By Marina Malenic
The Air Force’s top officer said yesterday that the Pentagon’s decision to “decouple” development of a jump-jet version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being built for the Marine Corps from the rest of the program will allow the remaining two variants to mature at a more rapid pace.
“Decoupling the B-model, which is technologically much more complex, from the rest of the program was a smart decision,” said Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff.
Developmental delays in the B-model portion of the program “artificially held back progress of the A and C models,” he added.
Schwartz was speaking at a conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by Credit Suisse.
F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] is developing three versions of the aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The A model takes off and lands conventionally and would be flown by the Air Force; the Marine Corps’ B model, a short take-off/vertical landing craft, is the most technologically complex of the three; and the C model is to be flown from carrier decks by Navy pilots.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates moved the B model to the end of planned development and production. It had been the first of the three models in line for delivery and deployment. Gates said at the time that if the B-model development effort is not “back on track” after two years, it “should be canceled” (Defense Daily, Jan. 7).
Schwartz said he believes the Air Force’s A model has demonstrated “solid” performance in testing but that serious hurdles still remain in the realms of software development, as well as some of the advanced technologies like the helmet-mounted display.
Earlier in the week, Air Force Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore, the F-35 deputy program manager, said the B model had already completed over 30 vertical landings this year. Only 11 were completed in all of 2010, he noted, and shipboard testing is on track to get started in the fall.
“There is a lot of good progress being made on this airplane,” Moore said during the Credit Suisse conference.
The general also said the Joint Program Office (JPO) plans to press Lockheed Martin to further lower the price of the jets in the fifth low-rate-initial production (LRIP-5) round. Moore said changing the terms of the contract to firm, fixed-price in the fourth round has set the stage for tough negotiations.
However, LRIP-5 negotiations for the next 30 or so airplanes could be delayed if Congress does not pass a fiscal 2011 budget in short order. The federal government has been operating under continuing resolutions (CR) maintaining FY ’10 budget levels since FY ’11 began Oct. 1.
“Until Congress speaks and gives us that direction, our LRIP-5 negotiations will be somewhat delayed,” he said. “We would need some level of relief from the CR guidelines to buy the aircraft…as desired by the department.”
He said the JPO was working with Lockheed Martin and the Defense Contracts Management Agency to recertify the company’s earned value management system later this year. Major government contractors are required to use EVMS to track spending by comparing real costs against projections. Lockheed Martin’s EVMS tracked the performance of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development program, among others.
The company had developed corrective action plans to address their non-compliance against the 32 EVMS guidelines last fall (Defense Daily, Oct. 6).
Meanwhile, two F-35s are due at Eglin AFB, Fla., this spring for maintenance and flight training later in the year, according to Moore.