Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out

"Excellence is the enemy of 'good enough'", or so says an old F-35-JSF briefing. Another old briefing uses the term, “model acquisition program” and “affordable” in red. In looking at the report released today by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), Director, Operational Test & Evaluation office, we can see that that the leaders and proponents of the F-35 program shot for mediocrity and fell short of the mark.

For your convenience, the report is presented below.

It is damning on a large scale. The report uses pithy language. Just putting that out there for some of the normalisation of deviance fans who may think, “well the truth may lie somewhere in between.” Where "in between" is a distance between reports like this and a Lockheed Martin press release. There are many less grey areas in the world of engineering. Poor management has made the F-35 program an outlier in every sense of the word.

It is hard to highlight the report because there are so many negative statements against the F-35 program. I will try a few.

Because of extreme difficulties, software block definitions are being lowered. Yet again. Some items that were supposed to be in one block are kicked down the road into the next one. The program has a history of this. Now, they are against a wall.

If you were not sure if Gates was right about putting the F-35B STOVL on “probation”, this report will tell you why. No amount of idiotic marketing by the USMC's General Amos can can paper over all of the engineering problems.

With most other designs, they put the engine in a position where its exhaust will not damage the aircraft. Because of center-of-gravity needs to meet the STOVL requirement the engine is located farther forward. The F-35 has its exhaust in a place that puts limits on what you can do with the aircraft (speed and sustained power) or you will burn off pieces of the horizontal stabs.

Brilliant.

Want some quotes? Hard to pick. Try this:

Operational Assessment

The JSF Operational Test Team completed an operational assessment of the F-35 program and determined that it is not on track to meet operational effectiveness or operational suitability requirements. The JSF Operational Test Team assessed the program based on measured and predicted performance against requirements from the JSF Operational Requirements Document, which was re-validated in 2009.

The program—as a reason to exist--is finished. Some of us are just waiting for those who are a little slow, to get a clue or two.

Hopefully an outcome from the failure of the F-35 will make various program leaders and politicians realise we have a lot of talent engaged in building the wrong aircraft. The fix is to reorganise that talent to build the right aircraft. It would be good if some decision-makers that are able to take this fact on board and lead a transition toward a recovery, stand up and make themselves heard.