Lockheed F-35’s Reliability Found Wanting in Shipboard Testing

(Substance of F-35 program: illustrated)


It is like a whole world of experts and friends and family can tell their substance abuser they are doing wrong (within the spirit of wanting them to get better and lead a productive life) but they won't listen and continue their destructive behavior.

The Marine Corps’ version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter demonstrated poor reliability in a 12-day exercise at sea, according to the U.S. military’s top testing officer.

Six F-35Bs, the most complex version of the Pentagon’s costliest weapons system, were available for flights only half of the time needed, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s director of operational testing, said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. A Marine Corps spokesman said the readiness rate was more than 65 percent.

While the exercise on the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp resulted in useful training for Marines and Navy personnel, Gilmore wrote in the assessment dated July 22, it also documented that “shipboard reliability” and maintenance “were likely to present significant near-term challenges.”

In the assessment submitted to Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, Gilmore said “Marine maintainers had rapid, ready access to spare parts from shore” and “received significant assistance” from Lockheed and subcontractor personnel.

Even with these advantages, “aircraft reliability was poor enough that it was difficult for the Marines to keep more than two or three of the six embarked jets in a flyable status on any given day,” he wrote.

The challenges to keeping the aircraft flying “will be substantially tougher when the aircraft first deploys” on an operational mission under more trying conditions, he said.

Some of us in my circle of friends agree with the weak shipboard performance when we looked at the numbers back in May. Apparently the PR machine is so stupid they figure that you and I are unable to use a calculator.

Worse? That side-show wasn't even representative of real combat ops.


H/T- via a former Harrier Squadron Commander