LM says F-35 deliveries will speed up

As reported by Flight Global's Dave Majumdar, Lockheed has some good news on late F-35 deliveries.

Kinda...

Lockheed's chief financial officer Bruce Tanner adds, "We're going to finalize deliveries of all the LRIP [low rate initial production] 2 aircraft, all the LRIP 3 and a pretty good portion of LRIP 4 aircraft this year."

Not mentioned is that LRIP-3 work was to be completed (as stated by the DOD contract) in December 2011. LRIP-3 deliveries (17 jets) only recently started. Even if the long-delayed pilot training effort at parking-lot-Elgin AFB is stalled until sometime in 2013.

And what is with the sloth-like clearing of the full envelop? I wonder.

Still, "a pretty good portion of LRIP 4 aircraft this year" counts for something? The DOD contracts for LRIP-4 requires that the work has to be complete by March of 2013.

Back in the day (2003), LRIP-3 was to be 54 aircraft (finished in 2010); LRIP-4, 91 (finished in 2011).

It is still unknown what is actually being delivered. Hardware to drive Block 3 software doesn't show up until 2016 deliveries... then there is test of a real go-to-war aircraft.

That is the scale of delays vs. the original plan scammed to Congress. Engineering changes for more mistake-jets: unknown. More discovery that mows down gross marketing assumptions like a claymore mine; yet to come.

We have seen more and more delays stack up. It is more complex (and poorly managed) than what Congress and DOD bargained.

Low order improvement...is improvement?

As time marches on, comparing the F-35 to successfully fielded legacy systems, insults successfully fielded legacy systems.

2 more F-35s for LRIP-5

The DOD has ordered two more low-rate-initial-production (LRIP) batch 5, F-35 aircraft. One is an A, the other a C. The contract for their engines is still pending.

Here is what LRIP-5 looks like so far:

LRIP-5 DOD contract cost summary. $6595.4M and counting !

Date	Contract	Cost ($M) USD
10May10	Long-lead, eng (42)	138.8
6Jul10	Long-lead (42)	522.5
9Dec11	Airframes (30)	4012.0
27Dec11	Engines	1122.0
27Dec11	Non-recurring requirements	485.0
13Mar12	Sustainment	56.3
13Apr12	Airframes (2)	258.8
?	Engines (2).....?	?
Total		6595.4

PW gets $1.1B jet engine contract for F-35 LRIP-5

Expensive motors.

“Our Corps needs to earn back its reputation for being ready with less money.”

DOD releases contract for F-35 low-rate initial production batch 5

The U.S. Department of Defense has just released a contract for purchase of 30 low-rate initial production aircraft. This is the 5th batch or “LRIP-5”. Cost of the contract is approximately $4B.

Defense Tech broke the story.

The Air Force gets 21 F-35As, the Navy gets six F-35C carrier variant jets and the Marines will get three F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) jets.

Note that like LRIP-4, three STOVL aircraft are the minimum to keep that specific supply chain going while the F-35B works its way out of probation.

In addition:

This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Air Force ($2,644,270,340; 65.9 percent); the U.S. Navy ($937,374,286; 23.34 percent); the U.S. Marine Corps ($426,190,013; 10.6 percent); and the United Kingdom ($4,084,671; 0.1 percent)

It is unknown if this contract includes jet engines.

This means the roll-away price of each USAF F-35A for this batch is $125M. The U.S. Navy carrier variant F-35C is $156M. Each USMC F-35B STOVL is $142M.

There are only small amounts of fatigue testing done and much discovery of this unstable design still out there. A resent U.S. DOD report stated that the USAF and USN found the fuel dumping function unacceptable and a fire risk. The tail hook of the USN F-35C will need a complete redesign as it failed all of its tests. This may have an affect on the aircraft's radar signature. There are also flight envelop issues to work through.

You can read Aviation Week's happier (whitewashed) version of F-35 progress here.

Under the original plan of many years ago, LRIP-5 was supposed to be 120 aircraft.

Even if the aircraft somehow reaches its design goals, what will be delivered to the warfighter is certain to be obsolete against threats over the F-35's alleged lifetime.