“There will be many more problems”: as the Pentagon criticized the management of the F-35 development program

The F-35 Lightning II Fighter Generation Program Development Department has been criticized by the US Department of Defense inspection agencies. This is stated in the Pentagon report.

It is alleged that the division did not comply with the procedures established by law for the use of state property leased to the developer of the aircraft Lockheed Martin and its contractors. At the same time, oversight of federal property was actually carried out by the corporation itself. The state property includes special production equipment and unique test facilities necessary to create the F-35.

In particular, the department violated the federal property accounting rules, which are defined by the Joint Strike Fighter program (the F-35 project is being implemented within its framework). In addition, it did not coordinate the development of the fighter with the Agency for the Management of Defense Contracts.

“Because of this, the US Department of Defense does not know the exact value of the property involved in the work on the F-35, and does not have at its disposal independent reporting that allows for an audit on the use of state property in the framework of the F-35 program, the cost of which the contractors estimated at $ 2.1 billion, ”the document says.

• F-35 Lightning II at the airport
• © Lockheed Martin

It follows from the report that the management was not able to provide the necessary level of oversight, which makes it possible to identify the possible inappropriate use of federal property by the contractor.

The document states that, according to the company, Lockheed Martin lost $ 271 million in state assets during the operation, but military officials are not able to verify the accuracy of this estimate.

“The inability to track resources leads to the fact that the Ministry of Defense cannot fully control, allowing the general contractor (Lockheed Martin) to manage the funds allocated for the F-35 program in the most optimal way from the point of view of the state’s interests” - the report says.

“It was not possible to reach the goal”

The Pentagon fears that the identified violations in the exploitation of state property may adversely affect the completion of the refinement of the F-35. To date, the American fighter of a new generation is experiencing a number of significant technological problems that impede the start of the final stage of combat tests. Successful completion of the final test should remove restrictions on the use of aircraft by the Armed Forces.

In a conversation with RT, military analyst Vladislav Shurygin noted that the Americans could not achieve their goals in developing the F-35, and "the program to create a fighter is lame in both legs, and not the first year."

“In my opinion, Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon clearly overestimated their own capabilities, although the concept of a combat vehicle, in my opinion, was correct. Another thing is that the Americans failed to achieve this goal. And now we see how the ambitious F-35 advertising in the media is replaced by a series of negative publications, ”the analyst noted.

One of the key problems of the F-35 are the inefficiency of software (software) and the high cost of maintenance. The US Air Force has to keep a large enough staff of engineers who actually manually update the software of the fighter. In addition, the operation of the aircraft requires a special expensive airport infrastructure.

The Pentagon’s headache is the ALIS (Autonomic Logistics Information System) complex, which is used to update the software and upload new data to the on-board computers. A full cycle of service works, according to Defense News, can take up to one week. Assistant US Air Force Procurement, Technology and Logistics Minister Will Roper considers ALIS to be a “technology of the 1990s”.

The US military plans to replace ALIS with the new Mad Hatter information service complex (“Mad Hatter”. - RT ). Its main component will be the Kronos application, which will speed up the process of downloading and transferring data.

The founder of the Military Russia portal, Dmitry Kornev, told RT that software is crucial for a modern combat aircraft.

“He is responsible for the control of engines, navigation, the use of weapons, including guided munitions. Most likely, the Americans are faced with the need to either simplify the software or create something completely new. Both will require a lot of time and the allocation of additional financial resources, ”the expert stated.

• F-35 Lightning II in the assembly shop
• © Lockheed Martin

In August 2018, the American Organization for the Supervision of Government Activities (Project On Government Oversight, POGO) published a report citing documents from various Pentagon divisions. A significant part of the materials of the US Department of Defense was devoted to problems with software that is installed on the F-35.

One of the documents contains the words of Pentagon’s Director of Operational Testing and Assessment, Robert Behler, that due to software interruptions, Lockheed Martin’s brainchild cannot use AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles, guided bombs and a cannon.

Critical flaws

Another set of problems for the F-35 Lightning II is related to crew safety. According to POGO, some officials of the US Department of Defense are trying to hide critical flaws in order to remove restrictions on the operation of the aircraft in the army and allow Lockheed Martin to deploy its large-scale mass production. The most dangerous defect, according to American experts, is the malfunction of the emergency system.

“A copy of the minutes of the meeting of the F-35 Defects Study Council dated June 4, 2018, received by POGO, indicates that the Board translated 19 deficiencies of the first category into a less serious second category. At the same time, the category of ten defects was underestimated without the approval of a plan for their correction, ”the organization’s report says.

According to Bloomberg, Lockheed Martin will take a long time to correct about 180 deficiencies identified during the test.

Another serious problem, according to the agency, is the vulnerability of the F-35 to a lightning strike. Bloomberg also drew attention to defects in the inert gas generation system, which could lead to an explosion of fuel in hazardous areas. In October last year, the US Department of Defense suspended flights of part of the F-35 fleet due to unreliable fuel tubes in Pratt & Whitney engines.

In addition, the assigned resource (the period of time before the first overhaul) of the fighter for the marines (F-35B) with the function of short takeoff and vertical landing turned out to be almost four times lower than the required one. According to the requirements of the Pentagon, this figure should be 8 thousand flight hours against 2.1 thousand in reality, notes Bloomberg.

“By and large, Americans are forced to close their eyes to the numerous problems of the F-35. Otherwise, the pace of production and sales of this machine will be so low that it will not allow even a part of the costs of the Joint Strike Fighter program to recoup. In my opinion, the correction of critical defects, if such a task is really assigned to the developer, will take at least several years, ”predicts Shurygin.

• F-35 Lightning II fighter takes off from the deck of an aircraft carrier
• © Lockheed Martin

The situation around the F-35 Lightning II was also complicated by the assumption of the post of Acting US Secretary of Defense by former Boeing top manager Patrick Shanahan. This opinion is shared by the sources of the American newspaper Politico. They believe and. about. The head of the Pentagon will lobby the interests of the ex-employer, who in the late 1990s fought with Lockheed Martin for a tender to develop and manufacture a fifth-generation fighter.

It is alleged that Shanakhan will promote the purchase of a heavy fighter of the fourth generation F-15X. The acquisition of a batch of these planes was allegedly already made in the Pentagon’s budget request for the 2020 fiscal year. According to Bloomberg, the US Department of Defense plans to order 80 F-15X and 84 F-35.

Some US congressmen fear that Boeing fighters will be procured to the detriment of the implementation of the Joint Strike Fighter program. On February 13, 2019, Republicans John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Susan Collins, and Lisa Merkauski sent a letter to Donald Trump asking them to abandon their F-15X acquisition. Lawmakers pointed out that the cost of the Boeing fighter is comparable to the price of the F-35 ($ 100 million).

In a conversation with RT, Vadim Kozyulin, a professor at the Academy of Military Sciences, said that the confrontation between Shanakhan and the congressmen is a consequence of the struggle of lobbying groups in anticipation of the size of the military budget and expenditure items. According to the expert, the conceptual difficulties with the F-35 are caused by initially excessive demands from the military.

“As far as I can tell, the Pentagon has set impossible tasks for Lockheed Martin. The fifth generation fighter was supposed to be a high-tech and reliable machine. But the result clearly did not meet expectations or invested funds. Apparently, the F-35 will continue to pursue a variety of problems for a very long time, and the rate will eventually be made on the sixth generation aircraft, ”the expert concluded.