News Review: Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems sign up for Australian JSF support | ADM Aug 2010
Gregor Ferguson | Sydney
BAE Systems Australia will provide in-country support and sustainment for the RAAF’s F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed at Williamtown 18 June.
The RAAF plans to acquire 100 F-35As which will be based initially at Williamtown, replacing its ‘classic’ F/A-18 Hornets from 2018.
BAE Systems Australia already provides Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade (MROU) there for the RAAF’s Hornets and its BAE Systems Hawk 127 Lead-In Fighters (LIF).
“Leveraging our capability at Williamtown will reduce the transition risk and cost of introducing the F-35 into service in Australia,” John Monaghan, BAE Systems Australia’s aerospace director, said.
Lockheed Martin will have overall responsibility for providing F-35 sustainment and support through a combination of direct presence and agents and partners such as BAE Systems Australia, according to Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for JSF program integration.
BAE Systems Australia is the first company in any of the JSF partner nations to sign an F-35 sustainment agreement, but the detail of what this will involve hasn’t been decided as yet.
The MoU clears the way for detailed planning to get underway by Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems Australia and Defence.
Burbage told ADM that Williamtown would be the first base outside the US to operate and sustain the F-35A.
All airframe and engine support likely will be carried out in Australia, he said; but the economics of setting up dedicated facilities to sustain items such as the F-35A’s radar and other sensors is still being examined.
With a projected Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of 25,000 hours, it may not be worthwhile establishing an expensive but underutilised repair facility in Australia for the APG-81 radar, for example.
A key determinant of the skills and capacity required at Williamtown will be the two-yearly cycle of Block upgrades for the F-35 fleet which will see mission system, software and platform enhancements developed and installed right across the global F-35 fleet.
The agreement with BAE Systems Australia will run for the life of the program, Burbage said, so long as the company continues to remain a competitive and affordable partner.