Departing JSF Manager Predicts No Turbulence
Jan 16, 2009
By Michael Bruno and Bill Sweetman
The departing program executive officer for the F-35 Lightning II program, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, is declaring proverbial clear skies ahead for the Joint Strike Fighter as he leaves for his new assignment – where he will some day receive the JSF.
In a roundtable discussion today hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, Davis told reporters and others that he knows of no budget woes brewing on Capitol Hill or major technology issues within the Pentagon’s largest acquisition effort. He did, however, echo concerns he has over whether U.S. military and foreign partners have thoroughly thought through the ramifications of global manufacturing demands, as well as how to use the fighter in combat. And he acknowledged that judgments over its success or failure remain equivocal.
“JSF is still at a point where it can be anything to anyone,” Davis allowed. “We’re going to make some mistakes. I just hope we make some new ones.”
Davis, who spent the morning on the Hill, confirmed that the Navy will indeed provide $43 million from other aviation accounts to make up a previous shortfall in F-35C long-lead funding and thus keep test plans intact.
New and better cost figures should become available by the middle of this year, the general said. In 2014 dollars, the average of any of the three JSF variants should cost between $80 million and $90 million, although fiscal 2009 orders will come in around $130 million because they are earlier in the purchase cycle.
Davis believes the Israelis will sign for a Foreign Military Sales version by the end of the year, and that Singapore, Spain and Japan also are likely to join the existing eight international partners and U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. In fact, he noted that the airplane’s technological appeal alone may not have been the crucial factor in persuading partners Norway and the Netherlands to ultimately decide in favor of the JSF. “There is a broader issue of coalition policy and strategy among the nine nations. It’s not just that they are in love with the airplane, but it’s something that JSF offers and others do not.”
But the program’s global reach is also core to its remaining challenges, he said. Economic factors, like exchange rates, and worldwide manufacturing issues, such as sharing designs in an efficient manner across borders, are what buffet the JSF now.
“It is people that are sitting on the program waiting to do their jobs,” Davis said.
Meanwhile, Davis challenged industry providers like prime contractor Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and others, as well as military concept-of-operations planners, to expend more effort in figuring out how to data-link the JSF with other weapons systems and how to use it in combat. The Marines have gone the farthest in examining the JSF’s use as a communications node and in other non-kinetic applications, according to the Air Force two-star.
Davis is slated to become commander of the Air Armament Center and the Air Force program executive officer for weapons at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Marine Brig. Gen. David Heinz, deputy program manager, is expected to take over. Eglin will be the first training base for the JSF and will receive its first F-35s in 2010.
Photo: DoD
