F35 JSF Actualité

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.

Lockheed Martin F-35B Begins In-Flight STOVL Operations
NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., January 7th, 2010 -- The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) stealth fighter engaged its STOVL propulsion system in flight for the first time today. The successful test is the first in a series of planned STOVL-mode flights that will include short takeoffs, hovers and vertical landings.

"The joint F-35 industry and government team has already shown during extended ground tests that the STOVL propulsion system performs well, and thousands of hours of component testing has validated its durability. Now we are seeing early proof that the system operates in flight as our team predicted," said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager.

The aircraft is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney F135 engine driving a Rolls-Royce LiftFan. The system, which includes a Rolls-Royce 3-bearing swivel duct that vectors engine thrust and under-wing roll ducts that provide lateral stability, produces more than 41,000 pounds of vertical thrust. The F135 is the most powerful engine ever flown in a fighter aircraft.

F-35 Lead STOVL Pilot Graham Tomlinson of BAE Systems took off at 1:53 p.m. EST, climbed to 5,000 feet and engaged the shaft-driven LiftFan propulsion system at 210 knots (288 mph), then slowed to 180 knots (207 mph) with the system engaged before accelerating to 210 knots and converting back to conventional-flight mode. The STOVL propulsion system was engaged for a total of 14 minutes during the flight. Tomlinson landed at 2:41 p.m. EST.

STOVL-mode flights will continue, with the aircraft flying progressively slower, hovering, and ultimately landing vertically. Most STOVL-mode testing will be conducted at NAS Patuxent River.

The F-35B will replace U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B STOVL fighters, F/A-18 strike fighters and EA-6B electronic attack aircraft. The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, as well as the Italian Air Force and Navy, also will employ the F-35B. With its short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities, the F-35B will enable allied forces to conduct operations from small ships and unprepared fields, enabling expeditionary operations around the globe.

The Lockheed Martin F-35 is a 5th generation fighter, uniquely characterized by advanced stealth with supersonic speed and high agility, sensor fusion, network-enabled capabilities and advanced sustainment. The three F-35 variants are derived from a common design, are being developed together and will use the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide, bringing economies of commonality and scale. The United States and eight international partners are planning to buy more than 3,000 F-35 aircraft.

Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

Israel's F-35 Demands Unacceptable to US

The US has expressed its inability to accept the demands made by the Israeli Defence Ministry to replace 50% of the systems in the F-35 fighter with Israeli-made technology.
The Israeli Air Force wants to acquire 25 F-35 stealth fighter jets, each costing nearly $130m, with the aim of boosting Israel's deterrence in the Middle East, according to jpost.com.
In a letter of request, submitted to the Pentagon in July 2009, the defence force demanded the right to install its own electronic warfare and radar systems on the fighter plane.
Israel has made this request in order to make the acquisition cost effective, as well as to give Israeli defence industries an opportunity to benefit from the JSF programme.
However, the US has rejected this demand, since it will prevent the installation of all of the systems the air force had requested.
The US wants to retain a qualitative edge over the F-35s that will be sold to its buyers.
Under the current JSF programme agreement, an F-35 buyer will have to send the jet to a maintenance centre, likely to be set up in Italy, on encountering any kind of mechanical malfunction.
The Lockheed-developed F-35 Lightning II, is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth multirole fighter.
The F-35 will perform close air support, tactical bombing and air defence missions.

STOVL F-35B Flies Slower ... and Slower
Posted by Graham Warwick at 1/27/2010 4:32 PM CST
Lead F-35B test pilot Graham Tomlinson flew aircraft BF-1 down to 120kt in STOVL mode today, Jan. 27. on the fourth flight from Pax River in which the propulsive-lift system has been engaged.
BF-1 was slowed to 180kt with the lift-fan engaged on the first STOVL-mode flight on Jan. 7, then to 150kt on the second and third flights - flown first by BAE Systems' Tomlinson then by Lockheed's David Nelson. Today's 48-min flight was BF-1's 32nd and its fifth since arriving at Pax on Nov. 15.

RAF's Long flies BF-2 (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
BF-2, meanwhile, has logged 19 flights, three of them since arriving at Pax on Dec. 29. The aircraft flew twice on Jan. 26, once for 1.3h piloted by RAF active-duty pilot Sgn Ldr Steve Long, and again for 0.9h on an aerial refuelling sortie piloted by Lockheed's Jeff Knowles.
Lockheed has said BF-1 needs a dozen STOVL flights before the first vertical landing, so I guess it looks like February. I hate it when Bill's right...

Pentagon Official Confirms 1-Year Delay For JSF

Pentagon officials on Feb. 16 confirmed Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn's announcement one day prior that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program will be delayed by about one year.
The Pentagon's No. 2 official said this week that the jet's development schedule would slip between 12 months and 13 months despite an aggressive restructuring of the program that was announced earlier this month.
"The development was originally projected to last an additional 30 months; we think with the additional test aircraft it will be closer to a delay of about 12 or 13 months, but I can't give you the cost numbers," The Australian newspaper quoted Lynn as saying during a speech at a shipyard in South Australia. He did not say if this would affect the delivery timeline for the JSF.
The delay is due to the integration of additional test aircraft that were mandated under the restructuring, which also extended system development and design (SDD) until 2015, according to a Pentagon official.
"That is a true statement, the driver on this is the test aircraft," the official said Feb. 16. "The driver on this whole thing, about a year, is due to the additional test aircraft."
Like Lynn, the official would not comment on how this will affect the delivery schedule for the plane. The U.S. Marine Corps is set to get its first F-35s in 2012, with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy scheduled to receive their jets in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
On Feb. 1, Steve O'Bryan, Lockheed's vice president for F-35 business development, told reporters that while the jet's flight tests are roughly six months behind schedule, the company will deliver the plane in time to meet the Marines' initial operating capability date of 2012.
"I think you'll see that we're going to deliver all the SDD jets by the end of this year and get them in flight test," O'Bryan said.
Under the Pentagon's restructuring that was announced Feb. 1, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered an additional test jet and $2.8 billion be put into the extended F-35 SDD, withheld more than $600 million in performance fees from Lockheed, cut planes from F-35 acquisition coffers and fired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Heinz, the Pentagon's F-35 program manager.
The Defense Department is requesting $10.7 billion in its 2011 budget to continue development on the F-35 and purchase 43 of the planes.

The average per unit cost of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has substantially increased, from $50 million to up to $95 million, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter told senators March 11 on Capitol Hill.
In today’s dollars, the per unit cost is estimated to be $112 million per unit.
The first development estimate was made in 2001 in Fiscal 2002 dollars when Lockheed received its contract for development, which is now estimated at $50 billion. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked whether Lockheed Martin knowingly “bought into” the program by proposing an unrealistically low price during the competition with Boeing and later recouping the money through repeated cost overruns. This is a “pattern that would match that,” Carter said during the hearing in reply.
The average per unit cost incorporates the entire price of the program, including development, procurement and fielding.This massive overrun means the U.S. Air Force will notify Congress “within days” of the program’s “critical” breach of cost overrun limits included in the Nunn-McCurdy statute (Aerospace DAILY, March 3). This will trigger a mandatory review of alternatives for the program.
The figures presume a purchase of 2,443 aircraft by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
Also, as a result of the 13-month development delay, the Air Force has again reassessed its initial operational capability (IOC) date for the F-35, which is now expected in 2016. Only last week officials said it would be 2015. However, Carter’s March 3 JSF acquisition decision memorandum updates the closure of operational testing to be in April 2016, prompting the Air Force’s new date. The Navy also plans to declare IOC in 2016. The Marine Corps still says it will reach IOC in 2012 with JSF.
Factors contributing to the cost increase include a weight-reduction initiative in 2006 for the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing version for the Marine Corps, delayed development schedule, increased labor and overhead rates, degradation of airframe commonality, reduced production quantities, increases in commodity prices (particularly titanium) and major subcontractor cost growth, Carter says.
It appears, however, that the Pentagon is eager to move forward with the program. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said last week that no viable alternatives exist for the single-engine, stealthy F-35.
Carter told senators that he had been proceeding with management of JSF since November as if it had already been in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. Measures taken to shore up the program include an extra $2.8 billion added to development, substantially lower production ramp up (which takes place in parallel with flight testing) and the addition of more flight test assets and software testing facilities. The senior program officer, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Heinz, also was dismissed, and his position was elevated to a three-star level

Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Succeeds In First Vertical Landing

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md., March 18th, 2010 -- A supersonic Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter rode more than 41,000 pounds of thrust to a vertical landing today for the first time, confirming its required ability to land in confined areas both ashore and afloat.

“Today’s vertical landing onto a 95-foot square pad showed that we have the thrust and the control to maneuver accurately both in free air and in the descent through ground effect,” said F-35 Lead STOVL Pilot Graham Tomlinson.

Tomlinson performed an 80-knot (93 miles per hour) short takeoff from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., at 1:09 p.m. EDT. About 13 minutes into the flight, he positioned the aircraft 150 feet above the airfield, where he commanded the F-35 to hover for approximately one minute then descend to the runway.

“The low workload in the cockpit contrasted sharply with legacy short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) platforms,” said Tomlinson, a retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot and a BAE Systems employee since 1986. “Together with the work already completed for slow-speed handling and landings, this provides a robust platform to expand the fleet’s STOVL capabilities.”

Robert J. Stevens, Lockheed Martin chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Today’s vertical landing of the F-35 BF-1 aircraft was a vivid demonstration of innovative technology that will serve the global security needs of the U.S. and its allies for decades to come. I am extremely proud of the F-35 team for their dedication, service and performance in achieving this major milestone for the program.”

Doug Pearson, Lockheed Martin vice president of F-35 Test and Verification, said, “The successful first vertical landing today met our test objectives and demonstrates the F-35B’s capacity to operate from a very small area at sea or on shore – a unique capability for a supersonic, stealth fighter. This is the first of many such tests to fully define the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) characteristics of the world’s most capable 5th generation fighter. We will routinely conduct vertical landings and short takeoffs to further expand the operational flight envelope for the F-35B.”

The aircraft in today’s test, known as BF-1, is one of three F-35B STOVL jets currently undergoing flight trials at the Patuxent River test site. It is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney F135 turbofan engine driving a counter-rotating Rolls-Royce LiftFan. The shaft-driven LiftFan system, which includes a Rolls-Royce three-bearing swivel duct that vectors engine thrust and under-wing roll ducts that provide lateral stability, produces more than 41,000 pounds of vertical lift. The F135 is the most powerful engine ever flown in a fighter aircraft.