Defence Business: Innovation on the JSF | ADM Jun 2010

Plans are afoot to bring this down to a ratio of 5:1 if the JSF Roadmap has anything to say about it.

Katherine Ziesing | Melbourne

The 4th Australian JSF Advanced Technology and Innovation Conference in Melbourne last month covered a wide range of innovative technologies and processes that may have an application on the JSF.

Both the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and New Air Combat Capability office were keen to highlight the successes of the program thus far in light of the changes in the program over the last 12 months.

Both the US Government Accountability Office and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates have questioned the schedule and costings of the program, resulting in the change of leadership at the JPO and $US614 million worth of performance fees withheld to lead manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

However, Gates said that there are no fundamental technical challenges to the program being successful.

NACC program manager Air Vice-Marshal John Harvey pointed to a number of positives in the program:
• the contract for Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) 3 was signed at 20 per cent less than the Joint Evaluation Team estimates which were based on the production line figures seen in the F-22 and F-18

• the Australian part of the program is on track for 2018, with the NACC confident of the program buffers in place

• the CTOL variant flying 16 sorties in the space of seven days with a high degree of success.

"Total number of CTOL (F-35A) flights to date is 117, including aerial refuelling, flying qualities tests, engine-out air starts, engine transients (varying throttle position), formation flying, afterburner takeoffs and in-flight afterburner actuation, touch-and-go landings, supersonic flight with a full internal weapons load and many other tests," a Lockheed Martin spokesman told ADM.

"Future tests will include in-flight weapons separation, and further flight-envelope expansion including higher Mach speeds, higher g numbers, and high angle-of-attack flights."

By the time this edition of ADM hits the streets, both AF-1 and AF-2, will have been ferried from Fort Worth, Texas to Edwards Air Force Base, California where the planes will be permanently stationed for the remainder of their flight testing.

The conference boasted a wide range of speakers, predominantly from academia and a smattering of industry, with a focus on titanium machining, composites and alloys.

Many of the presentations spoke of technology insertions into Blocks 3, 4 and 5 whilst the Production Base Line has yet to be finalised.

James Dorrell, Lockheed Martin's director of improvements and derivitaives (also in charge of the JSF roadmap and technology development) outlined how the company is looking for a new Block upgrade every 24 months but the Science and Technology (S&T) effort is under way now.

This S&T effort has already begun in terms of pourable composites with nanotechnology that is already being used but could be applied to other parts of the platform.

DSTO, under the JSF S&T advisory board, has completed six studies for the JSF and is looking at CTD projects that may have an application aboard the JSF.

But Chief Defence Scientist Professor Bob Clarke and other presenters warned that not all innovative technologies, would be introduced as a solid business case must also be made to maintain the affordability aspect of the project.