The supposedly “historic” high-level delegation the Trump administration was supposed to be sending to the Farnborough Air Show keeps getting less and less historic.
By Colin ClarkAdvancing military training with VR and simulators
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“It’s very encouraging,” McCarthy said. “It gives you high confidence in some of these investments we’re going to make….We’ve got these decisions coming up here by the middle of the summer for the POM 20” — the five-year budget plan (Program Objective Memorandum) for 2020-25.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
JSF HQ: Lockheed Martin “could be much more collaborative and cooperative but they aren’t,” the head of the Joint Strike Fighter program, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, told reporters today. “They could, but they choose not to.” Winter’s comments are not nearly as searing as those of his predecessor Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who famously said…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The cost estimate battle between the F-35 program office and the rest of the government continues unabated in the latest annual GAO report about the Joint Strike Fighter. The Government Accountability Office says the program will rack up $1.2 billion more in costs than the F-35’s Joint Program Office does. And, as has been true in…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: Two top Pentagon officials laid out a multi-pronged push to lower the price of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter below $80 million apiece. The chief of the F-35 Joint Program Office, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, and the director of defense pricing, Shay Assad, are underwhelmed by contractor Lockheed Martin‘s cost reduction efforts so far.…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CLARIFIED: What MG Harris Really Meant CAPITOL HILL: The Air Force’s first operational squadron of F-35s will head to the Pacific, in addition to the European deployment recently departed Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James discussed in December. The news came in the form of one sentence today in the written testimony today of Maj. Gen. Jerry Harris, deputy…
By Colin Clark
Autonomy changes everything about combat engineering
Sending robotic vehicles into the breach saves lives by removing humans from one of the most dangerous places on the battlefield.
WASHINGTON: While President Trump has not yet “saved” American taxpayers “billions of dollars” on the F-35 program as his spokesman claimed recently, today’s deal for 90 planes pushes the average cost of an F-35A below $100 million per plane for the first time. Plane maker Lockheed Martin has promised the F-35A will drop below $85…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, repeating a trick he’s used with the automobile makers, claimed credit today for something he didn’t have much to do with, but that became final during his administration. Trump told White House reporters, who can’t be expected to know much about the F-35 program, that he had saved taxpayers $600 million in the…
By Colin Clark
ARLINGTON: One week after President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted that the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was “out of control,” the F-35 program office announced the price of most variants had dropped yet again. The contract for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 9 will buy 57 aircraft, 34 for the US and 23…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: In an extraordinary action, the F-35 Joint Program Office decided 14 or 18 months of negotiations was enough and has issued a “unilateral contract” for the latest Low Rate Initial Production contract to defense giant Lockheed Martin. In simple terms, the Pentagon got sick and tired of talking with Lockheed and told them, here’s how much…
By Colin Clark
NATIONAL HARBOR: A fix has been identified for the 15 F-35As currently banned from flying and tests on the engineering will begin next week, said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan. The head of the Joint Program Office told the Air Force Association conference here that the F-35s should have their fuel tank insulation problems fixed by the…
By Colin Clark
The F-35 program completed 25 weapons tests in a month, a marked surge from the previous high of three in November 2014. The weapons tests used the aircraft’s latest software, the 3F version. During the tests, some 30 weapons were dropped or fired, including the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), AIM-120 Missile, the Small Diameter Bomb…
By Colin Clark
RIAT: Who knows if it’s coincidence or not, but the Pentagon today announced that after a seemingly endless negotiation for the tenth Low Rate Initial Production lot, Pratt and Whitney was awarded $1.5 billion for 99 F135 engines, as well as backups and spare parts. Unit prices for the conventional takeoff and landing systems came down by 2.6 percent.…
By Colin Clark
Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. The OODA Loop remains a key concept for those who fight, especially fighter pilots. After all, Air Force Col. John Boyd made it and his theory of Energy-Maneuverability famous with his bold claim to be able to defeat any other pilot within 40 seconds. Boyd helped inspire the designs of the…
By Tod Schuck