Confidence Grows in Australian F-35A Program
It is another silly article about the F-35. This time by a known Australian F-35 fan-writer.
Say nice things; get trips and sometimes lunch. And, pitch softball questions; copy-paste press releases.
Copy-Paste-Publish.
Interesting as the F-35 program meets all the requirements for the DMO Project of Concern List. It also meets the requirements of an extreme-risk program by Australian government standards.
Then there is all of the deception performed on the Australian public by Lockheed Martin.
None of this mentioned by the fan-writer.
The weight on wheels milestone came as confidence grows in Australia that, from a technical standpoint at least, the New Air Combat Capability (NACC) program will deliver under the latest timeline.
Retiring at the end of 2013, the outgoing head of the NACC program, Air Vice Marshal Kym Osley, said that from a hardware point of view, he saw the F-35A developing well. The Australian assessment, however, is that there is still about seven months of risk in the final software development, known as Block 3F (Final).
“All software presents a risk, and this is the most complex software ever, but I’m very pleased that the metrics are indicating it’s heading in a positive direction. We now have a number of different reviews and independent analysis that indicates that the software is being developed in a very robust way and is making good progress,” he said.
“There is always the risk it is late or the capability deferred, and we’re very keen to keep a good eye on software and make sure we don’t see capability deferred and we don’t see any regression in the quality of software that we’re seeing being developed at this point.”
What confidence? That you will retire having continually misled the government about the risks in the program?
The NACC history with the F-35 is that of having gone native to Lockheed Martin talking points instead of protecting the Australian taxpayer.
Osley continues on with the fairy tale:
Osley said his focus had turned to the building of infrastructure in Australia to support the F-35A. “The real challenge for me is building all the facilities I need and integrating that airplane into our logistics system in Australia.”
“It’s establishing an autonomic logistics information system and connecting that system to the US and to other partner nations around the world.”
Everything this article has described thus far doesn't work. Autonomic logistics has shown no credible progress.
Then we have this fraud upon the taxpayer:
The Royal Australian Air Force will submit its recommended buy profile for government consideration early this year, with a decision expected around April. Options include a single tranche of 72 aircraft or a phased approach requiring a series of government approvals.
To review, the aircraft has shown no operational capability, 12 years after contract award.
Then there is this lie:
“The hardest part of the F-35A is not the development program, it is getting a competent workforce to be able to operate an F-35A. The critical aspect is actually the pilot and maintenance training,” said Air Marshal Geoff Brown, Australia’s chief of Air Force.
When the investigation into this aircraft's failure hits hard, it will be people like Osley that will have contributed to leaving the Australian taxpayer holding a multi-billion dollar fraud.
With the help of the fan-writer of course.
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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Aviation Week (ARES blog) F-35 posts (2007 to present)
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
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-New Defence White Paper fails to address Australia's core security needs
-2009 Defence White Paper Fantasy
-Analysing "The ADF Air Combat Capability- On the Record"
-Find out who is responsible for the Air Warfare Destroyer mess
-Analysis of Defence Materiel Organisation Major Projects Management and What Needs to be Fixed
-New DMO Boss warns the staff that business as usual is over
-How dangerous is the Defence Material Organisation to our Defence Industry?
-Australia's Failing Defence Structure and Management Methodology
-More on the dud-jamming gear Defence wants to buy
-ADF cost per flying hour
-I will wipe out bullying vows new Defence chief (Houston 2005)
-Vacancy
-Put Vol 2 Report of DLA Piper Review into the light of day
-Rory and Jim
-Parasitism as an Abstraction for Organizational Dysfunctions
-Hobart-class "Air Warfare Destroyer" to be fielded with obsolete radar guidance technology
-The Decay Of Critical Military Thinking And Writing-With Particular Reference To The RAAF
-Newspaper guy gets it right about sub project.... big time
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