F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Not Ready for Combat Until at Least 2019, GAO Says

[unhappycamper]

http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/03/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-not-ready-combat-until-least-2019-gao-says/61832/



F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Not Ready for Combat Until at Least 2019, GAO Says

The $397 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will not be ready to go into operation until at least 2019, 23 years after the Pentagon signed a contract in 1996 with Lockheed Martin to produce just fewer than 2,500 of the aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, according to a new report.

Initial operational test and evaluation -- or IOT&E -- testing of the F-35, the most expensive Defense Department procurement in history, is scheduled to begin in 2017 and run through 2019, the Government Accountability Office said. These tests will “evaluate the combat effectiveness and suitability of the aircraft in an operationally realistic environment,” GAO said.

These tests will determine if the plane can achieve “key performance parameters [that] are critical to the F-35 meeting the warfighter’s operational requirements. They include measures such as range, weapons carriage, mission reliability and sortie rates. These parameters also cannot be fully verified until the end of IOT&E in 2019,” GAO said.

~snip~

Software development for the F-35 presents a “significant challenge” for Lockheed and the Pentagon, with completion of the final version of some 9.5 million lines of code not expected until 2017, GAO reported.

[KeepItReal]

1. Test Pilots: Stealth Jet’s Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the military’s expensive main warplane of the future, has a huge blind spot directly behind it. Pilots say that could get them shot down in close-quarters combat, where the flier with the better visibility has the killing advantage.

“Aft visibility could turn out to be a significant problem for all F-35 pilots in the future,” the Pentagon acknowledged in a report (.pdf) obtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group.

That admission should not come as a surprise to observers of the Joint Strike Fighter program. Critics of the delayed, over-budget F-35 — which is built in three versions for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps — have been trying for years to draw attention to the plane’s blind spot, only to be dismissed by the government and Lockheed Martin, the Joint Strike Fighter’s primary builder.

The damning report, dated Feb. 15, summarized the experiences of four test pilots who flew the F-35A — the relatively lightweight Air Force version — during a September-to-November trial run of the Joint Strike Fighter’s planned training program at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The report mentions a number of shortfalls of the highly complex F-35, including sensors, communications and aerial refueling gear that aren’t yet fully designed or just don’t work right.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/f-35-blind-spot/

Software fixes won't mean much in a dogfight.

[octothorpe]

2. Good thing we're not in any real wars where we actually need updated equipment

Imagine if this was going to the same extent in WW2... "Sorry, the P-51 won't be ready for another 15 years"

Why do we continue to reward the failure of these companies? Nearly everything is just a bottomless pit that outputs very little.

[msongs]

3. when thieves in congress collaborate with criminals in the defense industry.... nt