DOD systems engineering report--F-35 performance requirements at risk

A Pentagon assessment has determined that the F-35 could miss one of eight key performance parameters deemed "critical or essential" and that, "the aircraft will conclude development in 2018 unable to demonstrate nearly 40 percent of the originally envisioned operational capabilities", reports Inside Defense (subscription).

According to the "Defense Department systems engineering fiscal year 2013 annual report", the F-35 is not on schedule to achieve 24 of 62 capability goals.

The F-35 program is no longer forecast to achieve the required sortie generation rates. It is important to note that for anyone that has observed the program for years, sortie generation operational requirements vary by type: A,B,C.

In 2012 when it was discovered that the F-35A was unlikely to meet its combat radius requirement, the USAF was allowed to "dial that back". STOVL performance for the B and recovery margins for the C have "limited margins". Also, the C has yet to prove it can trap aboard an aircraft carrier. A problem brought up in the 2011 DOTE report and still unresolved. Empty weight for the F-35C has increased 15 percent since 2002.

The Inside Defense piece ends with this:

The report says the review of F-35 requirements undertaken last year "reaffirmed" that the Joint Strike Fighter's contract specifications contained all the requirements set forth in the April 2000 operational requirements document.

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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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