Delays in Joint Strike Fighter software development and testing may delay the Marine Corps variant of the F-35 from reaching initial operational capability in July 2015 and could even delay the Navy and Air Force variants and increase the cost of the overall program, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a March 24 report.
“Since the F-35 program restructuring was completed in March 2012, acquisition cost and schedule estimates have remained relatively stable, and the program has made progress in key areas,” says the report. “However, persistent software problems have slowed progress in mission systems flight testing, which is critical to delivering the warfighting capabilities expected by the military services. These persistent delays put the program’s development cost and schedule at risk. As a result, DOT&E now projects that the warfighting capabilities expected by the Marine Corps in July 2015 will not likely be delivered on time, and could be delayed as much as 13 months. This means that the Marine Corps may initially receive less capable aircraft than it expects, and if progress in mission systems software testing continues to be slower than planned, Air Force and Navy initial operational capabilities may also be affected.”
The software delays in 2013 were “due largely to delays in software delivery, limited capability in the software when delivered, and the need to fix problems and retest multiple software versions,” according to the report. The F-35 program flew more test flights than planned–352 compared to the 329 mission systems test flights planned–but it accomplished only 2,518 test points compared to the expected 2,817.
The slower-than-expected pace of progress in testing could have a cascading effect that would hurt the Marine Corps first but could spread to the Air Force and Navy. The mission systems software is designed in Blocks 1, 2A, 2B, 3i and 3F, each of which improves upon the last block. Blocks 1 and 2A are nearly complete and would bring enough capability to the fleet to begin training. Blocks 2B and 3i are initial warfighting capabilities; the Marine Corps plans to reach initial operational capability on its F-35B variant with Block 2B, and the Air Force will reach IOC in August 2016 with 3i, which includes upgraded hardware. The Navy won’t achieve IOC until August 2018, when the final Block 3F is complete.
The Director of Operational Test and Evaluation predicts the Block 2B software will face delays of up to 13 months in the F-35 program, given its current status. “As of January 2014, the program planned to have verified the functionality of 27 percent of the software’s capability on-board the aircraft, but had only been able to verify 13 percent. This leaves a significant amount of work to be done before October 2014, which is when the program expects to complete developmental flight testing of this software block,” the report notes. Contractors and program officials acknowledge that “slow progress in developing, delivering, and testing mission systems software continues to be the program’s most significant risk area,” the report notes, but “they still expect to deliver all of the planned F-35 software capabilities to the military services as currently scheduled.”
The testing delays may also drive up cost in what is already the most expensive Defense Department acquisition program ever, GAO reports. Developmental flight testing is expected to wrap up in 2017, so if it gets extended, DoD would have to pay more to retain resting and engineering personnel. Extending the testing would also increase the concurrency of the development and procurement periods; DoD would have purchased 459 aircraft in 2018 compared to just 359 in 2017, so correcting any additional flaws identified in testing would involve paying to fix 100 additional planes after delivery.
GAO does not recommend any changes in the testing plan but does recommend increasing awareness of the delays and their potential effects. “Due to the uncertainty surrounding the delivery of F-35 software capabilities, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense conduct an assessment of the specific capabilities that realistically can be delivered and those that will not likely be delivered to each of the services by their established initial operational capability dates,” according to the report. “The results of this assessment should be shared with Congress and the military services as soon as possible but no later than July 2015.”