Colin Clark at Breaking Defense has quite the scoop.
Bogdan thinks he will only be 30 days off the mark on 2B software which is needed to get the USMC to initial operating capability with 10 aircraft. Given the history of the program I dispute this, but hey, he is the guy that gets all the daily briefings.
Fantasy and otherwise.
Still though, Bogdan is wrong. It isn't 30 days off. Looking at the whole program, it is years late. And 2B software isn't what it was supposed to be since its watering down around 2006. Block 2 is the new Block 1.
Then there is the mistake-jet syndrome built into the program: lots of engineering changes.
But he was much less confident that he could deliver the 10 aircraft by July next year. They all need modifications — some 96, a whole lot of them — and they also need to be flying and undergoing the tests necessary to qualify them at virtually the same time.
Bogdan and Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, the Marine’s deputy commandant for aviation, made clear it’;s going to be very challenging to deliver the planes on time. They need significant changes, such as new roll posts, before they can meet the qualifications of being ready for war.
And a politician asks the right question which Bogdan returns with a strong answer.
Given the travails the F-35 program has faced over the last five years, Rep. Ron Barber asked Bogdan near the end of the hearing how Congress could trust his assessments.
“I’m not here to advocate for the F-35 necessarily. I’m here to execute on the program, to give you information — good, bad or otherwise. You have to somehow trust me. If i’m wrong,” said the unusually blunt-spoken officer, “you have to hold me accountable.”
Or is it? Bogdan will probably be retired by the time of the denouement.
Thus far, the DOD has not made a case for STOVL combat jets.
And the USMC program of record for the F-35B flying piano is $51B.
This POS is draining the Corps of resources.
What will an F-35B IOC of 10 jets accomplish? Not much besides a facade. Its reliability will be bad. It won't be able to do CAS (no gun). And the helmet (needed for dynamic weapons cueing) at this time doesn't work. DAS doesn't work all that well. The EOTS and radar like many other mission systems have shown no mature performance. Thermal issues are going to be difficult. Range will be equally questionable given fuel consumption and weight of the aircraft. It will not be able to take any combat damage without turning into a Roman candle.
No one has demonstrated how to change the F-35B's $27B motor aboard ship.
In order to do any real combat, it will need to be escorted by 4th gen aircraft. Which would do the job better anyway.
It offers a joint operational commander no value. It eats theater resources and returns: nothing.
Bogdan and friends have built a really ugly cake; and they are using dogshit for frosting.
I can only hope that this program gets destroyed by the reality that it is sucking up resources best used for many other DOD communities.
10 F-35B LRIP mistake jets at a grand total of $3B or more, plus another $2B in waste to get them to Japan?
We could have instead, bought 3500 Tomahawk Block IVs and had them dedicated to Pacific ops. Interesting, because the word "aircraft" isn't even used in the JAST name. You can read this 20 year old document that shows the goals of JAST. How have we done so far?
The F-35 program is a parasite, a menace, to the defense of our nation.
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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
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
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