Monday, May 20, 2024
Key Issues GAO on F-35 SLCM-N program office PrSM funding
The Defense Department and other agencies that deal with nuclear weapons are likely to encounter a "bow wave" of significant costs to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad after fiscal year 2017, a top Air Force nuclear official said today.
A Lockheed Martin executive said today that the company's learning curve on the F-35 is comparable or slightly better than its experience with earlier generations of fighter jets it has built.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive issued guidance this summer requiring government negotiators to insist that Lockheed Martin shoulder a share of future cost overruns for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft after the Defense Department absorbed more than $770 million in overruns for the first three production lots, the F-35 program office said today in a statement.
F-22 flight operations have resumed at Langley Air Force Base, VA, several days after a pilot suffered hypoxia-like symptoms while in flight, according to a statement issued today by Air Combat Command.
The Air Force is preparing for its share of the $450 billion in budget reductions mandated by Washington lawmakers, but the service will be able to find only a tiny portion of that by looking for further efficiencies in its operations, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said.
Only half of the 52 programs the Defense Department has submitted operational test and evaluation reports to Congress for over the last five years have been deemed "reliable" by the department's operational testing office, and just three of 11 Air Force programs have met that standard, according to the Pentagon's top weapons tester.
The Air Force has chosen to delay the release of a draft request for proposals for its Common Vertical Lift Support Platform, the first of two planned helicopter recapitalization efforts.
Air Mobility Command is seeing a dramatic rise in the demand for air drops of supplies into theater in the Middle East, even as American forces start to leave Afghanistan, but that increase is putting only a mild strain on the Air Force's cargo fleet, according to AMC's commanding officer.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley expressed concern today about the service's ability to improve how it gathers and utilizes intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information as its force structure and budgets come under increased scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
The Air Force expects to receive final approval for the configuration of helicopters procured through the HH-60 Operational Loss Replacement Program this month, and the first two will be ready for operational use in the same time frame, according to a service spokeswoman.
Representatives from the aerospace industry spoke out today against the prospect of additional defense cuts imposed by the congressional committee on deficit reduction, citing the need to preserve jobs in a fragile economy as well as the importance of maintaining the ability to innovate in the future.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee has recommended terminating the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program and holding F-35 procurement rates at current levels for two years, which would cut planned Joint Strike Fighter purchases by 10 aircraft, or 14 percent, lawmakers said today.
The suspension of Joint Strike Fighter flight testing is likely to be lifted by the end of this week, the program’s test director at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, told Inside the Air Force last night.
The Joint Strike Fighter aircraft that suffered an integrated power package failure yesterday, causing a fleet-wide F-35 grounding today, is the same jet that caused another grounding back in March.
The Joint Strike Fighter's very low-observable qualities are testing well so far, but ensuring that the program can consistently produce the plane's stealth capabilities without requiring modifications to each F-35 will be a key performance parameter going forward, according to the program's deputy executive officer.
While the services have been able to fulfill the needs of U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, doing so has prevented the Defense Department from fully meeting the requirements of the other combatant commands, senior service officials told Congress today.
The Air Force is developing a new approach for sustaining its intercontinental ballistic missile fleet that combines the process used for the first 40 years of the ICBM's existence, which kept technical support in-house, with one used over the last decade, which depended on a single contractor to administer sustainment efforts.
The first production Joint Strike Fighters delivered by Lockheed Martin are flying Block 1 of the aircraft's software, and Block 2 lab testing began in June as anticipated, a Lockheed spokeswoman tells InsideDefense.com.
The two leading members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have formally requested an estimate of the cost of terminating the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, according to a letter addressed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today.
An omnibus reprogramming request submitted to Congress on June 30 would shift $10 million in research and development money appropriated for the CSAR-X program, which was canceled two years ago.