The sad maintenance story of the incomplete F-35

Via Inside Defense (subscription):

In a follow-up email, AETC described some of the functions intended to be included in ALIS that have not yet been delivered. Those include a training management system, scheduling, additional metrics and analysis, status and inventory reporting, the ability to address multiple deficiencies at the same time, a debriefing capability, and the full integration of engine data into the autonomic logistics program. Those are "in addition to the long action request cycle times and lack of validated and verified Joint Tech Data" that drive many of those action requests, AETC spokeswoman Capt. Ashley Walker said in the email.

Bastow explained one impact of those missing capabilities: In effect, they have caused a manpower shortage at Eglin AFB because of the urgent need to keep F-35s flying. ALIS requires so much attention today that instead of using a single flight expediter to manage the data and maintenance needs the system shows, the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB is using two.

"With the F-35, we need to have a second expediter just to keep up with ALIS. That's a manpower bill," Bastow said. "So the 33rd is eating an extra expediter on every shift just to keep up with the workarounds the colonel is talking about to keep ALIS going . . . so pilots can fly jets."

He continued: "The cost of not doing that would so negatively impact the flying schedule that they've opted to put assistant expediters in at their expense, so we could push jets down the runway. That's just one example of a workaround."

The logistics system has also contributed to low aircraft availability, an issue highlighted in a report issued earlier this year by the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation. A lack of verified technical data has a strong correlation to aircraft availability, Bastow said, and Witek said his staff would be briefing AETC Commander Gen. Robin Rand on that and other F-35 topics the same afternoon.

Source:F-35 ALIS Progress And Problems Evident At USAF Training Command
(Inside the Pentagon - 03/20/2014)

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And note, as of yet, no true working mission systems in final form.