US Defence Cuts Announced: F-35 program delayed AGAIN

[ivanotter]

Could be both, Matt.

OK. jokes aside.

The F-35 programme is a very costly and involved project. The info about it is, to me, rather "all over".

I am a layman but very interested in all things flying. This forum is one of the few one's with very clued up people; hence my bloggings.

It is one of the biggest technology orders for a lot of European nations and will surely set the agenda for years to come.

That said, there are simply too many things in this programme that I cannot understand can go wrong.

I am desperately trying to understand whether it will be a flop or a success. My questions are from an IT project and general management viewpoint.

I am not trying to be more clever than the combined US defence and LM people.

Ivan

 

[FLYBOYJ]

it seems to be a bit late in the day to find those types of problems.

Not at all - it's common in even out of production aircraft to find structural flaws. the F-15 just went through a major mod because of bulkhead cracks.

One would expect that such things on main components would be found in the design phases, with all the great design software we now have around.

These fixes look strange:

Oops, titanium too heavy:
Fix: chuck in aluminium spar

Oops, not strong enough
Fix 1: machine it a bit
Fix 2: re-desgin it to dilude stress

It does come across as fixes with no thought-through planning of consequences.

All the other stuff sounds like engineering quests.

What you describe is the common fix, unfortunately all the computer designing in the world will not mitigate the risk of such flaws emerging either during flight testing or when placed into service. The fact that these flaws were found during this part of the program is actually a plus as it is early in the production cycle.

Again, flaws like this are common and to expected during this phase, but it also serves as more fodder to opponents of the program

 

[Crimea_River]

How about mid air refueling?

Canadian military can't refuel controversial fighter jet in mid-air

 

[FLYBOYJ]

How about mid air refueling?

Canadian military can't refuel controversial fighter jet in mid-air

Bush!t article with no specifics - it's a matter of what type of drogue is being run from the tanker. The CAF are running A319s as tankers, I don't think the CC-137 is used anymore. This sounds like an excuse to either stop the purchase of F-35s or make an argument for the purchase of new tankers. Tanker hose reels and drogues are cheap when comparing to modifying or purchasing new aircraft, but I do know that some of the hose reel and drogue manufacturers have propriety rights on which aircraft their units can go on. There's many ways around this problem.

Here ya go - I actually worked on one of the 707s this company operates. The refueling package is a bolt on modification and I'd bet dollars to donuts can be put on any airframe the CAF wishes, including the 319s.

http://www.omegaairrefueling.com/vms/

 

[Crimea_River]

I agree with you. There's a vocal opposition to the sole-sourcing of this purchase and the political opposition is always looking for ways to scuttle this deal or make it look bad.

 

[Catch22]

Even if we didn't want to change the tankers, could we not purchase Navy F-35s, with normal landing gear?

 

[Lucky13]

How would that make any difference?

 

[Catch22]

How would that make any difference?

Because USAF tankers hook into the planes they're refueling, while Navy fighters have probes that come out of them.

Navy:

USAF (or USAF withe Japanese mixed in, but with an F-15):

 

[Crimea_River]

I think Jan was wondering what you meant by the landing gear remark. Doesn't make sense to me either.

 

[Catch22]

Oh, sorry. Well would the land based gear not be lighter as they won't need to be strengthened for deck use, or does that matter anymore? Sorry if it doesn't.

 

[Torch]

Regarding my post about the Chinese bidding on the the US military,The perfect solution is let the Chinese build the F-35, it will be cheaper and they'll make a copy of it anyway in the near future.

 

[davparlr]

Many weapons developments have been criticized for cost and performance. A few would include the M-1A tank, Bradley fighting vehicle, Humvee, and F-15 and we were fortunate to have these weapons. In my opinion, the F-35 will be a great weapon system and all of this talk will disappear into history.

 

[Matt308]

I believe that statement to be a proven fact.

 

[syscom3]

If only we could afford enough of them.