension of that document used and defended in the Dutch Parliament Hearing of the Standing Committee of Defense in April 2009. After questions about some details, the author decided to add more detailed background information to this document and to translate it into English. This new version is submitted to the Standing Committee of Defense of the Dutch Parliament.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This very exhaustive report by an independent Dutch expert examines in detail the various figures provided by Lockheed Martin and the JSF Program Office to prospective JSF partners, including the Netherlands, to support the JSF’s business case in these countries. The author demonstrates that, while Lockheed and JSF PO are still using figures based on the state of the fighter market in the late 1990s, these are no longer credible. The potential market for JSF is far smaller, argues the author, and will likely run to less than 3,200 units, compared to the over-optimistic 4,500-6,000 aircraft still claimed by Lockheed and the JPO.
This means that the value of subcontracts and coproduction offered to potential buyers is also smaller, and this undermines the business case on which individual countries will base their decision on JSF.
The report, although sometimes not as clear as it could be, includes a useful in-depth study of the world’s current fighter fleets, and the status of fighter replacement plans.)

Stork Fokker wins JSF order worth $200 million for production of flaperons
order could exceed US $1.0 billion over the life of the program

The Dutch aerospace industry has won another important order in relation to the JSF project. The US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin has selected Stork Fokker to produce the 'flaperons' for the F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter. Spread over the period from 2009 to the end of 2014 this selection represents a turnover value of US$ 200 million. The order could exceed US $1.0 billion over the life of the program.

Flaperons are control surfaces on the wings’ trailing edge that combine the functions of both flaps (enabling deceleration and low-speed flight) and ailerons (enabling roll and bank). The F-35’s flaperons are 3 metre long flaps on the wing trailing edges which are vital for the controllability of the aircraft. The unique design is based on the low maintenance combination of composite and titanium with a better resistance to fatigue and corrosion. The flaperons contribute to improved aircraft performance by saving weight and increasing strength at the same time. Stork Fokker has already manufactured more than 2000 sets of flaperons for the Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft type for many years. Production of the F-16 components started in 1978 and is still going on today.

The selection for production is a very important step in winning the order to supply the flaperons for all the F-35 aircraft to be built. This initial order will provide employment for around 100 people, a figure that will be doubled if the total production order is received. Production will be in the Netherlands, initially in the existing Stork Fokker factory in Hoogeveen, and will later be transferred to the new F-35 factory which is to be built. “This selection is an excellent achievement and shows that the Netherlands is able to win substantial JSF orders”, says Erick Vink, executive vice president of Stork Fokker. “An important condition is and remains that the Netherlands participates in the JSF project, as shown by the recent de facto purchase of the first test aircraft.”

Other contributions by Stork Aerospace to the JSF project include the design and production of the doors and hatches, the electrical wiring harnesses, the wiring and structural components for the Pratt & Whitney engines and the arresting gear. Stork has up to now involved forty suppliers in the Netherlands in these JSF orders, and this number is expected to increase further when the serial production phase starts.

Turkish Aerospace Industries Awarded Second Source Supplier Contract from Northrop Grumman in JSF Programme

Northrop Grumman Corporation has awarded a second source supplier contract to Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI), Ankara, Turkey to produce composite air inlet ducts for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. The ducts are a key element of the aircraft's center fuselage, which Northrop Grumman produces for F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

The five-year, $28.4 million contract will help Northrop Grumman ensure a smooth transition from its current rate of completing approximately one center fuselage per month to an eventual rate of one center fuselage per day.

"This contract reinforces Northrop Grumman's commitment to help expand international participation in the F-35 program, while keeping us focused on putting aircraft on the ramp to meet our customers' operational need dates," said Mark Tucker, vice president and F-35 program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector.

According to Tucker, the first deliveries of ducts from the TAI contract are scheduled for June 2010. Northrop Grumman will use the ducts to support production of center fuselages during the fourth through eighth phases of low rate initial production.

All F-35 center fuselages are currently produced at Northrop Grumman's Palmdale (Calif.) Manufacturing Center. To date, all inlet ducts for F-35 aircraft have been produced in the company's Composites Manufacturing Center in El Segundo.

TAI currently serves as a second source supplier of F-35 center fuselages to Northrop Grumman. As part of ramping up to eventually produce 400 complete center fuselages, the company opened a new composites manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Ankara in November 2008. That facility, which is currently producing composite subassemblies for the F-35, will also be used to fabricate the composite inlet ducts planned under the new contract.

Northrop Grumman is responsible for the design and production of center fuselages for all three variants of F-35 aircraft: conventional takeoff and landing; short takeoff, vertical landing; and the carrier variant. The F-35 Lightning II program expects to build more than 3,100 aircraft.

As a member of the F-35 global industry team, Northrop Grumman is central to the development, production and support of the F-35 Lightning II. The company designed and produces the aircraft's center fuselage, radar and other key avionics including electro-optical and communications subsystems; develops mission systems and mission-planning software; leads the team's development of pilot and maintenance training system courseware; and manages the team's use, support and maintenance of low-observable technologies.

Northrop Grumman Begins Producing First International F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Northrop Grumman Corporation has begun producing the center fuselage for the first international F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an F-35B short take off, vertical landing (STOVL) variant for the United Kingdom designated BK-1. The center fuselage is the core structure around which the F-35 aircraft is built.

The assembly process began Oct. 26 at the company's Palmdale Manufacturing Center with the loading of an all-composite air inlet duct into a special tooling structure called a jig. This first assembly process, one of approximately 18 major steps in assembling an F-35 center fuselage, consists of attaching metal frames around the duct. The frames serve to brace and position the duct properly within the center fuselage.

"Jig loading the BK-1 center fuselage for the United Kingdom's first F-35 demonstrates that the program is delivering on its promise to produce a fifth generation, multi-role fighter that meets the common air combat requirements of the U.S. and its allies," said Mark Tucker, vice president and F-35 program manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Through a disciplined approach to managing costs and engineering changes, we're continuing to reduce program risks, which will help the F-35 industry team put jets on the ramp on or before the initial operational need dates of our international partners."

Tucker noted that the company had started assembling the BK-1 center fuselage three days sooner than the date indicated by the F-35 program's master schedule.
...

F-35 Engines - Devil is in the Detail Parts
Posted by Graham Warwick at 11/2/2009 1:31 PM CST

For Pratt it was a bushing. For GE/Rolls, it seems, it's a lug. In both cases testing of engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has been halted by failures caused by minor components - perhaps illustrating how hard it is to develop a high-performance jet engine.

The General Electric/Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team, which halted testing of the F136 alternate engine on Oct. 2 after finding "dings and nicks" on turbine blades, has traced the damage to a tiny lug coming loose on the diffuser, which directs air into the combustor.

"A diffuser component which connects the diffuser to the combustor will be modified," says GE/R-R. "We expect to have an F136 test engine running before year's end." With only 52 hours accumulated since the first SDD engine ran in January, that could mean the loss of almost three months of ground testing.

Pratt & Whitney, meanwhile, announced in September it would modify the first-stage fan blades on production F135 primary engines after a humble worn bushing in the fan inlet case caused an aerodynamic disturbance that led to a piece of the blade tip breaking off during engine durability testing

Lockheed signs new F-35 pacts with Australian industry
By Emma Kelly

Lockheed Martin has boosted Australian involvement in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme by signing new memoranda of understanding with two local companies.

Under an agreement signed on 4 November, Perth-based Quickstep will be responsible for the composite manufacturing of vertical tail skins and doors and panels for the F-35. Its work will be conducted in support of JSF partner company Northrop Grumman and could eventually lead to manufacturing contracts worth A$700 million ($635 million).

The agreement with Lockheed is a major coup for the small company, which offers traditional autoclave manufacture of composites, as well as a unique fluid-based curing method for producing high-strength, lightweight composite materials.



Quickstep managing director Philippe Odouard says the agreement covers traditional autoclave manufacturing work, but is hopeful that its fluid-based process will also be used. The US Department of Defense is assessing the results of a successful research project conducted with US company Vector Composites.

Quickstep, Lockheed and Northrop aim to finalise a 20- to 30-year agreement by March 2010, covering the supply of more than 19,300 composite doors and access panels. The Australian company could produce up to 21 different components, including lower side skins, maintenance access panels, fuel tank covers and in-board weapons bay doors.

A separate MoU could lead to Victoria-based Marand Precision assembling the F-35's vertical tail structures as a second-source supplier to the UK's BAE Systems. Marand has already worked on the JSF programme for six years, designing and developing ground support equipment and producing tooling for the manufacture of advanced composite parts.

The Australian Department of Defence expects to by the end of this year approve the acquisition of up to 100 F-35s for the nation's air force. To date, 25 Australian companies have secured business on the programme worth more than A$200 million

Pratt & Whitney F135 Engine Completes Initial Service Release Altitude Qualification Test

The Pratt & Whitney's F135 engine powering the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has completed altitude qualification ground testing, the final testing that demonstrates the operability and performance required for Conventional Take-off and Landing (CTOL) and Carrier Variant (CV) Initial Service Release (ISR). ISR is the U.S. Government's recognition that the F135 engine is ready for operational use and clears Pratt & Whitney to deliver and field production F135 engines. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. company.

"I'm very proud of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine team and the test team at Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee for their efforts in completing this critical milestone, not just for the F135 engine but for the entire F-35 program," said Warren Boley, Vice President of F135 Engine Programs at Pratt & Whitney. "Their hard work has demonstrated the performance of the F135 engine and puts us at the doorstep of achieving ISR."
The most recent testing, which included a total of 126 test hours, evaluated the F135 engine's air start capability and augmentor performance, as well as demonstrated and proved the performance of critical systems such as in-flight throttle response, inlet compatibility, engine ice protection and combustor stability. The final test period was also a testament to the reliability of the F135 engine and, at 38.7 hours, was the longest continuous test period completed to date on the F135 program.
The F135 System Development and Demonstration (SDD) program surpassed 12,850 hours of engine test time, successfully completed 90 CTOL flights, and completed 125 hours of flight time. Missions have included augmented takeoffs, supersonic flight, in-flight cycling of weapons bay doors, air-to-air refueling, in-flight engine restarts, and cross-country flights to and from Eglin and Edwards Air Force bases. For more than eight years, Pratt & Whitney has designed, developed and tested the F135 to deliver the most advanced fifth generation fighter engine for the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, as well as eight international partner countries. The F135 is derived from proven technology of the only operational fifth generation fighter engine, the Pratt & Whitney F119. It has been further enhanced with technologies developed in several Air Force and Navy technology programs.
The F135 is the only engine powering the F-35 Lightning II flight test program. The F135 propulsion system has proven it can meet diverse aircraft requirements, and the ground and flight test experience demonstrates the maturity and the associated reliability of the F135 engine for armed forces around the world.
...

Des pays ont reporté leurs commandes de F-35, selon le Pentagone


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Quelques pays participant au financement de l'avion de combat F-35 construit par Lockheed Martin ont reporté des commandes, ce qui aura pour conséquence de renchérir le prix initial du programme, a annoncé lundi un haut responsable du Pentagone.
"Ils ne vont pas acheter aussi tôt que ce que nous avions pensé", a déclaré à Reuters Jon Schreiber, qui dirige le volet international du programme.
Il a toutefois précisé qu'aucun pays n'avait, à sa connaissance, l'intention de revoir à la baisse ses commandes "à ce stade".
Huit pays se sont joints aux Etats-Unis pour financer le programme F35 "Joint Strike Fighter" qui en est aujourd'hui aux premiers stades de la production : la Grande-Bretagne, l'Italie, les Pays-Bas, la Turquie, le Canada, l'Australie, le Danemark et la Norvège. Ensemble, ils devraient acheter environ 730 de ces appareils conçus pour ne pas être repérés par les radars.
Jon Schreiber a refusé de dire quels pays avaient décidé de repousser leurs commandes et de préciser leur nombre.
"Le ralentissement économique a eu d'une certaine manière un impact sur leur capacité à acheter ce qu'ils voulaient acheter", a-t-il dit. "Mais pas encore sur le nombre (d'appareils) qu'ils souhaitaient acheter".

DES ADAPTATIONS DE L'APPAREIL PRÉVUES POUR ISRAËL

Il a par ailleurs indiqué qu'Israël semblait toujours en passe de devenir le premier gros acheteur du F35 en dehors du groupe des huit pays cofinanceurs au vu des discussions engagées la semaine dernière avec une délégation israélienne à New York.
"Nous avons établi une feuille de route afin de répondre à leurs demandes", a indiqué Jon Schreiber.
Il a précisé que les Etats-Unis avaient proposé d'ajouter dans l'appareil plusieurs composants et munitions construits en Israël et de livrer le modèle en 2015 à la condition qu'un accord soit signé dans les prochains mois.
Lockheed Martin, premier fournisseur du Pentagone en termes de ventes, a souligné que les partenaires du programme restaient impliqués, ajoutant que certains envisageaient même de revoir à la hausse leurs commandes.
"Si des pays ont ajusté les livraisons alors qu'ils traversent la crise économique mondiale (...) l'intérêt pour l'appareil continue d'augmenter", a déclaré Christian Geisel, un porte-parole, dans un communiqué.
Au cours de la même journée, le Pentagone a demandé à ce que Lockheed Martin révèle le coût de la poursuite du programme, une étude ayant montré qu'il pourrait coûter plusieurs milliards de dollars supplémentaires et souffrir un retard de deux ans.
"Nous voulons pas nous retrouver dans une situation où le gouvernement assumerait à lui seul le coût des retards de calendrier", a déclaré devant un petit groupe de journalistes Ashton Carter, sous-secrétaire à la Défense chargé des acquisitions.

US Guards JSF Crown Jewels

The Pentagon, after years and years of deliberation and heavy pressure from Britain, has finally decided it will not share the all-important computer source code for the Joint Strike Fighter.
Sharing source code would, in the words of one close observer of the program, “turn the British JSF into a Trojan Horse.” The message this source would send the British: “Yes we love you… but who are those third party nationals from the EU working for you? And how do we know we can trust them?”
British officials had threatened to pull out of the program if the US did not share the source code, but they are unlikely to go that far given how much political and financial capital they have committed to the project. There is also the fact, as one congressional source noted, that the British want what is commonly called the ITAR treaty approved by the Senate.
In August 2006, the US and UK concluded a technology transfer agreement for the F-35. One year later, the Bush administration sent a draft ITAR treaty in June to the Senate for ratification.
Now we hear that the Senate is moving with all deliberate speed to hold a final hearing on the ITAR treaty sometime before Christmas.
That will put the British in a very awkward position vis-à-vis the treaty, which would provide them benefits far beyond the JSF program. “The special relationship works both ways. If they are granted the ITAR treaties and then snub the JSF over the source code, it would be perceived as Britain putting the special relationship in jeopardy,” the congressional source said.
Reuters’ Jim Wolf broke the story about the source code. He interviewed Jon Schreiber, who handles international affairs for the JSF program.
“Nobody’s happy with it completely. but everybody’s satisfied and understands,” Wolf quoted Schreiber. The ban on sharing the source code applies to all allies, including Australia and Israel.

Australian MoD Announces Government Approval of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Acquisition

The Minister for Defence, Senator John Faulkner, today announced that the Australian Government had approved acquisition of the first batch of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft as foreshadowed in the 2009 Defence White Paper.

There has been considerable public interest in the potential acquisition of the F-35 JSF. The Government examined the JSF’s capabilities very carefully in the context of the Air Combat Capability Review and 2009 Defence White Paper deliberations, and remains confident that the JSF’s combination of stealth, advanced sensors, networking and data fusion capabilities, when integrated into the networked Australian Defence Force (ADF), will ensure Australia maintains its strategic capability advantage out to 2030.

The Government has approved acquisition of the first 14 Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) Joint Strike Fighters and infrastructure and support required for initial training and testing, at an estimated cost of $3.2 billion.

“Approval of this first batch of JSF aircraft is evidence of the Rudd Government’s strong commitment to defence and our commitment to implementing the Defence White Paper,” Senator Faulkner said.

Approval of the next batch of aircraft and all necessary support and enabling capabilities, sufficient to establish three operational squadrons and a training squadron of CTOL JSF, will be considered in 2012. This will fulfil our White Paper commitment to acquire three operational squadrons comprising not fewer than 72 aircraft.

“By 2012, Defence will have much firmer cost estimates for the remaining aircraft and necessary support and enabling capabilities as part of the planned first multi-year buy that is expected to comprise over 1000 aircraft for the US, Australia and other partners. This will allow for much more effective planning of the final JSF acquisition in the context of the overall Defence Capability Plan,” Senator Faulkner said.

Acquisition of an additional operational squadron – bringing the total number of JSF aircraft to around 100 – will be considered at a later date in conjunction with a decision on the withdrawal of the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

Australia’s first JSF aircraft will be delivered in the United States in 2014 to commence initial training and test activities. Australia’s first operational squadron will be based at Royal Australian Air Force Base Williamtown, and is planned to be ready for operations in 2018. All three operational squadrons are planned to be in service in 2021.

The decision follows many years of unprecedented evaluation and planning by all nine countries involved in the JSF’s development.

“Defence has done more analysis on this platform than any other platform in the acquisition history of the ADF,” Senator Faulkner said.

Chief of the Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin said: “The JSF acquisition will allow Australia to maintain its regional air combat superiority. It will also enable Australia to effectively contribute to regional security and enhances opportunities for interoperability and commonality to support future coalition operations.”

To date, 25 Australian companies have won approximately US$200 million in the development and early production phase of the JSF. As Australia and other countries commit to JSF acquisition, significantly increased opportunities for Australian industry will open up, as agreed in the Industry Participation Plan with Lockheed Martin and its JSF industry partners.

Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, Greg Combet said: “Government and Industry will need to continue to work together as JSF Team Australia to maximise benefits for Australian industry in the JSF Program in the face of stiff international competition. Consideration of acquisition of the next batch of aircraft in 2012 will provide Government the opportunity to review Lockheed Martin’s progress on implementing the Industry Participation Plan.

“It is important that where Australian companies offer value for money, Lockheed Martin and its JSF industry partners give fair consideration to Australian industry,” Minister Combet said.

The Government’s acquisition decision will also allow Lockheed Martin and its JSF industry partners to establish formal relationships with Australian industry to meet Australia’s defence self reliance requirements in supporting the JSF.

“Our commitment to the JSF will allow Australian industry to become integrated into the global JSF support system, ensuring our aircraft are supported in the most cost effective way. Commitment to the JSF also opens up opportunities for Australian industry to contribute to regional and global support of the JSF,” Minister Combet said.

The Program Manager, Air Vice-Marshal John Harvey said: “This acquisition decision cements our commitment to the JSF Program and our commitment to the US and other international partners to make the JSF Program a great success.”

...
On the Joint Strike Fighter, one con­gres­sional aide said a cut to the F-35’s over­all num­bers would not be sur­pris­ing given the program’s ris­ing costs and the tight­ened bud­get sit­u­a­tion the coun­try faces for 2011. And now we have some detail about just how big those cuts may be, Our col­leagues at Inside Defense are report­ing that a draft Pentagon direc­tive would result in extend­ing, “devel­op­ment by at least a year, reduce pro­duc­tion by approx­i­mately 100 air­craft and require the addi­tion of bil­lions of dol­lars to the effort through 2015.”
...

F136 Tests Lag Four Months

The sec­ond engine pro­gram for the Joint Strike Fighter, beset by tech­ni­cal prob­lems and fund­ing short­falls, now looks to be delayed by about four months, accord­ing to a con­gres­sional aide and the General Electric/​Rolls Royce team.
The basic prob­lem, as Buzz read­ers know, s is a lug nut that attaches the dif­fuser to the com­bus­tor. It is being redesigned.
“I think the delay on the F136 will be at least four months,” the con­gres­sional aide said. “It doesn’t help that, with at least a $30 mil­lion a month burn rate, OSD is not giv­ing them the money they need. Having no appro­pri­a­tions bill doesn’t help, but the CR lets them spend at the burn rate needed. Also, they have been shorted about $175 mil­lion over the 2007–2009 period by Congress from what the pro­gram office said was required to exe­cute the planned pro­gram. Last I heard it was half, $15 mil­lion, so far, for what GE needs in December (as of last week). It is not good when the pro­gram man­ager is hav­ing to spend the kind of time he is hav­ing to spend on man­ag­ing pen­nies instead of focus­ing on engine issues.
GE spokesman Rick Kennedy added some details to the “fund­ing short­falls” issue, say­ing the $2.4 bil­lion SDD pro­gram has not been fully funded but “has won marks with the JSF office by still deliv­er­ing on bud­get, and deliv­er­ing key mile­stones on sched­ule, such as Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, and First Engine To Test.”
Kennedy, answer­ing crit­i­cism that the GE/​RR pro­gram is suf­fer­ing acute prob­lems to its test pro­gram, said they have “accu­mu­lated more than 800 test hours — 207 hours of engine core and tur­bo­fan tests in the pre-​​SDD phase, and since 2006, 557 hours in the for­mal SDD pro­gram. The SDD product-​​configuration engines, which began run­ning in 2009, have 52 hours of tests. So, we are a few hun­dred hours behind the orig­i­nal SDD test plan, but test­ing is expected to resume in January, and dur­ing 2010, we plan to run no less than six devel­op­ment engines.”
The test results gar­nered so far meet “all of our expec­ta­tions in terms of thrust, tem­per­a­ture mar­gins, and fuel con­sump­tion – con­firm­ing the vital role that it will play com­pet­ing in the JSF pro­gram. Performance short­falls can require sig­nif­i­cant aero­me­chan­i­cal design changes, and we aren’t fac­ing that,” Kennedy said.

Green Light For United Kingdom's Purchase of Third F-35B Operational Test Aircraft

The Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) program has announced that the United Kingdom has received financial approval to purchase its third Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II operational test aircraft, reinforcing the U.K.'s continued commitment to the Joint Strike Fighter program's upcoming Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E).

"The U.K. this week received financial approval to go ahead and purchase the third U.K. STOVL OT&E aircraft that is planned within LRIP 4. Given the extremely tight financial climate in the U.K. government and the consequent impact across public spending, especially defence, this is a significant achievement," said Air Commodore Graham Farnell, the U.K.'s Joint Combat Aircraft Team head. "I believe it reflects well upon the JSF program and it is a measure of the confidence that the U.K. has in both the F-35 Lightning II and the program to deliver this capability."

This approval follows recent F-35 down-select or procurement commitments by Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy and the United States. The strength of the F-35 business case has enabled program suppliers to obtain the capital financing needed to recapitalize the industrial base and produce the F-35 in high quantities over the next 30 years.

"The United Kingdom's participation in F-35 Operational Test and Evaluation, and the associated commitment to purchase F-35s in early production lots, help ensure production stability as we move from the current assembly rate of one aircraft per month to our goal of one per day," said Matt Maxwell, Lockheed Martin director for F-35 Low Rate Initial Production.

The U.K. has invested $2 billion in the F-35's development - the largest contribution among the program's eight partner nations. More than 100 British companies are involved in the program, including BAE Systems, which produces the aircraft's aft fuselage and tails; Rolls-Royce, developer and manufacturer of the shaft-driven lift fan and other propulsion components for the F-35B STOVL variant; and Martin Baker, maker of the jet's ejection seats.

The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter. Three variants derived from a common design, developed together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide, will replace aircraft in at least 13 services for nine nations initially, making the Lightning II the most cost-effective fighter program in history.

Rolls-Royce Comments Congressional Support for Continued JSF Engine Competition

Rolls-Royce welcomed continued Congressional support for competition as the US House and Senate approved funding for the F136 engine program, and President Barack Obama signed it into law.

The recently passed Appropriations Bill includes $465 Million in FY 2010 for the F136 engine, allowing competition to continue in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) propulsion program. This marks the 15th consecutive year that Congress has supported competition in this key program.

This important vote re-affirms the benefits of competition, avoiding a $100 Billion, single-source engine monopoly without a competitive selection process.

“Funding the F136 represents a victory for competition that will benefit the military customer for decades to come,” said Dan Korte, Rolls-Royce President - Defence. “Prior engine competitions have demonstrated cost savings of 21 percent – which translates to projected savings of $20 billion or more over the lifetime of the JSF program.”

The F136 engine, being developed in a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and GE, supports approximately 2,500 jobs at the Rolls-Royce manufacturing facility in Indianapolis, at GE and throughout its US supply chain. With the current funding, the program will be approximately 85 percent complete, with the first production F136 engines scheduled to be delivered in 2012.

The GE Rolls-Royce F136 engine has remained within budget for many years. Furthermore, the F136 team’s solid history of executing its contract on schedule and within budget has led to consistent top program reviews from the Joint Program Office managing the F-35 program.

The F136 program has met all major milestones and the engine has performed as expected during testing, meeting targets for thrust and efficiency. The program has totaled more than 550 hours of testing since the System Development and Demonstration contract began in 2005.

In 2009, the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has already prompted positive changes through competition. In September, the Fighter Engine Team submitted an unsolicited fixed-price contract proposal -- a unique approach for early F136 production engines that would move significant cost risk from taxpayers to the companies. Fixed-price contracting is one of the key objectives of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009.

The first complete new-build F136 engine began testing earlier this year – a month ahead of schedule – under the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract with the US Government Joint Program Office for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

Continuing that success, the F136 program will ramp up to multiple test engines in 2010 and top well over 1,000 hours of testing by year end.

The F136 engine is the most advanced fighter aircraft engine ever developed and will be available to power all variants of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the U.S. military and eight partner nations. The F136 engine is a product of the best technology from two world-leading propulsion companies. The GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has designed the only engine specifically developed for the F-35 aircraft, offering extra temperature margin and affordable growth.

Second F-35B arrives at USN's Patuxent River base
By Stephen Trimble

The US Navy now has two F-35Bs at Patuxent River, Maryland, to complete a series of tests leading to the first transition from horizontal flight to a vertical landing.

The flight test aircraft designated BF-2 landed at the USN's flight test centre at 14:26 today. US Marine Corps Maj Joseph T. "O.D." Bachmann flew the aircraft nonstop from Fort Worth, Texas, completing one aerial refuelling during the 3h19min flight.

BF-1 arrived at Patuxent River on 15 November, but remained parked until 23 December to complete a series of repairs.

The two aircraft are expected to complete up to 12 flight tests before reaching the vertical landing event, an early milestone in the programme's flight test schedule.

The vertical landing has slipped from its originally scheduled date last June. Lockheed Martin has said the event could still occur as soon as January. But the event could slide until the end of May, according to USMC officials.

STOVL F-35 Engages Lift Fan in Flight Posted by Graham Warwick at 1/7/2010 2:23 PM CST

This just in - the first F-35B, aircraft BF-1, engaged its STOVL lift system in flight for the first time today (Jan. 7) during a test sortie from Pax River.

Lead STOVL pilot Graham Tomlinson engaged the shaft-driven lift fan at 5,000ft and 210kt, slowed to 180kt, then accelerated back to 210kt and converted back to conventional-flight mode.

The lift system was engaged for 14 minutes of the 48-min flight.

Plans call for the aircraft to fly progressively slower and lower on subsequent flights to build up confidence for the first vertical landing.